Freedom of speech is wonderful - right up there with the freedom not to listen.

I am knackered. I know that compared to, like, farmers and, say, children in Mali I have little right to complain but compared to the charmed life I usually lead, it's been a busy day.

I was one of two QPS teachers presenting at the Primary Science Summer School, jointly run by HMIe and Careers Scotland, at Dynamic Earth today. We ran two workshop sessions called "Enhancing the learning and teaching of science using ICT". Basically we covered using commercial websites, setting up a school website, voting tools and interactive whiteboard use, digital video work and the use of dataloggers. Two sessions lasting two hours each and it was 3pm before we knew it. But we did manage to get one group's work online, here...> The best part was having P6 on the other end of the phone ready to view the work of these teachers and comment on it, ha ha.

Then it was a quick cycle home in the rain, just enough time to grab a haircut and a Star Bar before heading back into school to deliver an "internet safety" presentation to the 10 parents who bothered to attend the PTA AGM. Sheesh.

Actually now that I see it in writing it wasn't that much at all - I don't think the half hour delay in the bridge traffic helped, mind.

Apart from that, there has been a bit of a Tain-Bebo surge of late. It's difficult - so far I have been in touch with a couple of people I am quite pleased to hear from, and interested to find out about. But how long will it be before some looney gets through...?

Edinburgh Trams - the vision

Just thought I'd share this with you - it appears to be an early website laying out the vision of trams in Edinburgh...but, come on, surely any moron with Photoshop and a brain could do better then this!? I mean, how did you do the tracks...crayon?

NETCo...>

An engagement!

We just had a visit from Gillian and Gary who got engaged last week while in Mallorca. Congratulations to them!

Who built the ark?

This is getting ridiculous... it has rained for a week and a half (part of Glasgow got washed away on Friday evening, so it's not all bad) Yesterday, however, we took delivery of our new outdoor summer table and I went out and bought a barbecue. Today we are buying some cycle kit for Lorna so once we get Kit's chair we can have lovely hazy days pedalling along the canal into town for coffees and ice cream.
We are completely deluding ourselves. Come on, summer.

News from the shoes

Yes, that's right. Christopher's walkin'.

Bike Week 2007

16th to 24th June 2007



So, get on your bike. More details here...>

Comrie barbecue

Still got it!
Originally uploaded by tcatcarson

We are just back from a great weekend in Comrie visiting Neil, Janice, Cameron and seemingly the entire crew from Cumbernauld fire service!
Actually it was just Red Watch and Blue Watch, but despite the chromatic crossover there was only gentle ribbing and fun-poking between the two "sides". Unlike the 62 year old lady neighbour who got so drunk she had to get chucked out by Neil and me!
Kit was grumpy due to the heat and being too tired to party, until 7pm when he got his second wind just before bath time. It was a new experience to have to queue for his bath along with the gathered company waiting to use the loo!

Don't buy stuff you can't afford.

I love this!

Defying gravity

Defying gravity
Originally uploaded by tcatcarson

We spent some time at the park on Saturday, and Kit enjoyed his first swing! He laughed so much he got hiccups, which we took to be a good thing.
The park at Saughton is actually very good, lots to do and quite busy. It was let down by a broken bottle (and considering it was lying on the soft bark floor, someone had gone to a lot of trouble to break it) and the fact that someone seemed to have tried to set a swing on fire...