Category: Journal
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Merry Christmas from the bike path
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King Street cycle path competition
Last week, on behalf of the Aberdeen Cycle Forum, I launched a design competition for a cycle path on King Street in Aberdeen. Out of all the cities in Scotland, Aberdeen was the only one not to apply for Sustrans Community Links Plus funding this year which is specifically for infrastructure projects like this. The…
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Foodstory
Ben’s mother is staying with us and it was her birthday yesterday so we went to Foodstory for dinner. Foodstory is hands down the best cafe/restaurant in Aberdeen. Daniel’s plate of chilli was huge. But it disappeared very quickly. He’s only 11 and very skinny. I’m not sure how he can be so skinny yet…
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Christmas holly
Yesterday I discovered Christmas decorations growing over our back fence – holly. Holly is a native shrub in Britain and commonly used to decorate homes over Christmas. As a child I only remember seeing plastic holly but why buy the plastic stuff when you can have the real thing FOR FREE. That said, it’s probably…
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Strong, fit, and healthy
I love Saturdays. I feel so strong and energetic right now and the weekend is my time to get outside for some physical activity. Today I have been particularly active having spent my morning hefting huge bags of grit salt up the hill to the church. Several months ago the city council invited people to…
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Sunday at the beach
Elizabeth was invited to a birthday party today at Laser Tag which is by the beach. We don’t go to the beach very often because it’s a bugger to get to by bike but we survived the traffic to make it there in one piece. To be fair, all the motorists were very good and…
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Vegan panforte
Ben’s mother often makes panforte during the Christmas period and it’s one of the yummiest things I’ve ever eaten. I thought I’d try making a vegan panforte this morning and it turned out beautifully! It’s dangerously delicious which means I’ll need to find some self-control to avoid stuffing my face. I used this recipe but…
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It’s 4C and I’m hot
I love our Saturday bike rides to Highland Dance for Elizabeth followed by lunch at Newton Dee. My bike told me it was 4C: But I got hot from the exercise. I feel so happy after a bike ride. We’re so lucky to live somewhere we can cycle all year round. I love feeling the…
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In praise of my electric cargo trike
Elizabeth has been off school sick this week and not wanting to make her walk to school each day when we go with Daniel, I’ve been taking them in Hoss instead. It has been over a year since I stopped cycling the kids to and from school in Busby – now we walk. It’s good…
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Family history
For several years now I’ve been working on a family tree at My Heritage. Recently I discovered another Elizabeth Martin on Ben’s side of the family. Our Elizabeth’s great-great-great-grandmother was also Elizabeth Martin (nee Frisken). She was born in Scotland and moved to New Zealand while our Elizabeth was born in New Zealand and moved…
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Air pollution event recap
I helped organise an air pollution event in Aberdeen yesterday. This was a joint initiative of the Aberdeen Cycle Forum and Friends of the Earth Scotland. Air quality has been in the news recently because we’re only just starting to understand the harmful effect air pollution has on our health. It’s particularly harmful to young…
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The amazing Daniel
I’m so proud of this boy who was voted House Captain by his peers! Well done, Daniel. You can’t see the yellow badge very well so I took a closeup although it’s a bit blurry. The vote happened on Wednesday and there were two others going for House Captain in his house. Daniel gave a…
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Cycling on the AWPR and a weekend of protests
The AWPR still hasn’t opened. It has been beset by delays and no-one knows when it will open or even if it will open this year. Members of the Aberdeen Cycle Forum organised a protest about the new motorway and the failure to include provision for cyclists in a demo in September this year. We…
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King Robert the Bruce
Earlier this year I was reading the kids a children’s book on Scottish history. In it was a chapter on Robert the Bruce and although I had heard of him before and seen statues of him (there’s one in Stirling), I’d never heard his story. At the end of the chapter I was thinking, “Oh…
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We need cars to escape the destruction caused by cars
A friend recently pointed out this 1973 essay on cars – The social ideology of the motorcar. It’s a little bit socialist but if you ignore those bits, the points it makes about cars are even more relevant today than they were back in 1973. The author André Gorz, starts by explaining how cars are…
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My kids are amazing and I was on TV!
It was parent-teacher interviews at school last night and I’m so proud of the kids. They’re just amazing in every way. Elizabeth, according to her teacher, finishes her maths work in class then goes around from table to table helping other pupils with theirs. Her writing is also exemplary and she is spelling to the…
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Scones, tomatoes, fires, and pain relief
I woke up this morning excited to start my day. As Ben would say, “Don’t worry, you’ll get over it”, I’m sure I will. I got up and made some vegan scones with a Scottish twist by adding oats. I love oats and they’re so good for you. The scones are delicious and the perfect…
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The warm fuzzies
We’ve published a page on Sustainability at my company and I’m very chuffed about it: https://www.awardforce.com/sustainability This is something I have worked on and to see it go live is very important to me for what it represents. We’ve offset all our emissions through tree-planting which is wonderful. I see Australia letting the world down…
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Malt whisky country
We finished our weekend in malt whisky country with a trip to the Glenfiddich distillery in Dufftown. Before leaving Glenlivet this morning – which is where we spent our weekend – I got this nice photo of the Glenlivet distillery from afar. The drive from Glenlivet to Glenfiddich is not very far: about 10 miles…
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Autumnal snow
It’s not often we get to see snow and autumn colours simultaneously but that’s exactly what we got today. We drove past this next distillery on our way to Grantown on Spey and the building looked particularly striking in the snow. It was one of those, “Wow, look at that!” moments in the car. I…
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