Scoville Units Unite » Fitness http://agraham.org/blog reviews, rants and random chilli ratings Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:37:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc Terminal Illness Isn’t A Health Issue http://agraham.org/blog/2010/02/03/terminal-illness-isnt-a-health-issue/ http://agraham.org/blog/2010/02/03/terminal-illness-isnt-a-health-issue/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:49:25 +0000 Alan G http://agraham.org/blog/?p=597 In parliament today a bill on euthanasia for those with terminal illnesses was punted to a sub-committee. This is probably what you would expect in a parliament.

What was strange was it had been expected to be handed to the Health committee. According to party hacks euthanasia doesn’t fall under the remit of health.

The more you know.

There is of course another side to the story according to Scotlands new online newspaper Caledonian Mercury

The practice of setting up committees where an issue doesn’t fall under the remit of an existing committee has a logic to it. The chair of these committees rotates amongst the parties.

The SNP were due to convene the next one.

The SNP were also due to produce their Independence Referendum and have it heard by such committee.

The opposition parties took a serious issue which has caused serious discussion on politics throughout the country and fucked about with it purely to score political points against the SNP.

Those who voted to do so should hang their heads in shame, but like we saw recently in Westminster very few elected representatives are capable of doing so, never mind when they have been caught doing something most people would be pretty annoyed about.

]]> http://agraham.org/blog/2010/02/03/terminal-illness-isnt-a-health-issue/feed/ 0 Two stories about Perthshire http://agraham.org/blog/2009/05/19/two-stories-about-perthshire/ http://agraham.org/blog/2009/05/19/two-stories-about-perthshire/#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 07:26:27 +0000 Alan G http://agraham.org/blog/?p=379 There are two stories about Perth today in the papers – both of which are horrendous.

The first has been overlooked by the national news: Woman beat for seven hours.

A woman was beaten for seven hours by her partner, the neighbours at around midnight heard cries resembling shrieks from a horror film. Neighbours were wakened by her screaming No, no. Stop..

Thankfully one of them eventually phoned the police at 7:30am. Why the fuck it took one of them 7 hours hasn’t been explained.

The other has reached the national news. Some cretins objecting to a bike race around Pitlochry spread tacks over the road on a downhill stretch. Hundreds of tires were punctured, not only on bikes but on an ambulance and police car supporting the race.

The only local quoted in the Courier against the half day road closure.

We may not leave our homes for any essential items and, much more importantly, the whole community is prevented from attending the Sunday Christian services.

I wonder if the roads would be closed and the residents ‘restrained’ if we were of other faiths or nationalities.

I was under the impression that we were attempting to fight discrimination. Perhaps not if you are white and Christian and don’t cycle.

What a maroon.

]]> http://agraham.org/blog/2009/05/19/two-stories-about-perthshire/feed/ 0 Cycle Ride http://agraham.org/blog/2009/02/16/cycle-ride/ http://agraham.org/blog/2009/02/16/cycle-ride/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:36:24 +0000 Alan G http://agraham.org/blog/?p=221 With the weather finally clearing we managed to get out on the bikes at the weekend.

The route map is:

Route for February 15th

Route for February 15th

It was a pretty hard slog for two main reasons, lack of fitness and the gears not working correctly on bike. I was able to switch from 2 to 1 but not up again, when I fiddled around a bit the chain came off. This meant I was stuck on the second set of gears which was fine for a gradual climb, flat and downhill but meant I was stuffed when trying to climb a steeper gradient on way back. So we had to call it off a bit earlier than intended.

Still 2 miles with over 200feet of climbing is alright for a first proper ride. The first ride we went on was round Clatto so was pretty flat only rising 60ft over a longer distance than the 200ft climb on Sunday.

Route for January 25th

Route for January 25th

I am due the first service anyway but was waiting until I had been out more than once, that’s definitely something to be seen to.

]]> http://agraham.org/blog/2009/02/16/cycle-ride/feed/ 0 Get on yer Bike http://agraham.org/blog/2009/01/18/get-on-yer-bike/ http://agraham.org/blog/2009/01/18/get-on-yer-bike/#comments Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:10:10 +0000 Alan G http://agraham.org/blog/?p=149 I have been trying to get my work to enter the Cycle2Work scheme. Looks quite positive although it is on hold until the new office is complete around September. Unfortunately that’s the time of year I’d be least likely to start cycling seeing as it will be starting to have heavy showers. I figure if I get even an entry level mountain bike for kicking around on just now I will get in the habit of cycling and get fitness up so I would then be having to make excuses to not cycle.

So off I trotted around town after the Palestine demo in city square. After my 7 mile adventure what I found was:

Nicholson Cycles: Ridgeback MX2 for £239.
Bike Worx: Orbea Tuareg reduced from £230 to £172.
Spokes: Giant Rock for £200.

Now price wasn’t really an issue between them, whichever was the best bike I would go for. I had heard of Ridgeback and Giant before but hadn’t heard of Orbea. When home I did a search and found out that:

  • They are based in the Basque country and switched to make bikes after the Spanish Civil War
  • They are a co-operative
  • They operate a 1:3 wage ratio – no one can earn more than three times anyone else in the factory.

I think that’s me sold then, dunno which bike Genna will go for. Next Saturday we should be popping round the shops so she can see them too and I will have a test-drive to see if it’s what I need. For the Cycle2Work scheme I would be looking for a Hybrid, I really like the Ridgeback Hybrid but if the Orbea are any good I would have to go for that again.

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