Page 115 - Microsoft Word - Guiding light final version 0839 1106.doc

In a later angry phonecall when she shouted down the line She found it was for cash-back and copious amounts of wine!
CHORUS
7 Next year the Orkney ferry was hooting loud to go,
When suddenly we noticed no geologist in tow!
The crew sped up the pier-head to where he’d last been seen, And found him in the Co-op buying cheese and quite serene.
8 As Con heads for retirement and follows his own way,
He will no longer guide us and lead us all astray.
But ‘Rock Con’, we will miss you with your own distinctive style, We wish you well – no rocky roads and many a happy mile.
CHORUS Reversing up the road, Reversing up the road,
With John undaunted at the wheel, Reversing up the road.
Rocks and stones for Con!
Rocks and stones for Con!
Now time to play with all things Gneiss Rock on! Rock on! Rock Con!
The Royal Scotsman
In the 1980s Ailsa Porter wrote about her experiences with the Royal Scotsman train for ‘Guidelines’.
‘February, 1985. The 'phone rang. "An unusual project - a train - no, not like the Orient Express - a unique venture - were we interested?" Intrigued (and flattered) my friend and I went to a very exclusive hotel to meet the sponsors. At last someone had realised our worth. Heads were almost too big to go through doors. - but not for very long. My 'other half’ had been in publishing and we were being asked to write a guide-book to be given to passengers - projected start May, area 1000 miles of track plus side trips, but a quick consultation proved that neither their money nor our time was enough for a guidebook - so that ended part one.
‘For me, however, this unusual train spelt CHALLENGE. "What about having a live guide on the train?", I ventured, adding that there was an organisation of qualified guides in Scotland, and (ever so casually) I was a member.. "Oh no' came the answer, "we don't need a guide, just a guidebook. Anyway there's no space for a guide. One of the staff will do any guiding needed in their spare time". Incensed and rather puce in colour, I did a hard sell, offered to sleep on the floor and work for very little on a week's tryout - anything to get a guide (preferably me) on board, so that's how Blue Badges came to be on the Royal Scotsman. (I later learnt that an Edinburgh guide had been approached, but being one of our best, had enough sense to decline).
‘We've had massive media converge here and abroad, but if anyone doesn't know the details, The Royal Scotsman is a luxury train travelling through Scotland out of Edinburgh Waverley. Privately owned, with vintage coaches in distinctive livery, a season from May to November, a maximum of 28 passengers, crew of 12-14; it is a country house hotel on wheels. Two chefs cook delectable food from a tiny kitchen with not a micro-wave in sight.
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