for some reason i was reading the obituaries in the online edition of the scotsman - they store a few months' worth on there it would seem. i haven't read the scotsman for many a moon (bloody andrew neill), so it is odd that i happened to just now. anyway, a name jumped out at me - george chisholm - who was my neighbour for more than ten years in dalkeith road. he was a lovely man, and because he had been in hospital and then latterly a nursing home i hadn't seen him for ages. i always meant to visit him, but didn't. now i won't be able to. i wish i'd known, i would have liked to have gone to his funeral.

i'm glad he got an obituary in the scotsman though. he deserved it. he wasn't a high-flyer, but he was a hell of a nice man. he was still climbing munros (though he'd long bagged all of them) well into his eighties, which always impressed me, but most of all he was always prepared to see the best in everyone. i met him as a loud student escaping home, at a time when i was finding fault with every adult and authority figure in existence, but each time he came to collect the stair cleaning money i could never find a fault with him. decent bloke.

rest in peace, mr chisholm.

aha! well it might not mean much to you, but finally i have fixed the search facility to your right so that it will index the archives properly instead of dropping them at the end of each month. i can only imagine your unbridled joy at being now able to search my archives as far back as august 2001. i know, i know, i'm just too good to you.

what has been happening? in a word, meetings. lots of 'em. and mostly ending with alcohol. tsk. yesterday, for example, our board meeting was at ken's house, which means lots of whisky. i decided, having walked back from work, to walk to and from the meeting as well (our board meetings happen in the evenings), meaning that i probably walked six miles yesterday. felt good, actually. mind you i was pissed coming home...

all's well.

pinch, punch, first of the month. again. christ it's october.

it was doors open day in edinburgh at the weekend, which was v. interesting - got to see inside the signet library, learnt about the mercat cross, went into the vaults, looked round heriot's school and saw the royal college of physicians. quite a lot, in fact.

on sunday i did retail therapy, and am now the very proud owner of a shiny chrome gaggia espresso machine which does the best espressos in the world. mind you it should, for the price. thank the lord for credit cards.

envelope stuffing for EN last night, and that just about brings you up to date. oh, except that we went to see the road to perdition on friday and i liked it a lot, no matter what you say about tom hanks' inability to play a bad guy. paul newman was really rather good. "there are only murderers in this room".