Category Archives: out and about

Pack up your troubles?

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So this weekend’s jaunt was a repeat of last weekend’s run from North Berwick to home, but this time carrying luggage. Lev’s panniers weighed 1 stone 8 lbs (9.8kg), and contained most of the things I think I’ll take in August. I have no idea how much Fidel’s panniers weighed, but rather than faff with packing lists, Elly quickly filled them with old copies of the London Review of Books.

Here’s the inevitable cyclemeter map, and below is Lev’s panniers’ contents. There’s a PDF of my packing list here just in case you’re really interested.

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Slow progress

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It’s been fairly challenging recently. I won’t go into why here – let’s just say that a combination of issues has led to full nights of sleep being conspicuously absent. I’d not been spinning for at least two weeks, so endorphins have been in very short supply. This culminated yesterday in a spinning session that was an exercise in fighting myself, followed by a painful cycle home and a ‘cultural’ event that I should have body-swerved.

Elly has also not been having a good time recently, and we’ve both missed burning up the miles together. So I’m pleased that we were both able to cycle from North Berwick to Servants’ Quarters, taking a longer route than strictly necessary. Here’s the obligatory cyclometer map:

map of cycling route from North Berwick to Edinburgh

Click to see full-size map on cyclometer website

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Keeping the rubber side down

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It being sunny and all that, and the ever-wonderful Elly both not being at work, and us needing to get some miles under our belts in preparation for this summer’s wee jaunt, we took to Edinburgh’s somewhat patchy cycle-paths. Because this was our first cycle together in far too long, we didn’t push hard, and we had a wee pause at the Beach House after fighting through the crows on Portobello promenade. So I’ve just had my first doppelespresso of the year. You have been warned!

graphic of our route around Edinburgh, with hyperlink to cyclometer data

Click the graphic to see the cyclometer data.

I’d forgotten how much I enjoy being out with Elly, Fidel and Lev!

CrowdJustice appeal for the Royal High School inquiry

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(reblogged from New Town and Broughton Community Council website)

As many will be acutely aware, despite the many public objections to the proposal, the battle to save Edinburgh’s iconic Old Royal High School has not yet been won. The developer behind the plan to turn the Old Royal High School into a luxury hotel has refused to accept the unanimous decision of -elected members of Edinburgh Council, with the result that we are forced to engage in a lengthy and expensive process as we go through the appeal process.

The matter is now to be decided by Scottish Ministers at a Public Inquiry – which results in significant legal costs for those objecting to the hotel. Continue reading →

What has Bruce been up to? (again)

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Following on from this post – I’ll try to blog each week:

  • Tuesday 13th: being interviewed about my experiences of Edinburgh, and how tourists and residents see different aspects of the city
  • Tuesday 13th to Thursday 15th: on this course, which was ‘enhanced’ by two fire-alarms and freezing our collective bits off in the snow
  • Thursday 15th: completing two funding applications, one of which succeeded. (The other will be decided in about 3 month’s time.)

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Kozmik

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In a vague tribute to a Janis Joplin album, today could be called I got dem ol’ co-codamol hughies again, mama! In other news, last week I succeeded in copying posts from Just another bipedal sack of DNA and neuroses – because that’s what humans are to this blog.

It’s been interesting – and quite emotional – revisiting the end of a marriage and my career in publishing, various family (mis)fortunes, my time in India and Indonesia, my MSc, the start of my community council work and research career, discovering spinning, and the beginning of my current, very happy marriage. So much of this feels as though it’s permanent, and has been part of me forever – but in reality much is less than 5 years old.

There will be lots of broken links, because some material was hosted on now-dead servers. I’ve tried to resurrect what I can, but if you find any, please let me know.