A day out in the cold; which was quite exciting; After a school drop off and a mooch around the New Town, I then got reported to the police for acting suspiciously (my manager called me about an hour later and quizzed me...I confirmed it was me and he got me off the Britain's Most Wanted list)

And then. To Craigleith. Where I took the path that has always been a cycle path for many many years but recently had a sign erected saying Cycling Prohibited, in spite of this being contrary to the original planning application which states it needs to have cycle access from the cycle path (this appeared on Pedal on Parliament thread I read recently)

So this old guy with a dog hollered from across the street. 
"Can you not read" he says.

"I can. And do you know it' always been a cycle path but has only recently that the sign has appeared and no alternative offered? I don't want to take my life in my hands and deal with traffic if I don't have to."

He said "There's a bairn's playpark in there too and some cyclists have been speeding through there and knocked over bairns."

I said I'm sorry to hear that. He said you cyclists think you own the road. I said my kids stand in dog shit left by irresponsible dog owners but unless I see you not clean up after your dog, I'm not going to assume that its you that's responsible. Equally you've seen me cycle past the empty play park quite sedately so its fair to assume it wasn't me. So it's unfair to drop all your cycling hate on just me. 

"But the bairns need to be kept safe" he says.

"I agree", and added "but so do I" 
"Every hour I'm out on the road on my bike I have near misses from cars and buses and lorries so it's not unreasonable for me to look to use cycle paths wherever possible."

His response? "Ach you should just take the bus, sonny..."

And there we have it. In a nutshell. An opinion that cycling is an inconvenience and should be banned and we should all take the bus. 

And presumably get obese, depressed, spend more money unnecessarily, spend longer travelling than we need to....

And onwards through to Gorgie, then the west end, a quick coffee at lunchtime with her and back home to work from the dining table as the sun shone but the temperature plummeted. 

A school pick up and some stir fry for dinner.