The end of an era ... sob!

A wee bit over dramatic, maybe - I stepped down as our community council secretary at last week's meeting. Not exactly a world-changing event, I concede, and so far BBC News have not been in touch to follow up the story!
I first took up the secretary's role back in the mid-1980s, and have done it more or less ever since - two years off for good behaviour during my spell as Regional Councillor in the mid-1990s. When I took up the role computers were a relatively new phenomenon (I used to write the Minutes with a quill on parchment when I were a lad), Mrs Thatcher was in power and a pint of lager was a halfpenny (I may be lying/mistaken about the some of this).
Anyway, with a new community council now in place it seems a good time to stand down from that particular role and concentrate on some other things. Quite what I'll do with all this new 'free' time I'm not sure, but given past form I'd wager a guess that it will quickly become filled with other 'activities'. My colleagues made a presentation which totally took me by surprise - after all, I am not leaving the CC, only stepping down as Secretary - so I was temporarily speechless ... that is quite unusual for me. The gifts were much appreciated though and it was a genuine surprise .. thanks everyone.

The tearful(!)community council event aside, last week was a really busy one at work so I'm glad that our deadline is not only this coming Friday - still quite a lot of work to be done. I was guest speaker at Pilton Central Association's AGM on Thursday, and it was an opportunity to reflect on the last twelve months of post Fairer Scotland funding, both at the NEN and in the wider North Edinburgh community. Not the jolliest speech I've ever made, I'm afraid, but honest.
There were some happier events - a picture of 40-odd (some very odd) guys at Scottish Gas who have been participating in the prostrate cancer Mo-vember campaign, a good news story at Granton Primary and a big cheque presentation at Morrisons o Ferry Road - £2 million for Cancer Research.
How long I'll be able to report these 'feelgood' stories in North Edinburgh will depend very much on the imminent decisions of the local Neighbourhood Partnership funding panels. Watch this space!

PIC: CC Chair Mike Clark making the presentation. Rugby player Mike is quite a big bloke - makes your humble scribe look almost svelte!