rachel.blog

insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman

  • Christmas dinner in York

    The UK-based Automatticians got together last night for an ugly jumper Christmas dinner in York. Last year we went to Keswick which was really nice. This year we went to one of my favourite cities, York. Dinner was at the Guy Fawkes Inn which is very old and characterful and supposedly the birth place of…

  • Code and wallpaper

    Daniel has been making some games on the code.org site. Here’s one of his games: https://studio.code.org/c/139419179 To win you need to capture one of the rebel fighters which will make some tauntauns appear. Then capture one tauntaun and three flying bird things (mynocks) will appear and you’ll need to capture all three of these. Avoid the…

  • How much do cows fart?

    I found this two-minute clip on Grist which shows how much cows fart in 2 hours. Spoiler: A lot!   A paper was published in Nature Climate Change in October 2015 which finds the temperature increase for parts of the Middle East is projected to exceed the level which humans can tolerate by the end of…

  • Letters to Santa

    Daniel and Elizabeth wrote letters to Santa this morning with some requests. It was all Daniel’s idea which is quite amazing given how much he dislikes writing. Here they are: Dear Santa, I want for Christmas can I have an Enderman and a big Creeper and a Minecraft pig and a skipping rope and the movie…

  • Aberdeen Christmas Village

    There’s a Christmas village in Aberdeen this year! This is apparently the first time the city has had one so we went and had a look. We went first on Saturday afternoon and it was heaving. In fact it was so busy that we decided to leave and come back again first thing this morning…

  • Wallpaper

    I’ve been ripping wall paper from a wall in the spare bedroom in our new home. I’ve never done this before and only began because it had started peeling away already and looked rather unsightly. The wallpaper has come off fairly easily but the backing paper sticks so I spray it with water and then scrape it…

  • The temptation of bacon, homelessness, and spelling

    Elizabeth’s vegetarianism on the weekend involved having just a little bit of bacon to go with her sausage and egg at the buffet breakfast. I think she’s finding bacon too tempting to resist. I didn’t say anything because I want it to be her decision. I personally find bacon and sausage a bit repulsive now that I haven’t eaten…

  • Edinburgh Christmas market

    I’m writing this on the train back to Aberdeen. We had a fantastic day in Edinburgh today. The Christmas markets just began this week and they are wonderful. We went on the ferris wheel and it was a gorgeous day which meant we had spectacular views from the top. There’s an outdoor skating rink there which I couldn’t…

  • Edinburgh WordCamp 2015

    I’m in Edinburgh. We all came down for the weekend so that I could attend the Edinburgh WordCamp today and it was terrific. How cool is this Scottish bag-pipe-playing Waapu? Skyscanner HQ provided the venue. Skyscanner started with just four employees working out of a tiny office in Leith. They now have several offices all over the…

  • A haircut, a new vegetarian, and dancing

    I had my hair cut today. It has been 7 months since the last cut. The hair dresser was not impressed and took several centimetres from the bottom. I think I’m half a kilogram lighter as a result. She also chastised me for not brushing my hair everyday. When your hair is as long as mine there…

  • Rain tent for a cargo bike and homeopathy

    For a little while now I’ve been lusting after a new bicycle. I currently have my heart set on a Triobike. The main reason I want a new bike is because the kids are getting too tall to fit under the rain tent in Busby. However Bakfiets, makers of Busby, recently released a taller version…

  • Global meat consumption

    I saw this graph in my Twitter feed today. It comes from an article in the World Economic Forum: I’m not surprised to see Australia at the top but the numbers are still mind-boggling – 93kg of meat per person, per year. I almost doubt their accuracy but the numbers come from here. They’re extraordinary and…

  • Pissing in the streets and self-driving cars

    A friend sent me this article about a Scottish councillor who was recently fined for urinating in public. What was particularly ironic about it is that this councillor was responsible for closing public toilets in an effort to save money. I’ve already had a couple of rants about men pissing in the street – I’m not a…

  • Fish antibiotics

    Mum has been ill this week with a headache, sore throat, blocked sinuses, cough and just generally feeling miserable. She wanted to see a GP and after my experience trying to get an appointment for Dad when he was here I was not hopeful. It seems I was right to feel this way because every place…

  • Inverness to Aberdeen

    We went for a short walk in Inverness this morning before driving back to Aberdeen through the Cairngorms. Inverness is a lovely city. The population is only about 50,000 and the city is built around the River Ness which is beautiful. Here are some pics: We wanted to drive back via the Cairngorms to enjoy the lovely…

  • Urquhart Castle and Glen Affric

    Today we went for a very scenic drive alongside Loch Ness, home of the infamous Loch Ness monster. We didn’t see any monsters but we did see Urquhart Castle, a ruin in a picturesque promontory in the middle of Loch Ness. The castle has seen more battles than most and was eventually abandoned in the 17th century. The…

  • Inverness

    We’re in Inverness. My Mum and Doug are still here and we thought it would be nice to go away for the weekend. I have been wanting to explore the countryside in this part of Scotland as it’s particularly beautiful but a bit too far for a day trip. We decided to spend two nights…

  • Strathisla Distillery and Huntly Castle

    Strathisla Distillery and Huntly Castle

    We had a really full day today with lots of walking and train-travel. We took the train to Keith which is a very small village about an hour north-west from Aberdeen. I thought Doug would like to visit a whisky distillery and Keith is home to the Strathisla distillery. Question: Does anyone know which whisky is…

  • Rugby

    Newsflash: I watched the rugby! Well, some of it anyway. I don’t usually take any notice of these high-profile sporting events but my mum and step-father (Doug) arrived yesterday and I discovered that New Zealand were playing Australia in the final of the world cup. Ben decided not to tell me about this (he says he…

  • Spam posts and my kids don’t need me anymore

    About an hour ago someone managed to publish a post to my blog. This was not me. It was a spammer using the post by email feature which was enabled for my blog. I have since disabled this and deleted the post. If you received email notification of a new post to my blog with…