My sister has a friend who lives in northwest London and had a significant birthday on Saturday 6 April. My sister can’t travel that far on on her own, so I went south to take her to the birthday party. Our travel should have been
Continue readingI have no photos from today, probably due to lack of sleep on the train. (ÖBB still hasn’t contacted me, almost a week later, to tell me whether or not it has found my laundry-bag.) However, cyclemeter reminds me we did a bus-tour. We didn’t go north of the IJ on that trip, but we did take the metro as far north as we could on the next excursion.
Our first visit was to the Stadsarchief (city archives). It’s very worth visiting, not least because it appears to be on ‘Weasel Street’. (Here’s the tram-journey.). Then we took another tram as far east as we could get (IJburg) and watched boat-traffic along the IJ. Then Elly took me to a wonderful place. (here’s how we got there and back.)
So today we went west, and happened on a brand-new, very friendly restaurant. (Here’s that journey.). Then it was time to come home: bus to IJMuiden and ferry to North Shields
Bus from North Shields to Newcastle, then train back to Edinburgh
Berlin baby! Here’s how we got here. First, a train from Zaandam to Amsterdam Centraal; next, a train from Amsterdam Centraal to Berlin Haupbahnhof. (I have no idea why Cyclometer stopped recording before we even got to Hanover.) We arrived in the late evening, so don’t do any more than install ourselves in a hotel, then go back to the Haupbahnhof to eat at Hans im Glück. (Eating at Hans im Glück is one of the Deutsche Heilige Dreifaltigkeit: the others are shopping at a DM and doing laundry at an Eco-Express Waschsalon.)
Continue readingHere’s all the cyclemeter maps from our recent holiday. A few of them show ferry and train journeys – I’m obsessive like that! Over the next few days I’ll upload the rest of my photos to ‘Bruce and Elly get passed by Dutchies on the left-hand side …‘
Continue reading23·2 undulating miles: https://cyclemeter.com/3432aa395de1d505/Cycle-20220817-0959-48514 (cumulative cycling 212·5 miles)
I spoke too soon in the last entry about getting into my stride. (Would cadence have been more appropriate?) The way from Neumünster to Kiel was mostly on tarmac cyclepaths (with occasional ‘drempels’ due to tree roots) but it undulated by a few meters quite often, and that was taxing. I’m also pretty sure I’m pedalling against some friction, despite Lev having been serviced not long before we left. (I blame the crap UK trains – no way were Lev’s handlebars squint before we left.) There were some patches of gravel en route, which had me singing something like Deutschland Deutschland ohne Wegdek mainly because Deutschland Deutschland ohne Straßenbeläge doesn’t scan.
We had a drinks-break at a lakeside café on the east of the Bordesholmer See. It night have been possible to swim in the lake (and the temperature made this tempting) but there was nowhere to change – there was a sign on the café door saying very strictly ‘this is not a changing room’ and I really didn’t fancy doing the last 10 miles in squelchy padding.
Continue readingMy much better half and I are really missing continental cycling holidays! However, over the past year, my legs have been suffering. My right calf is painful most of the time, my feet cramp when I try to sleep, and walking a quarter-mile to the nearby Caffe Nero can be quite unpleasant. On the rare occasions I spin, I have to stop every 15 minute to apply Deep Heat and stretch out the pain. A physiotherapist thinks I must have torn a muscle at some point, but I can’t remember doing this. I think I’ve cycled to campus once this year – lockdown has removed both the need and the desire, while Napier and Community Council work has kept me chained to my home-desk.
However, this weekend is mostly free of such work. (I need to post something on behalf of NTBCC today.) So the MBH and I decided to take a wee ride to see how well we and our bikes are. The bikes are in good condition, despite being outside and unloved most of the time. Us? Well, we managed 9 miles from home to Cafe Milk in Leith and back. There was some swearing, and I’m terribly slow, but we kept going. The MBH was buzzing by the time we got home. Next time, I’ll try doing this route with Live Davidovitch fully laden. Break out your earplugs!
