Skip to main content

Settling In

By zsstevens
It's now eighteen months since we settled in Edinburgh after a couple of delightful decades in rural Banffshire.

Having never lived in a city, we viewed the move with caution and a degree of planning.

The car sits relatively idle in residents' parking in our street. It did only about 2,000 miles between its 2021 and 2022 MoT checks. With the nearest Edinburgh City Car Club pickup point just round the corner, I have only to persuade herself that a further conversion of lifestyle would make sense.

The garden flat in which we now live suits us fine. Quite a substantial downsize has meant a clear-out of much impedimenta from 50+ years of marriage. And for the first time, we live permanently together. Big changes.

With the time to pursue what has been a hobby since the 1960s - genealogical research - that is precisely what has moved centre stage in my daily activities. Enrolment in an MSc course at the University of Strathclyde.

Edinburgh is a large village, and on my daily walk, I will meet people I know or who know me about half the time. In 2022 I walked 1,321 miles and currently average about five a day.

It is also a city of societies and lectures. One need never be bored. So in Edinburgh, I am now
And I attend most meetings, in my capacity as an ordinary member, of my local Branch of the SNP.

Comments

  1. Iain Old7 September 2023 at 02:33

    Great to hear you are enjoying Edinburgh. I think I may have seen you this evening at the Queen's Hall?
    Also great to hear you have enrolled for the MSc in Genealogical Studies at Strathclyde University - I have done their two excellent online courses on Futurelearn and also attended the recent online launch of the new Institute for Genealogical Studies.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Your comments will be read before adding to the blog.

Abuse, illegality or comment at odds with prevailing medical advice will be excluded.

Popular posts from this blog

I love trains

By zsstevens
Sundays are the day for checking that everything is in place for the week ahead. The meetings in the calendar include discussion of our environment. When I was appointed Climate Change Minister in 2007, it moved that topic up my personal interests list. And it has remained there. Yes, COVID-19 is our immediate and very pressing problem. Yes, by reducing our travel it has checked our greenhouse footprint. But we lose that if we up our car mileage post-pandemic. With Scotrail back to near normal tomorrow, we now, after a considerable period of actively encouraging the opposite, must get us back onto public transport. All its previous advantages, lower cost, lower stress, lower environmental footprint are still there. Lower cost you say, Stewart? Yes, I do! Let's nail it now. When I travel by car on Parliamentary business, I am reimbursed at the rate of 45 pence per mile. And the taxman does not charge me for the sums I receive. Because simply getting back what it cost me to tra...
Post a Comment
Read more

Newsing

By zsstevens
Today, as every day, I rise from my slumbers, pad through to the kitchen to make porridge and then sit down to breakfast in front of some of my computers. The order I then read the morning's media is theoretically random but actually formed of habit. It follows a predictable pattern. With the Financial Times being my most expensive monthly indulgence, it comes top of my reading list. Even the recently announced reduction in tax on online media will make no difference. The FT is pocketing the saving and my subscription will remain the same. It actually costs more than I pay for my broadband connection. Is it worth it? Yes. But is it worth more than my next read which is free? That's the Independent. A very different publication and since 2016, online-only. And apparently making a financial success of it. Their figures published in March show a profit of £2.3 million on £27 million turnover (source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/independent-financial-results-profit...
Post a Comment
Read more

Clutter

By zsstevens
When big things go wrong, and one feels powerless to do much about them, small things in one's life can become surrogates for one's anger. And there are quite a few big things around at the moment; COVID-19, No-Deal Brexit; A US Presidential Election where the incumbent leads with racist statements. As the end of the current session rushes towards us, many of my colleagues are concluding that they will not be putting themselves forward at the forthcoming election. A couple of our younger colleagues are placing their families first. But most are looking at being in their eighth decade, as I already am, at the end of the next session. When the two leading candidates for the US President are both older than I am - seventy-four in five week's time - it may seem surprising that retirement may be beckoning for me and others a lustrum younger than I am. But it illustrates the profound differences between being a back-bencher in our Parliament and the political life of a US Senator...
Post a Comment
Read more