Handy device the Saltire Card or National Entitlement Card, commonly known as a bus pass. Makes jumping on public transport so easy, and also free. Mind you, to say it’s free isn’t really true, it must be paid for somewhere. And that’s means the Scottish government pays for it out of taxes. Which means the taxpayer actually pays for it. Today, I walked down to zone StoneGate by the Hardengreen roundabout to catch the Lothian Buses No 29 for Gorebridge.
At the bus stop the pavement was littered by the pages of a discarded magazine, possibly thrown from a passing vehicle. The pages were of an distinctly adult nature and very, very, graphic in their content. Not much left to the imagination with various adults who could not afford any clothing playing at mummies and daddies. Though perhaps the word playing is somewhat inaccurate. Would have picked them all up for disposal but no litter bin and the fact that they were all sodden wet and stuck to the pavement made that difficult. Some people!
Anyway, with my poor innocent sensibilities in a state of shock and a mental note to ask my wife Cathryn, aka ChoccyMuffin, what the people in the magazine were actually doing, I was soon off to my destination, Gorebridge. My plan today was to walk back to Bonnyrigg via Gore Glen, Prestonholm and Dalhousie, picking off a few zones along the way and making a video of the walk. The bus journey only took 10 minutes, just enough time to get my video equipment set up. First a fresh battery into the GoPro Hero 10 (if you leave batteries in the GoPro they run down), next the wireless microphone was set up, the GoPro mounted on the selfie stick and everything tested. Action! Roll camera!
Zone HolyGoreKirk was my first zone of the morning, located only a few meters from the bus stop. Then it was off down the Nancy Teuch Path towards the playing fields and the zone there, followed by zone ArnistonBing. Recorded quite a few video clips on the bing, mostly approaching and at the summit, which entailed much to and from, along with repeated ups and downs.
After answering a phone call, I had an attack of muscle cramps. The muscles on the front of my thighs, the quadriceps, went into spasm and bloody painful it was. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the video camera was not recording. Had it been, the words coming out of my mouth would have shocked my mother. These exercise-induced cramps seem to be caused by either muscle fatigue or dehydration. Anyway, some gentle massage and stretching eased them enough to allow me to get moving again, hobbling down the hill, with the occasional sweary word to make me feel better. Not that it did make me feel better. The remainder of the turf walk was uneventful but most pleasant. The frost lifted, the cool air warmed and the birds were singing. Though my thighs were tender for the remainder of the day.
Back home I set about compiling the video. I’m using some new free software called DaVinci Resolve, and it’s proving easy to use and reliable. It took about two hours of editing to get the 30-minute video ready for rendering and uploading. And also, about 30 minutes of audio de-sniffing time. That’s editing out all the sniffs and snorts I keep forgetting not to do while talking to camera. This is done by pasting a short sniff or snort free length of audio track over the offending sniff or snort. Quite easy to do but takes time and care. The longest process is uploading the final 22 Gb video to YouTube. That can take a few hours.
Hope you enjoyed the video and please visit again. I’m off to the shed to finish rebuilding the Surly Pugsley fat bike. Just have the brakes to adjust, a final check that everything is secure and a final road test. Back soon. Live long and prosper.
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