If you’re interested, here our our European rides. (Scotland was in the EU in 2014!)
So this month I reached a semi-significant age-milestone. I’m not sure how I feel about this, except that the next fully significant milestone hints at potential retirement. How did I get to be this old? Actually, scrap the ‘retirement’ idea. I enjoy my Napier, community council and LeithChooses work, so I want to carry on with all of it. (But maybe I can reduce it a bit so I have more time for the much better half and me.)
Anyway, celebrations consisted of the first cycle this year with the much better half and not one but two ‘birthday-burgers’.
Here’s a screenshot of the inevitable cyclemeter map. (The actual map states when my birthday was, so I’m not linking to it.)
2020 started off fairly rubbish for Bruce and his family. Thanks to Elly for keeping him sane-ish! Then we all got hassled by lockdown. Bruce and Elly are both very grateful that they have indoor jobs with no heavy listing. Or, indeed, jobs at all.
Elly’s workload at her company (Glen Shuraig Consulting) goes, er, from strength to strength. It’s a lot easier than being a civil servant would be right now. Elly asks that we take a moment to remember all the fantastic work being done by civil servants. It’s much less recognised than the fantastic work being done by staff in the NHS and the care system, but it’s still really important, and people have been working under huge pressure all year.
Meanwhile, Bruce continues to enjoy being a part-time academic at Edinburgh Napier University; minutes secretary and IT-wonk at three Edinburgh Community Councils (Leith Central, Leith Harbour & Newhaven, New Town & Broughton – he doesn’t live in any of those areas) and at LeithChooses participatory budgeting scheme, and even doing some commercial web-design. He continues to rant into the internet via this website.
Travel has been rather limited. (Bruce has only been on campus three times since March; Elly give up her desk in a shared office in town.) Neither of us have driven to Barnard Castle, so Elly’s eyesight must be OK. (Bruce doesn’t drive.) We had planned to go to a hobbit-house in the Netherlands in April 2020, but clearly that got squelched. We hope to go in April 2021 instead – we badly miss Euro-asphalt and Doppelespressos in local-cafés. Also, Bruce plans to apply for a post-doc position in Krems, Austria when all the ‘rona-horror is over. So he has been trying to improve his German with the aid of a teacher from Austria. He is jealous that she and her ‘Schatzi’ (look it up!) have just moved to Bali!
Both Bruce and Elly have been spinning (indoor cycling), dancing on the pedals at LifesCycle’s live classes via FaceBook. Elly is better at attending – and spinning – than Bruce.
She’s better at most things, Bruce says.
Elly says Bruce is just suffering from imposter syndrome.
Bruce says that’s just a fancy way of saying he doesn’t have enough self-confidence.
Elly says we should stop this debate now for the benefit of everyone’s sanity.)
Ah well, that’s almost it for 2020. Here’s hoping 2021 is better. (If it’s going to be worse, please just count us out.)
Love from Bruce and Elly
Today I finally got time to go out on Nikita the folding bike. (Well, a bit further than to the local shop to buy tobacco, which I did yesterday.)
The first ride was to the post office in the next village, to post a large letter to one of my mother’s pension providers and to try to pay some cheques into my Smile (online only) bank account. I couldn’t do the latter because I don’t have any paying-in slips. However, it did give me time on my own to have acrylics about recent events.
Here are the cyclemeter maps: click the screenshots to see the data:
 Out |
 back |
This evening, LifesCycle had one of their regular online (Facebook live) spins. Elly used the exercise bike here at the ‘circus’, while I took Nikita out into the lanes just outside Worcester’s northwest corner. I only managed 7·68 miles, partly due to setting off slightly late and getting home before the class finished, and partly due to stopping to adjust the saddle. Oh my bahookie! But it was lovely cycling in the sunshine, seeing the trees, fields, old-style farmhouse and freaking people out by wearing my camouflage kilt, Lifescycle cycling jersey, a buff and grunting by on a small folding bike. Hah!
spin-cycle!
a back-up of https://friends-ssct.org
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Digital evidence that Bruce might have a life 