rachel.blog

insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman

  • The electric car and cycling

    I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the electric car and why I couldn’t start it on Saturday night. So yesterday I booked it just for an hour so that I could figure out how to use it. I unplugged the charging cable from both the car and the charging point first go and…

  • How do you start an electric car?

    My father arrived late last night and so I booked the Co-wheels car club car to collect him from the airport. This is only the second time I’ve used it and I thought it would be straight forward since we had done it before so I booked the car for 9:30pm; Dad’s flight arrived at…

  • Has Elon Musk solved the climate crisis?

    I just watched this video of Elon Musk revealing Tesla’s new “Powerwall”, a battery pack for the home. The Powerwall can store energy from solar panels when the sun’s shining and then deliver this stored energy to the home when it’s dark. I have to say it sounds wonderful and Elon Musk had me convinced…

  • What not to say to a mathematician at a party

    Whenever Ben tells a stranger at a party he’s a mathematician the response is usually something like, “I hated maths at school”. It’s a very common response but if you changed the word “maths” to something else it’s also a very odd response. Imagine telling someone you’re a florist and they respond with, “I hate…

  • Cousins, Provence, wine-making, and climate change

    I’m back in Aberdeen after an amazing trip to France for my sister’s wedding. We landed in Aberdeen last night to heavy snow! I’m feeling very tired today and think I need a holiday to recover from my holiday 🙂 I got these nice photos of the cousins together yesterday: As we drove back through…

  • A party in Provence

    We were forced to attend another party this evening. What a tough life 🙂 I got to wear another beautiful frock and hopefully I don’t look too bony and emaciated in it. I also got a nice photo of myself with Dad who seems to be turning into a party animal as he gets older.…

  • Provence

    We’re currently staying at a truly magnificent place in Provence. My sister and her husband have organised a weekend celebration for their wedding rather than just the usual day and so a group of about 30 of us have gathered in this lovely part of the world to drink and be merry. There are quite a…

  • A French Wedding

    My sister got married yesterday in Antibes in the South of France. It was splendid. She knows how to throw a party like no-one else and it was so nice to see my other sisters (I have quite a few), my father, and various other people I haven’t seen for a long time. I also got to wear a…

  • An exercise plan

    After school yesterday Elizabeth decided to do some exercise. It was her own idea and although I’m a big advocate of exercise myself, I never pressure my kids to do it. However whenever they ask me why I’m exercising I will usually say something like, “because it keeps me fit and healthy and I’ll live…

  • Evolution and adventures

    Explaining evolution to kids is harder than you think especially when you’re riding a bakfiets at the time and they’re firing questions at you from the box in front. It started on the cycle ride home today with, “How come some kids have brown skin?”. I tried to explain that humans have evolved to have…

  • Brig o’ Balgownie

    Bridges are very clever things. Spanning rivers and harbours they hold a lot a weight and somehow manage, most of the time anyway, not to fall into the water. Aberdeen has some very old bridges including one of the oldest in Scotland, a medieval bridge over the River Don called the Brig o’ Balgownie. It…

  • A robin redbreast and more of Elizabeth’s writing

    I was out in the garden today and this little robin redbreast came and said hello. Isn’t he cute? There are a quite a few birds around. They, and the sunlight, wake us up at 5:30am 🙂 The little robin was interested in what I was doing because my digging was revealing tasty morsels to…

  • Clothes and sunny Britain

    I have way too many clothes. But it’s not because I’m materialistic and spend all my money on contributing to despicable sweatshops and environmental degradation. Most of my clothes are second-hand and they have either been given to me by people I know or I have bought them from charity shops. Sometimes I buy new things for…

  • Rants: Zips, Tony Abbott, and wills

    I feel like having a bit of a rant about a few things so if you don’t like that kind of thing then feel free to stop reading. Zips. They’re always getting stuck. They seem to be very poorly made these days and they always get stuck, usually when you’re in a public changing room half-undressed and…

  • Duthie Park and ice shelves

    I took this photo of Duthie Park today. I love watching the plants change as we move deeper into spring. There’s about to be an explosion of green there as all the buds on the trees open up probably in the next week or so. Duthie Park is a gorgeous place: great for running, walking,…

  • Daffodils and vote cycling

    The days are getting really long here. I’m surprised by how light it is and for how long. The vampire in me is wondering how I’m going to get to sleep mid-summer. I might have to get some blackout curtains. Sunrise is at 6:03am and sunset at 8:13pm but it starts getting light sometime around…

  • Baby photos

    I started this blog because of the Christchurch earthquakes but many women start blogs as a way to record images of their children. My blog has certainly morphed into that over the years but there’s nothing of my children from before the earthquakes. I realised this yesterday when I went searching for a baby photo…

  • Real neat blog award

    I don’t usually participate in blog awards but I was described as a “young Australian” (note the young) by the person who nominated me. Since flattery will get you everywhere, I thought I’d participate. However, I’m not going to nominate anyone else. Not because I don’t think there are some fab blogs out there, there are, but…

  • Feeling sorry for myself and more writing from Elizabeth

    After I posted my last post I looked at the image of myself and thought I looked ill in it. I didn’t think anything of it until later that night when I woke up feeling very ill and then spent much of the night in the bathroom. I picked up a stomach bug in Pitlochry…

  • Black Spout Waterfall and Blair Athol Distillery

    We enjoyed our last day in Pitlochry and are all very sad to be leaving. I highly recommend this little village as a place for an enjoyable family break. This morning we went for a short walk to Black Spout waterfall. It’s a 60 m high waterfall just next to the village of Pitlochry and…