I often find the similarities between my two cities as charming as the differences. Last weekend, in the process of buying Orla a bike, we encountered a bit of both.

The Bike Station is a business/community organization so innately San Franciscan in character, it’s a little bit shocking to find it hidden among the ancient streets of Edinburgh. Every bicycle merchant may be presumed to want to put more butts on bikes, but these lads actually do something about it. (more…)

Did I imply yesterday that I love the Scottish sky? Fickle lover. Today at lunchtime I stepped across the road to Ratho Station’s small grocery store. With brightly sunlit skies, I thought nothing of heading out without coat, hat or scarf. Five minutes later, I stepped out into a light drizzle. Five paces later, freezing, needle-sharp daggers of hail were cutting into my skin. I returned to the office frostbitten and waterlogged. Five minutes later, the sun is shining, with nary a cloud in sight.

Go ahead Scotland, have your laugh. But this isn’t over. Oh no. Not by a long shot.

The Renroc cafe sits on the corner directly opposite our flat, and Tuesdays are movie night! (more…)

The sky over Edinburgh is constantly interesting, often amazing, and occasionally astounding. This evening, for example, (more…)

Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons, passed away yesterday. (more…)

Saturday we had dinner with our friends David and Karen at their home on the Oxgang Road, out on Edinburgh’s south side. The southern rim of the capital city is neatly proscribed by the M8 motorway: a bulwark against which the tide of Edinburgh’s suburban sprawl crashes and abates. David, Karen and their three children live close enough to this barrier to be considered sentinels, their windows looking out to the grassy hilllands beyond.

Those hills are the Pentlands, Edinburgh’s answer to San Francisco’s Marin headlands: a government maintained green space within easy reach of the city. (more…)