I recently made two quick trips to Edinburgh, the first to view a Bentley Arnage R to replace my previous one which was written off two weeks earlier, the first of which was to view the car and then return home and the second to return to complete the purchase and to drive home.

Three of these journeys were made by the excellent services provided by Easy Jet aeroplane, not I hasten to add in an effort to enrage the more woke members of society who may think I should have walked or gone by horse and cart but because it was a damn sight cheaper and quicker than taking the train.

This may be quite a long post as I have a lot of gaps to fill in, starting with my early life and being adopted at the age of one year old and my disappointment to find I wasn’t the long lost son of the Marquis of Bath and was next in line to inherit the county of Berkshire, although I have to admit I had realised it might have been quite a long shot in all fairness. Some years ago I had become curious about my heritage and set about through diligent research to find I was not the son of a single mother but one who had a father too, although neither had married at this point in time, which would explain my adoption as attitudes to single unmarried mothers was completely different in 1951. As I said, I was not expecting to find a fathers name on my birth certificate, nor was I expecting for them to marry and have more children, but they did, which means I have altogether two sisters, three brothers and a half sister. Before I found all this out I was married to a girl whose parents were Irish who had asked if I was Irish due to my liking for the Guinness and the music and the craic, so with my birth mother from Dumfries and my birth father from Ferns County Wexford in Ireland it all began to make sense. I quite like the idea I could have dual nationality as I am Joseph Wells the 3rd and Michael Nolan the 2nd, although I don’t need a fake passport in another name as I have no intention to sneak into East Berlin like Harry Palmer nor do I wish to assassinate the French President in the style of the Day of the Jackal. Sadly, the other skill which I had inherited from my parents was the ability to chain smoke 100 full strength Marlboro cigarettes a day, which seemed to be a habit all the other offspring had acquired too. I have kept in touch with my sister who now lives in Fort William so had arranged to meet her during our time in Scotland.

In my next post I shall continue my life story with the chapter, Joe Wells The Wilderness Years!

Unusually, I have taken quite a lot of photos so the thought occurred to me to make this a photomontage but I don’t have the computer skills to do such a thing so you will be presented with the usual list of photos of our visit to the Royal Yacht Britannia and various shots of Edinburgh, except slightly longer than usual.

I quite like this photo of my sister and I as it makes me look six feet tall, whereas in actuality my sister is very short.

You start the tour of the Royal Yacht on the bridge and here I am sitting on the Admirals chair where I was thinking, ‘it can’t be that hard to drive this thing!’

You have to admit, that’s quite a nice bell.

The rum ration barrel, sadly ceased in July 1970.

The Queens bedroom which was surprisingly small.

Prince Phillips bedroom, somewhat more masculine than the Queens.

The only double bed anywhere on the ship which was specially requested by Prince Charles for himself and Lady Diana, you can draw your own conclusions of the significance of that.

I believe this was the officers mess.

One of the many clocks on board stopped at one minute past three, the last time the Queen was piped ashore.

The state banqueting dinning room, it must take quite some time for the port to reach this end of the table if it starts at the other end.

Rather a fabulous outfit for Riviera Swing I thought, once the property of Prince Philip.

Very English country house, very relaxing, I’d be at home there.

A Rolls-Royce which was kept on board to be used on arrival.

The rather stunningly clean engine room, judging by this the whole ship must have been awash with asbestos which was probably the reason a refit was too expensive.

We went sightseeing in Edinburgh where I bought a fabulous jacket once owned by a member of the famous 617 Dambuster Squadron but more of that later. This image is some sort of museum for Harry Potter, of which I know nothing so that concludes my comment on the place!

I’m fairly certain this is the backside of Edinburgh Castle but we didn’t have time to go up and have a look.

A monument to Polish troops from WW2 but I forget the significance of the bear but as you can tell it’s supposed to be good luck to rub his nose, which I of course did.

The monument in town to Greyfriars Bobby the famous dog who guarded his masters grave for fourteen years after he passed away. Once again the lucky rub.

When Bobby finally died the people of the town gave him his own grave too. That’s quite some story.

As you can see from my slightly unkempt hair it is quite windy in Edinburgh.

That concludes my travelogue of the city of Edinburgh, when I have some more time I will get around to our weekend at the Melton Mowbray forties weekend which will contain considerably fewer photographs.