First-world kid problems, owls, and cargo bikes

This morning I found Daniel sitting on his bed looking very forlorn and crying to himself. I immediately asked him what was wrong and he said, “I can’t find a good mod”. A mod is an add-on for the computer game, Minecraft. This is definitely a first-world kid problem 🙂

There was an event on at Duthie Park today so we went along to check it out. They had lots of gardening/wildlife/recycling stands and also some owls. The owl in this next photo is apparently Errol from Harry Potter.

Hedwig has retired but they had a Hedwig lookalike:

Elizabeth brought her own Hedwig toy along and he got to meet one of the owls. I don’t think the owl was very impressed.

Then I saw another cargo bike! Yay! This makes three for Aberdeen now (that I know of). They’re definitely breeding. This is a brand I’ve never heard of before: Urban Arrow. It’s an electric bike and it looked very smart. Cargo bikes give street cred to their passengers and the kid in this next pic – who was the passenger – definitely looks as though he’s got street cred 🙂

A fountain at Duthie Park.

That’s all!

Posted

July 19, 2015

Journal

Rachel M

Tags:

1st world problems, bicycles, cargo bikes, cycling, Duthie Park, Errol, Hedwig, owls, Urban Arrow

Comments

19 responses to “First-world kid problems, owls, and cargo bikes”

Denise

July 19, 2015

Birds of prey are amazing. Saw some at Center Parcs and their handling was telling us about the jobs they do keeping other birds away from military flight paths, etc.

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  July 20, 2015
  
  I agree, they are amazing. I particularly love owls for some reason. I liked the sounds they make – the hooting.
  
  Reply
Chait

July 19, 2015

That bike looks posh.

Owls look cute.

Is it because you are blogging from Europe, that annoying cookies pop up every time I visit your blog?

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  July 20, 2015
  
  Yes, I added the EU cookie widget to my blog but it’s annoying me too so I’ve removed it 🙂
  
  Reply
scifihammy

July 20, 2015

Love the owls 🙂 And quite a smart bike.
btw I don’t get cookies when I visit your blog, and I’m not in Europe.

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  July 20, 2015
  
  I had the EU cookie widget on my blog that displayed a message to users that this site uses cookies. But it was annoying me too so I’ve decided to remove it.
  
  Reply
  1. scifihammy
    
    July 20, 2015
    
    Oh OK 🙂
  2. Steve Bloom
    
    July 20, 2015
    
    So the cookies themselves remain, unheralded…
  3. Rachel M
    
    July 20, 2015
    
    Yes. They’ve always been there. Every WordPress.com site uses cookies. I was really just testing out the new widget.
anniegoldfisher

July 20, 2015

What a thrill to meet real owls up close and personal. Amazing birds.

Impressed by the Urban Arrow bike and the shark’s (?) mouth on the side. Very macho like the kid beside it. 🙂

Glad you are savvy enough about computers to know what Daniel was talking about when he mentioned the tragedy about the missing good ‘mod’. I suspect you were able to help him out. The only mods I can remember are certain fashionable people from the 60s. Mary Quant popularised mod fashions.

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  July 20, 2015
  
  I showed Daniel how to install mods because I was fed up with him asking me to do it all the time. Then he went crazy downloading a dozen mods to try out. It can be a bit hit and miss with mods with some of them not really working properly or crashing the game and I think Daniel got frustrated.
  
  Reply
Kit Carruthers

July 20, 2015

“Hedwig has retired but they had a Hedwig lookalike”

Is ‘retired’ a euphemism? 😉

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  July 20, 2015
  
  A euphemism for being subjected to hoards of tourists who each want to touch him? Yes.
  
  Reply
  1. Kit Carruthers
    
    July 20, 2015
    
    Poor owl. They’re such beautiful creatures!
  2. Steve Bloom
    
    July 20, 2015
    
    Don’t know about Hedwig, but Hedwig’s doppelganger is absolutely striking!
  3. Rachel M
    
    July 20, 2015
    
    He’s huge and beautiful, isn’t he. Apparently some of these larger owls can eat bunny rabbits!
Steve Bloom

July 20, 2015

This may be of interest re Minecraft.

Call me old-fashioned, but I think strategy board games like chess and go (especially) are better for cognitive development (and maintenance thereof in older demographics). They also allow a lot less screen time, too much of which seems to be a bad thing (I say, sitting in front of my screen). I recall your husband is a good chess player, so Daniel must have had some exposure. How did he respond?

There does seem to be a go club in Aberdeen, and usually math departments will have some players around. There are a couple simplified go rule sets (capture go is one) that are suitable for young children to start with. They’re much easier to learn than chess, and like go itself allow handicapping so e.g. Daniel and Elizabeth would be able to play and have reasonably equal chances of winning. Then, after some experience with one of those, kids can easily graduate to the “big” game since only a couple added rules are involved (although on the same small 9×9 board to begin with).

Reply
1. Steve Bloom
  
  July 20, 2015
  
  Speaking of go and kids, possibly this will be of interest.
  
  Reply
2. Rachel M
  
  July 20, 2015
  
  Thanks. I’ve never heard of Go and need some things for the kids to do. It’s school holidays here but I’m not on holiday so they need to amuse themselves during the day.
  
  Reply