insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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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…
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I’ve got a new bike
My new bike arrived today. I could barely sleep last night I was so excited about it. It’s a really gorgeous bike and as you can see in the next pic, there’s plenty of headroom for the kids which is what I was most worried about. Here are my first impressions after having been in…
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My new bike is on its way!
My new bike has left Denmark and is on its way to Aberdeen! I’m not sure when it will arrive but hopefully this week. My legs are wilting away through lack of use and I’m not sure I can cope much longer without a bicycle. A heavy-duty bike chain arrived today for the new bike.…
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The school garden
I spent most of my day off yesterday in the garden at school with Ben and a friend, weeding and putting in new plants. There’s a small garden there but it has been neglected and is a pretty sorry sight. Someone at some point has put in some bamboo which was a big mistake because it just takes…
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Academic porn stars and Elizabeth’s book
I feel a bit bad bringing more attention to this fellow than he’s already got but I doubt the minuscule traffic I get to my blog will make much difference and I also want to stick up for him a bit. Apparently a professor in Chemical Engineering at Manchester University has been working on the side as…
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Roadrunner, sea level rise, and the Bloggers Bash
Roadrunner has gone viral so I thought I’d share it as well. What’s so fascinating about this clip that it gets over 3 million views in less that a week? The bird is really fast and I was reminded of Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner but I’ve seen better things on YouTube that get…
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Flatland
The school playground saga continues and we’re in the process of getting several quotes. Companies that install new playground equipment offer a no-obligation design and quote service and I met one fellow yesterday afternoon to show him the play areas and explain what we wanted. I told him that we can’t have swings and slides and I…
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