insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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More cycling in the rain
More rain today and so more cycling in the rain. This time to the beach. I was tempted to go in for a dip but I didn’t have my bathers with me. Ben’s thinking, “What on earth are those giant cotton reels behind me?” I have a new rain coat which got drenched. I saw this…
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Cycling in the snow
What do you on a cold Saturday afternoon just as it’s starting to rain? Go for a bike ride of course. Only sissies are afraid of the rain. We cycled to Newton Dee as I was in need of chocolate – it has been at least a couple of weeks since I had my last fix…
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Refugees and sanitary pads
I haven’t written anything about the refugee crisis however it has definitely been on my mind and yes, I’m just as opinionated about this as I am about everything else 🙂 It’s hard not to notice how the majority of the desperate-looking people who arrive in Europe by boat are men. Where are the women and children?…
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A letter for the Queen
Elizabeth drew a picture for the Queen and wants me to post it to her. We are not exactly Monarchists. In fact, I’m pretty apathetic about it all and couldn’t care less whether Kate has had a haircut or wears high street clothing. If she ever cycles her kids around in a cargo bike then I’ll take…
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Flooding in Aberdeen
The River Dee burst its banks in Aberdeen last night. According to locals we know around here this has never happened before. I went to have a look this morning but the water level has gone down already. However there were signs of flooding along Riverside Drive where there are great swathes of sand. There are…
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Another rant
I just read that a wealthy Aberdeen oil tycoon and his wife have donated £10 million to the hospital in Aberdeen for a new car park. Apparently the wife went to visit friends at the hospital and had problems finding a park. Here’s how I feel about this: Car parking is not a good investment for the…
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How to make roundabouts safe for cyclists
The bridge crossing where I have to dash out in front of four lanes of traffic just to cross the road joins a roundabout which is partly why it’s so unsafe. Cars come racing around the roundabout and onto the bridge. By the time they join the bridge they’ve left the roundabout and are usually…
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Star Wars and cycling
We took the kids to see Star Wars today. On the cycle ride home I had to dash across four lanes of traffic to get across a bridge that has no crossing for pedestrians or cyclists. I did the same thing yesterday only yesterday a gallant young man stood in the middle of the road…
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The Bullitt Cargo Bike
Yesterday I went into town because it’s Elizabeth’s birthday on New Year’s Eve and I had to get her a present. She wants a skipping rope which was easy and didn’t break the bank. I got her a few other things too. As I was loading the loot into Busby another cargo bike pulled up…
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Merry Christmas
Today was our first Christmas in our new house in Aberdeen. It was just the four of us and the first Christmas where it has been just us for quite a long time. Ben and I spent a while trying to remember what we’d done for Christmas over the last five years and it was…
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Igloos and ice-skating
It’s another beautiful day here today with sun and blue sky. The only thing missing is the snow but it’s so warm there’s no chance of that happening. One day I’d love to visit Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort in Lapland where there is guaranteed snow and where kids can also visit Santa Claus. Kakslauttanen have these fantastic-looking glass…
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Deeside cycleway and vegan chocolate
One of our favourite things to do is to cycle out to Newton Dee on the Deeside cycleway. It’s about 5 miles along an old train line and at Newton Dee there’s a nice cafe and grocery store. It was a lovely ride on the shortest day of the year which is today but it was…
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The Paris agreement
I haven’t written anything about the Paris climate change agreement yet but have been wanting to put my thoughts down on my blog so here goes. On the one hand it’s quite ambitious. They agreed a 1.5°C target which is very ambitious and an improvement on the 2°C which is what is usually bandied about. But on…
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A flash talk about cycling
Here’s my flash talk from the Automattic Grand Meetup in October. I thought I’d put it on my blog as a way to share my love of cycling with more people. We all had to give a flash talk and we could talk about whatever we wanted for 4 minutes at most. I was rather nervous…
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How many iPads does a school need?
Contrary to what people might think, I feel that spending lots of money on shiny new iPads for schools is money poorly spent. I don’t deny that iPads are great learning tools – I can attest to that – but they’re very expensive upfront and don’t last all that long before they become obsolete and need replacing.…
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Pianos and dresses
The rental property we were living in this past year had a piano. Since moving into our new house I have been missing having a piano and so I’ve been scouring Gumtree and eBay for another one. I found and bought one last week for £50. It’s just a second-hand upright piano but a reasonably good…
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Crochet Merida
I’ve been working on this doll for Elizabeth for a very long time now and finally finished it … almost. I just need to make something for Merida to put her arrows (toothpicks) in. I didn’t use a pattern. I just made it up and used yarn that I already had in my stash. Why I…
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What I wore last year
Last night I lay in bed wondering whether I wore the same outfit to the Christmas dinner this year that I wore last year. Fortunately my fears were quickly allayed by digging up the photo from last year and discovering that my outfit was indeed different. Phew! Sleepless night avoided. #firstworldproblems Elizabeth and I are…
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