Chris Hoy on his parade down the Royal Mile today.
Chris and the three other Scottish Olympic medalists were met by thousands of people as they went down the Royal Mile.
the medalists on their parade down the Royal Mile. Chris Hoy - 3 golds! David Florence - silver Ross Edgar - silver Katherine Grainger - silver
I was standing just outside Moray House, and the bus stopped for a bit while Chris waved and gave the thumbs-up to his former teachers from the Applied Sports Science programme.
Just the other day I was having a deep discussion (OK - so I was having a rant) about the increasing rules and restrictions that we have on the roads in the UK. It seems to me that it all encourages people to stop actually thinking; we are so concerned with keeping to the rules that understanding what is safe and why is not considered important any more. Witness the way cars slow down for a speed camera and then as soon as they are past it they speed up, even if it’s just before a corner or there are hazard lines on the road. If I remember rightly, that particular rant was shared with my rantee as we both lamented the introduction of a new part to the motorbike test in October 2008 that means many training centres in Scotland will have to close and people wanting to sit the test may well face a 3-day round trip to get to a suitable test centre. We agreed that it seems to be a European conspiracy to stop Scots having motorbikes.
Anyway, it was interesting to see the You-Tube video posted by James Atherton which shows the new traffic ideas in the Netherlands. JA was actually talking about the parallels with learning, so for me it was a double-whammy (or should that be triple-whammy?) that learning, thinking and road safety were all linked up here somehow (and, of course, motorbikes at the centre of it all!).
I have to thank Mrs Blethers for this great link. Edwin Morgan is still writing poetry - I can remember reading his poems when I was in school (not yesterday!) and also then later using them in class as an English teacher. I met him once in Glasgow University, at a Scottish poetry meeting where I went with other members of the Robert Fergusson Society. Yet he’s still writing poems, and you can hear a selection being read by him on the Glasgow Herald site.
“Here’s tae us, wha’s like us?” “Damn few, and they’re a’ deid”
A traditional Scottish toast - but it’s not quite true that all the inventive Scots are all dead. Apparently the National Museum is opening a new exhibition to celebrate the way Scots have shaped the modern world:
