November 2025

I started the month with a weekend with Jack as Harriet was away with Rory. I decided that we should have some cycling adventures. On the Saturday we cycled out to South Queensferry: across the Meadows, down the Canal, onto the Roseburn path, touched the edge of the A90 and B924, and along the cycle path into town. We walked around the Marina looking at the bridges and boats, then had lunch at Down the Hatch, which serves up Canadian-style food. At this point Jack had a very short nap at the table, then we picked up and cycled home via the Dalmeny Estate.

On the Sunday we did a ride in a similar direction, out via the Roseburn path, but this time we turned down through Silverknowes to the Cramond Shore. We played on the beach, walked on the Causeway and then headed along to Granton Pitt for lunch. It was another beautiful day. We cycled back via Newhaven, and the Hawthornvale Path. Jack managed a snooze mid-journey. I think the fresh air was tiring!

On both days we made it around almost exclusively on bike paths - the new link at Dalry Park mades it really easy to get across to the paths to the west of the city. I’m keen to do more days out like this - it’s lovely spending the day in the fresh air chit-chatting away about all the things to see.

Later that week Jack turned three. How time has flown! We spent a lovely family day riding the tram (first time for Jack) and some buses, then lunch at La Casa Leith. H made a cake, decorated exactly as Jack had asked.

I was pleased to run two more JavaScript meetups this month. At GlasgowJS we had a talk from Ryan on building a “local first” app using SQLite. Ryan participated via the Scottish Technology Club speaker launchpad programme that we have started to encourage new speakers. The event went well, and you can watch the recording on YouTube. Fanny stepped up as the speaker at EdinburghJS where we did a crossover event with the UX community. I appreciate Mike at UX Edinburgh reposting the event, and was glad to see a lot of new faces at the event. You can watch the livestream recording on YouTube.

I managed a couple of nights off, taking a wee break from childcare. I celebrated Pete’s birthday with a night of bowling and pizza; and at the end of the month had a team night out with Mapify.

Reading and Watching

Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places, Paul Collier. A little vague.

Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. Made me think about what I saw and what I wanted to see when I watched the news.

I watched A House of Dynamite on Netflix, which then inspired me to read Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen which had been on my reading pile. My Goodreads review:

This was a quick and gripping read. I can’t judge the book on its technical merits (it doesn’t seem like it should be marketed as non-fiction) but the fundamental questions of process and policy it raises are worth thinking about. Even if the details are speculative or overstated, is it not mad that the fate of billions could rest on a small number of decisions of those with very different ideologies and motivations than our own?

I caught up on the last episodes of Andor, then watched the latest seasons of Slow Horses and The Diplomat. We’ve had a fair amount of TV time sitting on the sofa with a feeding baby.

In December I hope to see folks at the Scottish Technology Club Christmas Social on the 16th in Edinburgh.

That’s all for November, back at the end of the year! 👋