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no time like the present

last week, while staying at my daughter's house in glasgow, we travelled south to attend a funeral, a journey i had originally intended to make by bus from buchanan bus station directly to the bus station closest to my ultimate destination, whereupon, i would have covered the last few kilometres by taxi. in effect, this would also have formed the return journey in the opposite direction. however, when ultimately four of us were to make the trip, it was adjudged more pragmatic to travel in my son-in-law's motor car. though the location of the crematorium was known to us all, to ensure that our arrival would be timely, an iphone was attached to the central screen on the car's dashboard, and via an app on the phone, a photographic, constantly updating rendition of our intended route was clearly displayed to the driver.

in fact, once out of glasgow, the route was quite direct, and the imagery on the centre screen was probably a tad surplus to requirements. but seemingly gone are the days of poring over automobile association road maps across several pages, and making copious notes, which might subsequently be referrred to as the journey was undertaken. later that same day, my daughter drove my son and i to glasgow airport for the return flight to islay, using the same means of route finding.

i have to say that my status as a fully paid up luddite really wanted to disapprove of this navigational augmentation, but due to a strange fascination with the process, coupled with its inherent efficiency, i simply sat back in the rear seat and enjoyed the trip. though i figure i could have handled the section from the kingston bridge along the m77, and subsequently the a77, there's not a chance in christendom that i could have driven us out of suburban glasgow. however, my unconcealed admiration for contemporary navigational wizardry has failed to impact upon my month-long experimentation with cycling minus any gps device attached to my handlebars.

framing it as an experiment is, i agree, somewhat melodramatic, for there will be entire pelotons of cyclists who have never bothered to affix anything more than a cycle computer, or simply ride with bare bars. the fact that i have opted to make this sound like something more scientific is effectively a construct to make it seem as if thewashingmachinepost has more serious intent than is actually the case.

that dubious explanation notwithstanding, how have i survived so far?

well, at the risk of being disappointingly underwhelming, i have surprised myself by coping admirably. as i have made plain on several occasions, the main reason for having a garmin clamped to the bars in the first place is due to my preference for underlining the difference between yours truly and mathieu van der poel, by riding without a wristwatch. in order that i know just how slow are my weekend perambulations, the clock on the garmin was, i believed, an absolute necessity. the accompanying data was, for the large part, surplus to requirements; in any case, in the light of my advancing years, the actual and average speed displays now bordered on the embarrassing.

it has since occurred to me that perhaps all i needed to do would have been simply to limit the garmin to a single data-field: the time alone. but that somehow seemed a smidgeon counter-productive, and certainly wouldn't have provided this opportunity to pull the wool over your eyes and convince you of the sociological importance of that which i may or may not end up proving. as it transpires, i've simply not missed having that screen in front of my eyes; there hasn't been a succession of stares downward when i have been aided and abetted by a worthy tailwind, or the need to see just how much grovelling is taking place when ploughing into an icy headwind. and not once have i inadvertently taken the device with me when intending to affix front and rear lights to the bicycle.

the intention is to continue this experiment until the end of may to provide a definable sample, but it's definitely looking good so far.

monday 18 may 2026

told you so

everybody has 'one of those weeks'. i'm sure there are many for whom every week is like that, and i count myself fortunate that i'm not one of them. but every now and again, several factors agglomerate over a short period of time, ensuring it becomes a collection of days that you hoped would not arrive, but ultimately, you'd like to get out of the way as quickly as possible. last week was mine, though, thankfully, it's the first occurence in many a long year. i don't propose to go into all the needless details, but suffice it to say that everything came together in a newspaper production week, ensuring that matters would be as awkward as they could be.

i am not in ther habit of travelling to scotland very often, quite content to enjoy life on a hebridean island for the majority of the year. but after waiting almost a year for a hospital appointment related to my health scare in march last year, on monday i'd to travel to oban, 90km north of the ferry terminal at kennacraig, for a scan to ensure that my heart is doing what everyone hoped it was doing. because of the idiosyncracies endemic in scottish bus timetables, it's a trip that would normally require an overnight stay, since it would be totally impossible to return in time to catch the evening ferry back to civilisation. however, fortunately, there is such a thing as argyll patient transport, whereby, i was met at the ferry terminal by a gentleman with a motor car, driven to oban hospital, where they kindly moved my appointment forward by half-an-hour, allowing me to arrive back at kennacraig in time for the 6pm ferry back to islay.

though incidental to the principal thrust of my narrative, both ferry journeys were aboard the mv isle of islay, the turkish-built vessel of which i was honoured to be present at the launch in march 2024. and just to add the icing on the calmac cake, the captain invited me up to the bridge for part of the outward journey.

some folks have all the luck.

my second visit to scotland in the same week, took place on thursday, requiring a return flight to glasgow to attend a funeral, arriving back on islay on thursday evening because i had agreed to read for a maths exam at bowmore's secondary school on friday morning. this was for a pupil with reading difficulties. in between, on tuesday and wednesday, i had to produce this week's issue of the islay newspaper, ensuring scant time to catch my breath.

thankfully, with the exam concluding at lunchtime on friday, i was able to ride my bike south west to debbie's with sales copies of the newspaper, providing the ideal antidote to the previous four and a half days. believe me, that was one of the finest bike rides of recent times, even though it only amounted to a smidgeon under 30km.

however, to return to monday's hospital appointment, the scan, which was diligently and expertly carried out by a cardiology nurse, turned out to provide good cause for celebration. after her lengthy deliberations in front of a computer monitor, she announced that my heart had made an excellent job of repairing itself (reputedly the original damage was considerable, but given my squeamishness about such matters, i have never read the copious notes provided by the cardiology department at glasgow's golden jubilee hospital).

at the time of my first cardiology follow up visit in june 2025, having enquired about my proclivities for exercise, the nurse had opted not to recommend me to a local exercise class, claiming that my weekly cycling and walking activities were likely in excess of anything such a class might provide. it would seem that her obervation was particularly perspicacious, given the initial results provided by the above-mentioned scan. of course, this has now made yours truly even more impossibly smug than before, since i have long claimed that cycling cures everything.

in this case, it would appear i was correct.

sunday 17 may 2026