insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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Killing machines
I want to demonstrate a similarity I’ve noticed between racism and bias against cyclists. Have you ever noticed our unconscious bias towards minority groups like Black British people or African Americans means that if one member of the group does something wrong, the entire group is tarnished? If one African American commits a crime then…
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Smacking is a euphemism for assault
Smacking is to be banned in Scotland, hopefully from next year, and I’m very happy about this. But apparently only 30% of Scots support the new legislation. I find this surprising. Hitting a child is assault. It’s always done in anger and it can cause long-term psychological harm. Once upon a time it was legal…
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ET phone home
They say you can’t cycle in the rain. Well poop to them because that’s exactly what we did today. Every Saturday I take Elizabeth to Highland Dancing by bike and we cycle on Deeside Way. It is particularly gorgeous right now with autumn colours. The kids watched Netflix in the bike on the way. My…
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Cyclists are better drivers than motorists, says insurance firm
This week as I walking home from school I saw a mother crossing the road with her young daughter. The mother was on a bike and the little girl, who was only about 5, was on a scooter. The mother did what every parent would do: she sat in the middle of the road on…
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Designing for Cycle Traffic
I’ve just run my very first campaign as the new Campaigns and Communications Secretary of the Aberdeen Cycle Forum. The campaign was to raise money for the purchase of two books on Designing for Cycle Traffic for the Aberdeen City Council and the Aberdeenshire Council. If you check our Go Fund Me page we raised…
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A lemon tree in Aberdeen
I know I shouldn’t count my chickens before they hatch but I’m so excited about these little babies growing on my lemon tree. I bought this lemon tree about 3 years ago as a tiny plant and it has tripled in size and this year has lots of lemons. Last year it started to produce…
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The road to hell is paved with chocolate and cars
I can’t resist temptation. Buy me a block of chocolate and I’ll eat the whole thing in one day. Replace my bike with a car and I’ll drive everywhere becoming fat and lazy. This is why I don’t have chocolate in the house and don’t own a car. I have no willpower and I don’t…
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Courgettes and tomatoes
I’ve been so busy this month with cycling-related activities that I’ve neglected my plot. However I managed to get out there today and brought home more courgettes and tomatoes than we can eat. I also got a couple of cucumbers and some broccoli and kale. I’ve got masses of kale but kale will grow all…
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The People’s Front of Judea
So much of life is like a Monty Python sketch. They were so cleverly able to turn life into the absurd and make it funny. Last night I attended an evening of talks for the launch of a new cycling group in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. I gave a talk too and this time there were…
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When no one comes to your talk
Yesterday I gave a talk at the Aberdeen Science Centre to, er, 6 people. That’s embarrassing enough as it is but 3 of the 6 people were Daniel, Elizabeth, and Ben. The other 3 were staff at the centre. I won’t give up my day job for paid speaking gigs just yet. My talk was…
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Pollution from cars is harmful to children
Air pollution from motor vehicles is harmful to humans but especially harmful to children. We know it can damage the growth of their lungs, raise the risk of asthma and allergies, affect brain development and intelligence, raise the risk of heart disease and cancer, and it even affects unborn children in their mother’s womb. But…
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Street art
I saw this fantastic street art in Aberdeen yesterday. I think it’s new because I haven’t seen it before. It’s on Justice Mill Lane near the junction with Bon Accord Terrace.
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AWPR demo recap
The demonstration organised by Aberdeen Cycle Forum and members last Sunday was a huge success. It’s the third such demo I’ve helped to organise and it was by far the best in terms of turnout. Aberdonians are conservative engineers who don’t protest. We go to go work, keep to ourselves, and don’t complain. However people…
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Building new roads leads to more new roads
Last month I stumbled across an article from 2006 called Induced traffic. Again. And again. And again. It was first observed early last century that building new roads generates new traffic. So 1925, 1937, 1958, 1963, 1968, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1994, 1996, now 2006: for 80 years, every eight years on average, there has been…
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The blunders continue
You might have seen headlines recently about the worst cycling event ever where event planners for the AWPR (the new ring road around Aberdeen for cars only) planned a cycling event in which you cannot take a bike. After much criticism they changed the event and now people can take bikes. However the blunders continue.…
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The Plant Police
Elizabeth (who is 8) and her friend have started a committee at lunchtime called The Plant Police. The aim of this committee – from what I understand – is to protect the plants in the playground from rampaging children. I know what you’re thinking – she’s my mini-me. I almost feel a bit bad: what…
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Gathering llamas with the Queen
We had a fantastic weekend away at Glenshee Ecocamp and the Braemar Gathering. We stayed in a vintage train wagon which has been converted into off-grid accommodation. It was wonderful! Very quiet and peaceful (except for our noisy kids!) and lots of stunning scenery including a starlit sky at night. The kids were not bothered…
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Bike paths for all demonstration on 9th September in Aberdeen
The new bypass for motor vehicles – the AWPR – is set to open soon and I posted recently about the attempts to make up for the absence of cycling provision in the new road by organising a cycling event where you cannot take a bike. After a lot of bad publicity the event was…
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Australian Conservatism’s Existential Crisis
Originally posted on Compromise and Conceit: Recent events in Australian politics suggest to me that Australian conservatism’s ideological conflicts are coming to a boil. For my foreign reader(s), the situation is roughly this: The Liberal party (actually our conservative party) had a contest for the leadership of the party which was ostensibly between a right…
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Ethanol fires
There’s something about having a fire in the house (a planned one of course) that is immensely comforting. All our homes in New Zealand had a working fire and in some of them it was our only source of heating. Our home in Aberdeen had two gas fires which we’ve never used and I’ve missed…
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