A wee jaunt, and a birthday

Portobello Beach

It has been a subdued sort of week here, which has been reflected in the lack of blog posts. We are all very happy… we’ve just been having some downtime after a busy spell.

DorkyDad has had a lot of work travel recently, so DorkySon and I got the train up to Edinburgh last weekend and spent a couple of nights staying with DorkyGranny. It was really nice to be there, although with it being such a short trip I only had time to see a couple of friends, and not everyone I would have liked to. Having seen how easy it is to get up there on my own with DorkySon, and how well it filled the time when DorkyDad was away, we’ll definitely be going up again before too long.
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It’s a mad, brilliant, fresh, changing world!

Crikey.

It has all gone a bit blog award crazy recently. I’ve been posting bits and pieces on Facebook and Twitter, but thought it might make more sense to do one short blog post bringing it all together. I’m going to pimp the crazy out of this for a day, and drive you all mad, and then I will wheesht about it all. (Until, y’know, the closing dates are all drawing near and then I’ll pester you one more time!)

Firstly, thank you thank you thank you! The short lists for the BritMums Brilliance in Blogging Awards were announced today, and I’m absolutely thrilled to have made it to the short list in not just one but two categories. Wow! Thank you so much for your votes, which have put me in the running for the Fresh Voices category (for newer bloggers) and the Change category (for bloggers who raise awareness of causes).
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The Right to Education

I saw a wonderful piece of news today about people using social media for good. Take a look at this story about a demonstration of Israeli-Iranian solidarity – started online by ordinary people – that has really taken off.

It has warmed the very cockles of my heart, and provided a very useful reminder that behind almost every news story – good and bad – there are ‘ordinary people’. Every conflict, every crime, and every Government Bill has an impact on folk that more often than not are just like you and me.

Palestine Israel Separation Wall

I haven’t blogged about this before, but a few years ago I was lucky enough to visit the West Bank – part of the occupied Palestinian Territories. At the time, I was President of my Students’ Association, and the student body had voted to twin our university – Edinburgh – with the University of Birzeit near Ramallah.

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