A huge shock and a terrible sense of loss

God knows, I had plenty to moan about this week. The list was as long as your arm, then to compound it all I found my PC unavailable all day Sunday after uploading an 'upgrade' from Microsoft.
For the record, the things that caused me so much grief were:

The shitty weather (particularly the absence of any summer),
A severe and very painful case of athlete's foot - and heavens knows I'm no athlete, no doubt picked up at Ainslie Park during my 'get fit' period,
Dobbies Garden Centre clearing their shelves to make way for CHRISTMAS stock (on 6 September!),
Scotland's predictable failure in Macedonia,
Covering the NEN office alone - hobbling aboot - as Mary is on holiday and Vic was also signed off sick,
The shitty weather again ...
Computer failure just when you need it most ...

Fairly inconsequential in the great scheme of things, I agree, but enough to put me down in the dumps, if not clinically depressed. Irked. Annoyed.

However, by the time I did finally get the computer up and running again on Sunday things had changed. I had heard that Elizabeth Maginnis has died. All those minor irritations suddenly become exactly that - of no importance. Life, which generally goes along on a fairly even kilter with the occassional wobble, suddenly goes seriously askew. Things have changed - life is different.

I will post at length later on. Elizabeth's death - apparently of a brain haemorrhage - comes as an almighty shock. Other than the usual cliches like 'huge personality', 'a great loss to North Edinburgh and city politics as a whole' I just can't think of anything new or original to say about her just now.
We met three times last week and she was as full of life - and fight - as ever she was. And now she's gone.

As I said, I will post at more length later but for the moment I'll think about things and try to get this all into perspective. My athlete's foot is stil sair, my job is in the balance but Christ ... I'm still here.

It's now early Monday morning, I can't sleep and at 9:30 our Funding Panel will go through the applicants who are seeking Fairer Scotland Funding. Most of my weekend was spent reading the submissions - all very worthy in different ways but we all know there just isn't enough money in the pot to meet demands, thanks to the Edinburgh Partnership. It's grim ...
Speak to you later