insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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Did the virus come from a lab?
There’s a conspiracy theory that the new coronovirus which has brought the world to a halt was engineered by Chinese scientists in a lab in China. This has received heightened media attention in recent weeks after the former head of MI6 publicly supported the idea. While it seems unlikely someone deliberately created and unleashed the…
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Face masks
I got myself a face mask. They’re not required here but it is recommended by the Scottish government and also now the WHO. I have been secretly wanting a face mask for years to filter out pollution from motor vehicles when I’m walking and cycling because I know how unhealthy it is to breathe. Now…
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The lightboard
I started doing a course on coursera.org and I noticed the lecturer was using a clear whiteboard in front of the camera which enabled him to draw on the whiteboard while facing the students. It was very good so I searched for glass whiteboard and discovered it’s called a “lightboard” which is a glass whiteboard…
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British test and trace and scientific experts
There are some letters to the editor in the Guardian about getting a test for Covid-19 in the UK and they sound more like episodes of Little Britain than a “world-beating” testing system. One person went to a drive-through testing facility and was given a testing kit and told to swab her tonsils herself. How…
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My park
It’s that time of year when I never see the dark. It’s light when I go to sleep, light when I get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and light when I wake up. I have to put blackout fabric over the window in the bedroom but this has a…
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Adventures of a virus in a hospital in South Africa
A hospital in South Africa recently published a remarkable account of how a single patient in the emergency department (ED) introduced Covid-19 to the hospital which then managed to spread to 119 confirmed cases by 30th April. The first patient, P1, appeared at the ED for a Covid-19 test on March 9 after recently returning…
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Not modern enough
Elizabeth was providing technical support for Roblox to a friend today. We asked Daniel what she was doing and he replied that we wouldn’t understand because “You’re not as modern as we are“. Daniel created a Minecraft Realm recently and invited several friends to it. One of his friends accidentally created a looping command block…
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The tragic abuse of power
The murder of George Floyd by a police officer in the United States and subsequent protests has dwarfed the usual pandemic reporting we’ve had non-stop since February. The murder was recorded by a passerby and now the whole world has seen it. It shows a police officer kneeling on a man’s neck as he lies…
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Piling on the pounds
I’ve put on a kilogram of weight over the past couple of months. I would like to say it’s extra muscle from doing Joe Wicks’s PE class every day – after all, muscle weighs more than fat – but I think that’s wishful thinking. Perhaps I just need to accept that I’m nearly 45 and…
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Union Street is closed to cars | Pics by the River Dee
The Aberdeen City Council was awarded a £1.76million grant to widen pavements, install temporary bike lanes, and build one-way walking systems – all to create space for social distancing during the pandemic. I cycled into the city centre this morning and they’ve already closed part of Union Street to cars and buses (the part between…
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I got Zoom-bombed
I had heard of this phenomenon, where an unwelcome guest joins a Zoom meeting with the sole purpose of causing disruption, but I was never particularly concerned because I knew I could just kick the person out. However, what I didn’t anticipate was that there might be more than one unwelcome guest. Here’s what happened.…
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State schooling in Scotland, more on the DC situation, and long-term changes after lockdown
There’s an article in The Sunday Times about Scotland’s “failed lack of leadership” for state school pupils during the lockdown. This echos my own thoughts and I have wondered why there hasn’t been more criticism about this. The lack of education of state school pupils during lockdown is appalling and I really don’t think they…
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Haircuts, avocados, allotments, scones, and buying undies
I gave Daniel a haircut today. His hair was annoying him and he’s been asking for a haircut for several weeks. I don’t think he’s going to be a grungy musician when he grows up. Here’s the before and after photo. Many months ago I ate an avocado and decided to grow a plant from…
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I can’t believe I’m saying this, but in defence of Dominic Cummings …
It pains me to say this but I have some sympathy for Dominic Cummings right now. It has emerged today that he travelled from London to Durham sometime in March when his wife was showing symptoms of coronavirus so that his 4-year-old child could be near extended family for support. People are now calling for…
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Who is responsible for the UK’s testing strategy?
The virologist and director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Peter Piot, gives a good interview in this podcast about his experience of catching COVID-19. He first began feeling unwell in mid-March but couldn’t get a test. For reasons unknown to all of us the government was rationing testing at the early…
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Chocolate almond cake recipe
I’ve had a request for my chocolate cake recipe. This is what I make with the almond pulp which is leftover from making almond milk. You can use any flour in this recipe. I have used so many different types over the past couple of months because the shops have run out of regular wheat…
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Doing nothing
I’m not very good at doing nothing. All my life I’ve dashed around in a frantic state of constant busy-ness. Work fills the weekdays, kid stuff the evenings, and weekends we ferry kids around to activities or go exploring in the highlands. Since the start of the lockdown, our weekends have changed and I’ve been…
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Eating weeds
When everyone was panic-buying in March I saw some stinging nettle springing up in our backyard and decided to leave it there rather than weed it out. Stinging nettle is a highly nutritious food. It has anticarcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties as well as being high in calcium and iron. How do you eat it…
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The Highland Fling
Elizabeth started taking Highland Dance classes about 2.5 years ago and I posted a little video of her prancing about our lounge room at that time. I found it on my blog – Going Native – recently and showed her. She was mortified by what she saw her younger self doing – “What on earth…
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Ramblings on cycling, the pandemic, and climate change
I had such a busy week this week that I haven’t had the chance to write since last weekend. It has been mostly work-related busy but also some cycling advocacy busy-ness too. We at the Aberdeen Cycle Forum published a list of ten suggestions for the city council to implement for social distancing. So far…
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