Skip to main content

Settling In

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. 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

Short of time

A couple of years ago, a Californian intern came to me aged eighteen and on the verge of completing her first degree. You can immediately conclude that this young person was bright, very bright. Her parents were not monied folks. She had got to where she was by sheer graft and considerable intellect. As with all my interns, I asked her to write a speech for me which I would deliver twenty-four hours later. A brief flicker of concern crossed her face. She had never written a speech before. And while she had done presentations, aided by charts, and relying on the usual academic references, she had never delivered one either. I explained what a political speech looked like. It relies on three constructs: alliteration, antithesis and triples. My colleague Kevin Stewart produced in one of his speeches a nine-word "sentence" that used all three. Now it's worth saying, and I always explain this to interns, that we will tend to speak a deal less grammatically than we might ...

Time, Not Enough Time?

Yesterday was catch-up day with pals. As someone who really hates the telephone, some aspects of that require quite a significant boot to cause me to take the necessary action. My diary is set up - yes, by me - to send me regular reminders about tasks that need to be done. The most important appear on the electronic page in the most vivid and unappealing orange colour. The reward is to be able to click on the "mark complete" button and stare in approval at lines drawn through the task to show it done. But that is not sufficient. To complete a task one also needs time. Writing this daily diary has an hour allocated in the calendar starting at 0700 each and every day. Reading the papers, over breakfast, porridge, since you ask, has another starting at 0600. I am a wee bit flexible about timings. But utterly inflexible about their being in the diary and about the amount of time being allocated to that task. I might move them a bit, but they never get removed. These first...

Fat Free?

A major change to my diary this morning. The period for my daily walk increases from now on by 25%. The waist grip test provides encouragement. There is virtually no belly fat to grip. Yesterday's new walking route, over what I had thought as a "ghost" route, on the map but non-existent in the real world, proved a success. A new set of people to wave at over their fence. And an opportunity to scratch the forehead of a friendly goat loose on the road (Note to self: Do not touch my face with that hand and extra hand wash when I return home). The "ghost" road turns out to be a farm track, almost sans potholes, that runs for a bit over a mile. And it's inviting; a "Footpath" sign points the way. The new route which includes it is twisty and scenic, includes a fair bit of up and down, good exercise, and because it is new, visually stimulating. And it is a bit further. The ennui of the previous routes is set aside pro tem at least. Yesterday also...