insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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Mother India, Edinburgh
I’ve lost my voice. I guess it’s a sign of a good party when you can’t talk for the next two days. At the Christmas dinner a couple of years ago I arrived at the B&B and accidentally went into someone else’s room and drank their sherry. Thankfully nothing like that happened this year except for…
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Automatticians in Edinburgh
I have had a sensational afternoon, evening, and day in Edinburgh with an amazing group of coworkers. We started with ice-skating at the outdoor rink for the Christmas markets. It was packed! Way more packed than I was expecting but lots of fun nevertheless. Then we had dinner at Mother India and a small group of…
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How many outfits can I wear in one day?
It’s my work Christmas party in Edinburgh tonight and I’m very excited. Last year we went to York and this year there are so many more of us that we’ve split up into two groups – one down south and one up north. I’m off to the Edinburgh one today. The best thing about my job are…
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Why do some people hate cyclists?
After being the recipient of some verbal abuse recently I got to thinking about what it is that aggravates some people by the sight of cyclists. Why do people have such a passionate dislike of cyclists? To be clear, the cyclist-hating types are a minority and on the whole my experience of motorists here in Aberdeen lifts my…
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Some cool things from the #cycling Twitter feed
Before I go to bed each night I read the #cycling Twitter feed. There’s some good stuff there. Here are some of the things I’ve seen recently. I thought this was very funny: a car drove into a high-viz shop. Attention pedestrians: Please keep your high-viz attire on at all times, even indoors. Because you…
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Aberdeen Christmas Village
The Aberdeen Christmas Village is up and running again this year. We went first thing this morning to avoid the crowds and to be the first ones on the ice at the outdoor skating rink. It’s a slightly bigger rink than last year and we mostly had it to ourselves. Sunday morning at 10am is…
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Time to put up the Christmas tree
We always put up our Christmas tree on the first weekend in December and we’ve just done it today. We have a Timbatree which we use every year. I bought it because I wanted to reduce my impact on the environment and a Timbatree is a good way to do it while supporting a British business at…
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Greenhouse gases: not just a bunch of hot air
I saw this last week on the Australian Sydney Morning Herald site and it’s good and needs to be shared. It explains the greenhouse effect and how we can tell it’s us making the planet warmer in less than 4 minutes.
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Don’t swear at mothers cycling their kids to school
I was cycling my daughter to school this morning – she is only 6 years old – and a man in a van shouted at us, “You should have a fucking helmet on”. I was wearing a helmet. I was wearing a Hövding which is the safest most effective helmet you can buy. I understand that the man…
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10th Anniversary Party
About 10.5 years ago I bought a wedding dress to wear to my wedding which was 10 years ago yesterday. However I was 7 months pregnant at the wedding and the dress didn’t fit so I never got to wear it. Yesterday we had a party to celebrate the 10 years and I wore the…
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Party preparations!
We’re having a party this evening and I ordered Marks and Spencer catering which I collected this morning. The lady in M&S asked me how far away my car was parked and I had to explain that I would be taking it all on my bike. I think she thought I was nuts. But it…
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Our pets: stick insects
I had dogs for 13 years and before that a cat. When Freud died a few years ago it was such a harrowing experience that I decided I couldn’t go through it again. Not soon, anyway. I still miss him and our other dog Zeki. Now we’ve got four stick insects and these creatures are very low maintenance…
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Frozen
We had our first frost last week and there’s another heavy frost this morning. I went outside to take some photographs. It’s very pretty. I used to miss frosty mornings like this when we lived in Auckland. Here are my cyclamen surrounded by frozen leaves. Can you see the pink flowers? Despite the frost in…
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Let them be scared
I’ve been completely absorbed by the earthquake news coming out of New Zealand, like news of the three cows marooned on a tiny island of pasture: 3 cows stranded after New Zealand earthquake are rescued https://t.co/S9XWkhsbrl — TIME (@TIME) November 15, 2016 I am amazed by how much damage there is in Wellington given how far…
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Plant a tree in our grove
It’s our 10th wedding anniversary on the 26th November 2016 and we have started a grove of trees in the Scottish highlands as a way to celebrate. If you’d like to plant a tree in our grove then please feel free to do so. One tree costs £5 and all you need to do is visit our grove…
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Aberdeenshire in the autumn
These photos were taken in the woodland on the estate at Crathes Castle. We went to the Exclusively Highlands craft fair there today – I prefer buying locally made items as Christmas gifts rather than mass-produced stuff from China. It’s nice to know I’m supporting the local economy and at the same time lessening my impact on…
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A letter for Donald Trump from my 9-year-old
Daniel wrote a letter to Donald Trump. This letter is for Donald Trump. Dear Mr Trump. Can you please give Molly her water back. Please. This part is for Trump’s workers. Why did you listen to Trump and cut off her water and build a road. Why did you do it. Why why why why?…
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Some light in the darkness
Donald Trump has won the election. It’s an understatement to say I’m shocked. The majority have voted for a man who leads by bullying, fear, and intimidation. We can kiss the climate good bye – it was nice knowing you, planet, but we don’t care about future generations after all, it seems. We are impressed by wealth…
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The mighty bakfiets
I’ve started cycling Busby (bakfiets) again. I’ve had it with Harald (Butchers and Bicycles). We cycled to Newton Dee on Saturday and took both cargo bikes. The plan was the children could cycle themselves as far as possible and when they got tired we’d put their bikes in Busby and they could sit and ride in…
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How to keep your feet warm in winter
I get cold feet. I’ve tried lots of things like wearing thick socks and sometimes two layers of socks. I have lots of good winter boots but still I get cold feet. This afternoon I had cold feet and decided to crochet myself a pair of leg warmers. I haven’t owned leg warmers since the…
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