Just arrived in Brussels

It´s Monday afternoon and I´m in Brussels, in the European Parliament. I´ve come out, at the invitation of Ian Hudghton MEP, on a fact finding mission. If I´m to stand for Europe, I want to know as much as possible about the workings of the Parliament so that when I get elected I can hit the ground running ;-)

I´m also going to be meeting with various people at the European Commission including one very important meeting tomorrow which will be about the situation in Sri Lanka where there is a fear that funding from around the world will dry up now that a few years have passed since the Tsunami. It takes much more than 3 years to recover from something like that and the people of Sri Lanka need our support which is what I´ll be saying to this particular official. The great thing is that tomorrow afternoon, after our meeting, he´ll be flying out to Sri Lanka so he´ll see for himself what I´m talking about! (And I´ll be able to advise him on the mosquito situation!)

I flew this morning from Edinburgh Airport so I left my car at my ex brother-in-law´s house and as I was leaving, my phone rang. When I came off he asked who I´d been speaking to and before I could answer I glanced down and saw a leaflet on the doormat from Edinburgh SNP with a photograph of Alyn Smith MEP - "him" I replied "that´s who was on the phone"! Turns out Alyn was getting the same flight as me which was very handy because he always carries your bags without you having to feign female weakness!

So, I am very grateful to both of our SNP MEPs today and I am looking forward to joining them next June when the SNP increases its quota of elected representatives. I would say "fingers crossed" but it´s hard work that makes the difference, speaking of which .... better go!