Tag: Scotland
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Cycling to Aberdeen beach … with children
A friend of mine started cycling around Aberdeen with her young children during lockdown when the roads were quiet and they’ve continued even now the roads are busy again. She inspired me to try the same with Daniel and Elizabeth because although I have cycled with them many times around Aberdeen, they always sit in…
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Not a kitten any more, cycling lessons, and in the paper
Victoria sleeps in our bed most nights now and I mean literally in our bed. She buries herself under the covers head and all. I don’t know how she can stand it. It must get terribly hot. I think she probably alternates and spends some of the time on the bed and some of the…
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I can’t even begin to desribe my frustration and disappointment with Aberdeen city council … again
Last month for the first time ever I was impressed with the Aberdeen city council for installing European-style bike lanes at the beach. This was a first for Aberdeen which is an oil city with a transport strategy straight out of the 1970s. The bike lanes were built with funding from the Sustrans Spaces for…
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I broke my phone and photos of the autumn colours
My last blog post I wrote and published from my new phone when I was out and about in town. As I walked back home, tragedy struck when I dropped my phone, smashing the screen. I had bought a spigen phone case for it because these had always protected my iPhone very well but they…
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Macdui Lodge, Aviemore
When we went to Aviemore we stayed in a pretty cool place so I thought I’d write about it. Our accommodation was Macdui Lodge at Pine Bank Chalets. This was our second visit to Pine Bank Chalets and it won’t be the last. The owners are so nice, the chalets are well-run, and the location…
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Loch an Eilein and Landmark Forest Adventure Park
We’re back from our holiday in Aviemore and although we were sad to leave it’s nice to have decent wifi again at the very least so I can see all the photos we took. It’s also nicer to view them on a big screen. My new Samsung phone has a brilliant camera and so we…
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Purple cardigan
A British mathematican at Imperial College London has won a mathematics prize worth £2.3 million. I had no idea there was this much money in maths. I’ve told Ben he needs to start proving more theorems. Covid-19 is on the rise again in the UK which means we need to be more careful than ever…
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Online schooling
The kids started back at their online school yesterday. Everything went very well and I think they even enjoyed it. They were both ready to go back. Elizabeth started labelling all her notebooks last week and transcribed her French dictionary into the new book. The school gives them a nice structure to the day as…
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Swimming in the Dee
I’ve been a bit grumpy this past week because sometimes it feels like the world is conspiring against me. Earlier in the year I planted lots of sweet pea seeds. Only one of them germinated and when it had grown to about 10cm tall I planted it at the base of the tree on the…
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Test and trace needs to be better
Aberdeen is going into its third week of lockdown now. Nicola Sturgeon announced today that although cases have fallen here there are still too many to lift the restrictions. According to local papers the city council does not support the continued lockdown. I feel some sympathy for the city council and my view is the…
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Strawberries galore, in the paper, and changes afoot
It’s Friday already. I don’t know where the week has gone. We’re getting so many strawberries just from our backyard right now. They almost spread like weeds here. This is what I picked when I went out this morning. Aberdeen is going through some very exciting changes. On an almost weekly basis now the council…
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State schooling in Scotland, more on the DC situation, and long-term changes after lockdown
There’s an article in The Sunday Times about Scotland’s “failed lack of leadership” for state school pupils during the lockdown. This echos my own thoughts and I have wondered why there hasn’t been more criticism about this. The lack of education of state school pupils during lockdown is appalling and I really don’t think they…
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The Highland Fling
Elizabeth started taking Highland Dance classes about 2.5 years ago and I posted a little video of her prancing about our lounge room at that time. I found it on my blog – Going Native – recently and showed her. She was mortified by what she saw her younger self doing – “What on earth…
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All humans must self-isolate by order of the Daleks
I saw this on Twitter yesterday. I don’t know where it was taken but it’s obviously somewhere in the UK – the scenery, the sky, the houses, the signs, and the Dalek on the left side of the road all point to somewhere in the UK. Things are getting pretty serious. pic.twitter.com/OLc6egO9V5 — Ben (@Jamin2g)…
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Kale, parsnip, and a recipe for bannocks
I went to my plot today to pick some kale. I also found this huge parsnip. It was pretty quiet at the allotments with practically no one there on what is a beautifully warm and sunny spring Sunday. Everything is starting to come to life including the rhubarb. We’ll be eating rhubarb crumble before too…
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BBC Four Pandemic and something to do this weekend
I just watched the BBC documentary, Contagion: The BBC Four Pandemic. It’s very good and I can’t believe I hadn’t seen or heard of it before. In 2018 the BBC simulated a pandemic across the UK to gather data for mathematical modellers to help with a future pandemic like the one we’re experiencing now. Tens…
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What the kids have done in their first week of quarantine
Day 4 of quarantine and Elizabeth said to me today, “Quarantine is going pretty well”. She may feel differently after several months of this. For me, it has been rather nice not having the school drop-offs and pickups along with Highland Dance and everything else. I feel like I’ve adopted a slower pace and am…
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Lockdown updates
I’ve got aches and pains all over and am hobbling around like a wounded animal. No, it’s not coronavirus. It’s because I’ve been doing Joe’s PE lesson at 9am with the kids each day. He live-streams a 30-minute workout for all the kids stuck at home and I decided to join in with Daniel and…
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19th March 2020 update #COVID2019
Schools will be closing on Friday this week for the foreseeable future. It’s unlikely they will open again before the summer holidays which means they’ll be shut until August and potentially longer than that. Much depends on what happens in China when they lift their restrictions. Children of key workers and vulnerable children will still…
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Sometimes we need pancakes for dinner
I’m really snowed under with work and cycling-related activities right now that I couldn’t be bothered cooking dinner tonight and since I’m the parent I get to decide what we eat so we had pancakes. The kids were shocked and delighted all at once when they found out. I’ve found a great recipe for vegan…
