insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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Our animal friends
Several months ago I bought a lemongrass plant which I thought would be nice in curry. However, Victoria has taken a liking to the plant and has absolutely shredded it. It’s the first thing she goes to in the morning when she wakes up, even before her food bowl. Last weekend we made some birdfeeders…
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Coding in MC DiamondFire
Daniel has been discussing maths and physics with Ben but not for schoolwork, for Minecraft! He’s got really into coding in Minecraft and has developed a game within the game which involves, among other things, throwing special blocks called slime blocks and watching them bounce. For this he needed vectors. This is a great example…
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Women’s sports and the IOC
I was surprised this week by the new International Olympic Committee guidelines on transgender women in sport. They say there should be no presumption that transgender women (humans who were born male but identify as female) have a physical advantage over females. This is an odd thing to say. All my life I’ve observed male…
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A vegan menu
We had a superb meal at the restaurant in Dunblane last night. We ate at The Kailyard and their vegetarian menu is one of the best I’ve seen and tasted. I had the mushroom and cashew wellington which was delicious. For dessert, I had the chocolate and orange tart which was also superb. We went…
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Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries
We’ve come to Dunblane for the weekend, a picturesque Scottish village in Perthshire, about 110 miles southwest of Aberdeen. The village is beautiful with lots of quirky shops and an attractive river running through the middle called Allan Water. There’s also a cathedral that dates from the 12th century. There’s a fake Banksy outside one…
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Cancel culture
Daniel wanted to watch the Life of Brian last night, something he hadn’t seen before, so we all sat and watched it together. Ben and I have seen it several times and it’s a classic, timeless film that seems to get more funny with age. There was lots of laughing out loud so I think…
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I took the 1% pledge
Earlier this year I took the pledge to donate 1% of my salary to charity after being inspired by Peter Singer and The Life You Can Save. He has written a lot about our obligations to help others in need and I once read that he encourages people to publicly declare their donations as this…
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A zombie, Elizabeth Bennett, and Ada Lovelace
Every year Elizabeth pleads with us to go trick or treating for Halloween and every year I say no. We tell children all the time not to accept things from strangers and about stranger danger and yet on Halloween we encourage them to do the exact opposite. Yes, I’m a big fat party pooper. This…
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A Diane Von Furstenberg dress, blackberries, vegan shortbread, and autumn
I went to the charity shop today and got this great dress: a red Diane Von Furstenberg dress. It’s soft, stretchy, and made from a wool mix fabric. What an amazing find! Diane Von Furstenberg dresses usually cost £400-£500 new. Bramble season is over, sadly. We’ve been eating bramble (blackberry) crumble several times a week…
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Knitting trail in Braemar
It has been a while since we last went out to the countryside and I was starting to feel the pull of forests and hills today so we drove out to Braemar for lunch and a hill walk. Braemar was looking beautiful dressed in autumn colours. We were also lucky to see a space-themed knitting…
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COP 26 climate rally Aberdeen 2021
We went to a COP 26 climate rally outside Marischal College today as part of the Aberdeen Cycle Forum contingent. Gavin Clark who is chair of the forum gave a very good talk about the importance of active travel in solving the crises and the depressing lack of infrastructure in Aberdeen. Will politicians act or…
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Banned from the photo for my views on helmets
Yesterday we were invited to Duthie Park for a COP26 photoshoot. My contact with Aberdeen Climate Action invited me along as a representative of Aberdeen Cycle Forum so I took my cargo bike because it always looks good in photos. When we got there the photographer took exception to the fact that I wasn’t wearing…
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Hamster TV
Victoria likes watching the hamsters. Unfortunately, Victoria’s taken to tapping the outside of Daisy’s home when she can see Daisy sleeping in her burrow so we’ve had to put the burrow against a wall or put something in front of it. We don’t see the hamsters very often because they’re always down in one of…
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On silencing academics
In his book, Practical Ethics, Peter Singer writes in the appendix about his experiences of being silenced in Germany. I’m going to copy and paste some of what he says because although this was 30 years ago academics are still threatened and silenced today and we should all be concerned about that. I was invited…
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Hamster house video tour
UPDATE: This is not a suitable house for a hamster. Syrian hamsters need a minimum of 100cm x 50cm of uninterrupted floor space. Are the hamster blog posts getting a bit boring? I’m sorry. I’ve just given Bella’s house an extension and I want to give you a tour. Her house now has a third…
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Hamster house
UPDATE: this is not an appropriate hamster home and we no longer use it other than as a travel cage or when the main cage is getting cleaned. It’s too small with insufficient floor space. We finally upgraded Daisy’s house. It’s surprisingly difficult to find good houses for hamsters. Pet shops don’t provide cages with…
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Hamster pics
Victoria thinks the hamsters are getting too much attention. “What about me?” I took this video of Bella taking a walnut into her house. Bella is a bit on the chubby side. I’m hoping that with a bigger cage she’ll get more exercise and slim down bit.
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Starstruck
We did something a little bit different today. We went to the ballet. The Scottish Ballet is performing Starstruck and they’re visiting Aberdeen this weekend. It’s the first time we’ve been to the theatre since the pandemic began and it was so nice to go out again. It’s also nice to support the arts which…
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Bella’s home
UPDATE: This is not an appropriate hamster cage. It is too small with insufficient floor space. We no longer have this cage and do not recommend it. Bella has a new environment. It’s quite a unique-looking hamster habitat by Omlet. Omlet has put a lot of thought into the design and the bottom level is…
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New furry friends
A friend gave us their old hamster cage on the weekend so we decided to adopt a hamster. We found one looking for a new home and when we went to meet her we ended up leaving with two hamsters so we are now the proud adoptive parents – or Daniel and Elizabeth are –…
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