velocity-m: April 2011

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

my new blog

As part of the Innertube Map project, I'll be blogging about local transport, routes and events, on my new Posterous page. This is almost exactly what I have been doing on here from time to time, but it will be done more regularly, with better gadgets, links to other Innertube route bloggers and fewer mentions of writing competitions, medical news and art projects.

I have no idea how to juggle the blogs. Perhaps this one will concentrate on my progress in the worlds of painting, writing and literary schmoozing, I mean events and opportunities, around Edinburgh. That would mean that I've got to actually make some progress, so I'd better finish last year's first draft really soon...

Here is my first Posterous post: http://moragedward.posterous.com/my-first-time-coxing-portobellos-new-skiff

Thursday, 21 April 2011

expanding my horizons

Well, the technological ones at any rate. The actual horizon wasn't even in view yesterday. I'd been stuck in bed for most of the day but was getting mobile, so could clearly see the white curls of smokeyness rolling past my window. I suspected that either a BBQ plan had gone awry or someone was filming a B movie on the beach.

It turned out to be the latter, as the whole prom and beach had been turned into an inadvertant set for a B horror movie, with thick fog obliterating everything, glimpses of brigh sunbeams as the engineers failed to keep the fog bank solid over Joppa, and the volume of the waves turned up for dramatic effect. There were even the obligatory screams, well, squeals, as invisible people swam and splashed in an invisible sea.

I chose this as the perfect time to start making interviews with promenaders on wheels. Interview techniques, knowledge of how to actually work the technology, courage to leap out of the fog at strangers, and ability to flag down people moving faster than me, nah, all those concerns could be handled...

I actually met three people I knew for a blether too, but as they were on foot I didn't whip out my recording device and ask me to tell me about cycling on the prom, which in retrospect I ought to have done as the lack of wheels in that moment didn't necessarily mean they weren't cyclists on other days. Ah well, it was a speedy learning process, taught by the DIY method from the school of ''Just try it and see what happens'.

I didn't see any wheelchair users or skaters, so cyclists it was. I'd like to thank Julie, taking her wee son out for a supervised cycle, for agreeing to tell me a bit about cycling on the prom, and coping with the trauma of me in very-first-interview-mode, and to Callum, who took a few moments out of training for a triathalon but who didn't even get his name recorded as I'd pressed the wrong button, and to Dave for a splendid speech about Edinburgh cycle paths, after first competely traumatising me by turning out to be someone I knew online - and who'd already worked out who I was. Tis a small village!

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

Rowporty skiff launch

It was like a summer holiday here in Porty at the weekend, in both temperature and beach crowds. Sunday morning was quiet but the lunchtime launch had a good following crowd, and by teatime the beach was packed. It seemed like a fitting welcome for the new wee skiff. So many boats in the water made for quite a spectacle.

It was a pretty breathtaking experience. Every aspect of it for me is not something to take for granted, like finding a way across the sand (quad bike!) to getting out onto the water at all let alone on such a beautiful day, and sharing a boat with people I've met thanks to Rowporty. I'd waited almost a year to get out in a skiff; an avoidable frustration that I doubt many would have tolerated, but this launch let me put all that behind me. I didn't take photos at first as I was in blissful sensory overdose. That skiff really bounces across the water when rowed fast.

It was poignant to reflect on the fact that these visitors sailing around us had built their own skiffs too, then rowed all the way round the coast to Portobello just to be part of the celebration. And being out alongside Icebreaker herself, who isn't even a year old yet, was quite an achievement, as is the currach from Tollcross, and Scratch, a skiff built single-handedly by the Rowporty website guru Osbert, and of course the hundred year old Jolly boat who was out there, still seaworthy and still as fast as a snake. As for the honour guard of oars when we launched, well, I can't think of a more overwhelming or unexpected gesture.

I will eventually write up my own experiences properly, and put it together with other people's stories, to form an overview of the launch that I suspect will be an interesting - and possibly surprisng - read. I thought getting my creaky wheels running by 11am was early, but some people had been up preparing the boats and buoys from 6am.

I'd like to thank everyone who made this launch possible, one way or another. You know what I'm like with names so this next bit may be hard. Thanks to Jonathan for starting PS&KC, to Ali, Nick and Andres who founded Rowporty, to the friendly faces in Rowporty who keep the new folk actively included in things, to all the hard workers and innovative problem-solvers, those in the background, and to those who stepped up on the day of the launch, including the amazing cake-bakers. There are others, I just don't know the details of the bits I didn't know about. Apparently our cushions were hand-made.

A personal thank you for helping me, to Max for making sure I was up, neighbour Hugh, Marianne and family, Frances and Emma the rowers who gave me a push, Patsy the rower carrying my bag o doom, Linds, Bruce and Ally for venturing out to Porty, and Steve et al for hefting me.

A Rowporty thank you to Stan the Piper, the cute wee drummer whose name I don't know, all the local kids who joined in, George, Royal West, Port Seton, Cockenzie, Newhaven, The National Lottery Heritage Fund who kindly financed part of this project and are, I hope, impressed by the quantity of heritage memorabilia and restoration project boats, The Chocolate Tree, who generously provided the large chocolate egg prize, Rowporty photographer Max Blinkhorn, Talkporty photographer Lee Kindness, Bob Jefferson, STV local reporter Rebecca, the Stornoway film crew, and all the other people armed with cameras who recorded us from every unfortunate angle on the day!

We can even thank the City of Edinburgh council for finally removing those blasted concrete blocks from the slipway at 9am on launch day - perfect timing. Now we just need a little concrete ramp at the high kerb into the boat yard, and an extended slipway down the beach to make this a truly accessible and inclusive coastal activity. Does anyone have a cement mixer they don't need this weekend..?

Rowporty will change now. The boatshed will be turned over to repairs and restoration, then at the PS&KC boatyard there will be four boats for us to look after and use. The two skiffs will be used more by teams training as the regatta season approaches, though Saturday mornings are still open to anyone who wants to join Rowporty and have a go on the skiff (sign up on Big Tent via Rowporty) if there are spaces left, and there will also be the chance to get in the B teams (the A teams are a pretty pre-determined selection) and see what it's like to race in a regatta. Fundraising and planning for the Portobello regatta has already started but there's much more work ahead.

I hope the Rowporty project continues on the right path, and becomes a really inclusive and supportive community group for everyone, not broken into groups of best friends or winning teams, as well as training up everyone to experience winning prizes at as many of Scotland's rowing regattas as possible. I think Rowporty has signed up to race in eleven regattas this season so far!

Here are a few links to photos and footage from the launch. If you have any you'd like to share, please send links here or to Rowporty.

http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/news/15605-rowporty-unveil-their-community-built-boat/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lkindness/sets/72157626397875627/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/versevend/sets/72157626394124139/

Please contact these photographers for permission before using any of their work.

http://www.rowporty.org.uk/