Spaghetti Western Orchestra

Fun night out with Iain, Mary, Ondine, James and Isobel - wasn't sure what to expect, but five Aussies put on a decent show. And I needed it - feeling stressed to the eyeballs. Gonna kick it on the bike up the hill tomorrow - get some of that tension worked out.

Didn't help today that I ended up reminding myself why I don't contribute to the Evening News website comments section bit after a story about cycling today that I'm linked to...

So, speaking of bikes, yesterday's blip might have seem a little cryptic. #POP28 is the hashtag for an event on April 28th called Pedal on Parliament. I've wound up on a small organising team (swelled to 11 or 12 people now) - kind of in charge of the non-sexy admin stuff of sorting out what we need to do with the Council and the Police (and as I found out today the people in charge of the Meadows and Historic Scotland). The ride is a sort-of-protest-but-mainly-celebration of cycling, which has a manifesto of 8 requests that we're giving to the Parliament at Holyrood to try and improve the lot of cycling and cyclists in Scotland.

If anyone wants to argue with me that the government is 'anti-car' I will put you on your arse (metaphorically and argumentatively) because it is such a myth it's untrue. Just try cycling in this country for a week and come back and tell me cyclists have it easy.

Anyway, I'll be publicising on the forums here (though I think someone has already put a link up) - plan is a short cycle/walk/rollerblade/skateboard from the Meadows, starting at 2pm on April 28th, to Holyrood, and thereafter a wee picnic in the park. Simple as that. And we're really really hoping this is going to be big (the interest so far has been phenomenal - social media, take a bow). If nothing else the blipping potential should be great. And I might even get a megaphone on the day to order people about. There's a ride in London on the same day - a sequel to a ride recently that saw 2,000 cyclists protesting there.

Let's see if we can't show them Scotland can play this game as well...

Pedal on Parliament site

Taking the Applause
In Full Flow