Well! I’ve had to bite the bullet, this countries public transport is a shambles. Fiona is completely excluded from buses with the twins because she won’t be able to fold down the buggy with the boys. Here’s Lothian buses official line. If I use public transport Fiona and the boys need to drive me to Wallyford at 7:45 in the morning not an easy task, or I have to leave the house at 7:40, catch the 8:04 bus to Edinburgh, then catch one of the LRT buses down Leith walk. This might sound fine in theory, except:

o 10 - 15 min walk to Bus stop, fine in the good weather
o On average the “First” bus from Tranent is 5-15mins late. I would’nt be impressed if it was chucking it down.
o Gets in with delay plus on average a 5 to 10 min traffic delay.
o Walk down Leith walk which is a 25min walk, or wait 5-10 mins for LRT bus, and takes 15 mins to work.
o Get into work 9:15, when ideally I would be in just before 9:00.

Since both buses are different companies, and the UK has no concept of integrated transport. It cost my 2.50 return from Tranent, then 2x1.10 singles from Edinburgh to Leith.

You can imagine I was starting to lose it quickly!!!

So what’s the alternative, well we’ve got we very little spare cash, and we’re worried about the environment, the sensible option appeared to be a Scooter. The Yamaha Giggle was our choice. There’s just no way cost wise or environmental wise we could justify a second car. Its a slighty daunting thought but after holding on with white nuckles for the first 10 mins of the journey home yesterday, I actually started to enjoy myself trundling along at 20mph (Yes its limited to 30mph, and 20 seemed fast enough )

The Yamaha Giggle, does 140mpg, with a 1 gallon tank. It will allow my 7 roundtrips to work and back from Tranent before I spend another fiver on fuel.

More too follow...

The Docherty twins and Fiona are home from the hospital. We all got back to the house at 21:30 last night, and for the we're still trying to bring some organization to the house after the initial chaos. First night went better than we initially thought, after both screaming for a couple of hours, we finally managed about 3 hours sleep and another hour and half later. We've been trying out our new kit today, and discovered that the swing and seats below work well. More to follow:

The Docherty twins now have names: Twin 1 is Joshua James Docherty (James after my Dad) and weighs 7lbs, and is the one on the left with the blue hat. Everyone thinks he looks more like Fiona. Twin 2 is Connor Kenneth Docherty (Kenneth after Fiona's Dad) and weighs 6lbs, he is the one on the right with the yellow hat. Everyone thinks he looks more like me.

Fiona and I have had two boys. No names yet, the bigger of the two (which Midwifes say looks like Fiona) is about 7 and 1/2lbs, the smaller (which Midwifes say looks like me) is 6 and 1/2lbs. It was a long drawn out labour, but the staff at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh were superb. In the end the boys were born by c-section, and Fiona has been recovering well after a few complications from surgery. As of a phone call this morning all three are doing well, and I've just woke up from a 10 and 1/2 hour sleep. Here's the picture you'll be sure wanting to see, details will follow:

*** Okay folks, Big Announcement Here ***

Fiona and I are thrilled to announce that we are expecting twins. We've been through two cycles of IVF, but we're both very proud to be expecting twins around June 2008. Keep an eye on the blog for updates

Here's a quick picture of both of them as of our scan today. They are both about 4.5 cm, and both looking healthy. You can find out more in the About/About Double Trouble link