May 2022

This month was mainly filled with Marathon training, in preparation for the Edinburgh Marathon at the end of the month. I ran, cycled a little, and tried stretching. I ended up running it in 4:49. It wasn’t the time that I had hoped for, but it was still a good experience.

At the start of the month it was the local council elections. It was the first election in roughly 15 years where the Liberal Democrats weren’t my first choice. I’d grown a little frustrated at some of their campaigning against the active travel measures the SNP/Labour council has been putting in place. It seems like rather than proposing improvements and additions they were organising opposition. We got the results I had hoped for in our local area with Labour, Green, SNP and Lib Dem taking a seat each, and the Conservative Councillor being ousted.

In general, my principle is to vote for people who are pro-development, YIMBY, optimistic and who take climate change and city-building seriously.

EdinburghJS is still a focus of mine - this month we had Adrianna and Diego speaking with Esteban on hosting duty. We have just announced a meetup on June 16th, so if you are interested in JavaScript then please do come along.

In May I read:

• The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff
• Justice by Michael Sandel
• Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
• Messy by Tim Harford
• …and after a year finished On Politics by Alan Ryan

Some of this has been in support of my part time studying with the Open University. I finished the last assessment and now need to decide if I am going to continue my studies next semester. I think I’ll probably opt for the Political Institutions course, but will need to see how hectic work and life become in the next few months.

I’m away on holiday next week, so expect some photos in the coming month! See you at the end of June!