Category: Journal
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When life is like a Monty Python sketch
I ordered some shoes online last weekend and this evening at about 6:30pm a delivery driver from DPD turned up with the box. However when I opened the door he was looking at his device – the thing you sign to accept the delivery – with a concerned expression on his face and said, “Sorry, I’m not supposed…
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Balmoral Castle
We left Mar Lodge today but extended our holiday somewhat by visiting Balmoral Castle on the way home. Balmoral Castle is owned by the Royal Family. The estate and original castle were bought by Prince Albert in 1852 but a new and bigger castle was built in 1856 to the designs of Aberdeen architect William Smith. Queen…
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Mar Lodge, part 3
I love this place. We’ve had another wonderful day at Mar Lodge and I don’t want to leave. It has been so relaxing and although I wouldn’t describe myself as stressed my life is incredibly busy and so it has been nice just to relax and enjoy nature for a couple of days. Nature here is…
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Mar Lodge, part 2
Two posts in one day because we’ve just come back from a fantastic walk in the hills and I like to relive the experience by writing about it and looking at all my photos. It’s a glorious day here today and so we decided to make the most of it and go for a medium length…
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Mar Lodge, Scotland
We have gone away for the long weekend and rather than going to a city where we typically spend our time racing around to all the sights, we’ve done the opposite and come into the heart of the Cairngorms to peace, quiet, and spectacular scenery. We booked one of the Co-Wheels hybrid cars, a Toyota Yaris, which…
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Old people don’t care about climate change
I saw this video last night on Grist – Old people don’t care about climate change – and it was funny yet there’s some truth to it. Unfortunately I can’t post it to my blog so you’ll have to click through to Grist and watch it there instead. I really like Grist.org. They have an interesting assortment…
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Bicycles
A Swedish engineer has invented the PodRide, a fully enclosed electric bike, and has raised his goal of $30,000 through Indegogo to bring it into production. It looks great but it would be more appealing to me if there was a family version with room for kids. For this reason I prefer the Elf. I…
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Scientists paying for advertisements to get message across
Australian scientists have paid for a full page advertisement in a Queensland newspaper – The Courier Mail – because they felt the newspaper was not covering the coral bleaching of The Great Barrier Reef adequately. Coral biologist, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, is quoted in the Guardian today saying, One of the reasons we placed the ad in the Courier…
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Snot and brexit
I haven’t written a blog post for ages, the reason being that I’ve been feeling rotten for about a week. It all started last Wednesday. I was not feeling great and decided I needed to get out of the house and do some exercise so we cycled to Newton Dee. The effect of this was…
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Home again
I’m back at home in Aberdeen after a superb week in Dublin. I flew into Aberdeen yesterday and the views from the plane made me feel so lucky to live here. I could see mountains with snow in the distance, next to rolling hills and then patchwork fields of crops, forest, the silver rows of…
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More photos from Dublin
Street art. Yesterday we did a tour of the Guinness Brewery. It was very crowded and impersonal but still a fun place to visit. I’m heading home tomorrow but have thoroughly enjoyed this meetup.
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Sightseeing in Dublin
Yesterday was a non-work day and so I decided to see as much as I possibly could. After a late start two of us went to Trinity College to see the old library and a very, very old book, The Book of Kells. I love libraries anyway but this one is one of the very best.…
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Dublin meetup
I’m in Dublin on a work trip and having a really great time. I’ve never been to Dublin before so it’s nice to have a look around. My coworkers are a fantastic bunch of people and incredibly hard workers so it’s looking like this will be a very productive trip. However it’s not all work. We had lunch at…
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We’ve got pets
I decided to start a wormery to feed the plants in the greenhouse. We feed our scraps to the worms and then feed their poop back to the plants and everyone is happy. I’m hoping the worms last longer than our leaf insect pets which all died after a couple of weeks.
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My latest obsession
I have a tendency to get a bit obsessed about things like cycling, crochet, playgrounds etc …. but my latest obsession is gardening. I have always loved gardening but right now I have really fallen off the wagon. This is partly because spring has arrived and also because the garden at our new house is worthy of Aberdeen’s garden…
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Trikes and bikes and in between
I have had Harald for almost a week and we’ve been riding every day since then. I look forward to the school run now just so I can take Harald out for a ride. The tilting mechanism makes it fun and the hills are a breeze now that I can stand up and pedal. Butchers and Bicycles…
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Life for women under Daesh (ISIS)
Originally posted on Open Parachute: This video was taken in the Syrian city of Raqqa – the Daesh (ISIS) capital and stronghold in Syria. It portrays the life for ordinary women under the tyranny of these Islamic terrorists. Fortunately, this situation may soon be reversed. Armed forces of Syria and its allies are currently massing to…
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Harald
My new bike has a name: Harald after Harald Hardrada. We’ve had a fantastic day. I spent several hours in the garden this morning. Our garden is amazing and I love it. The kids were also out there building hotels for snails and grubs and worms and anything they could find. It’s feeling very much…
