The Five Mile Stroll

Since I had a scheduled day off from classes, and since I'm trying to be more physically active now that I'm a bit more settled, I decided to put some repetitions on my feet I departed from my undisclosed location and walked to the vicinity of campus, then set out for The Archibald Simpson for lunch I had a great "bacon" (ham) carbonara and a pint of Foster's. When I had finished, I walked to the well-defended barber shop to have my head shaved, which was outstanding - as usual, they took great care of me, and I felt like a million bucks afterward.

As I was walking, I was also taking pictures for the blog. These pictures will be turned into posts about several prominent Aberdonian statues, as well as a prominent kirk in the city center.

Once I'd finished taking the last of the pictures, I decided to head back to Old Aberdeen. It was getting later in the afternoon, and because Aberdeen is so northerly, it's been getting dark (and cold!) a lot earlier here than it was when I first arrived - the Islamic Qibla for the day that I'm writing this post says that tonight's sunset in Aberdeen will be at 3:27 PM! I took the next major right onto Bedord Road, toward Aberdeen's Staples (mentioned previously!), and then followed that road to the Hideous Glass Cube. From there, I went to the Edward Wright Building to consult with the Director, and then spent the rest of the evening bugging CN Sister in the SOC.


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And then, while we were sitting in the SOC, it began to snow. CN Sister was quite excited, while I was less excited. However, since I'd walked a total of 5.1 miles, and since it was snowing, I felt all the more justified in taking the bus back to my digs.

While I was out and about, I listened to my Walkman. (By "Walkman", I mean an mp3 player purchased in 2010, rather than an ancient machine for playing audio cassettes.) I listened to two podcasts: a recent CSIS event featuring General Raymond Odierno, and Iran's Voice of Justice program from a day or two prior. I'm not a big fan of General Odierno's, but he came off as pretty coherent in his remarks about the Army's adjustment for reduced defense budgets in the coming years. As usual, the Voice of Justice was hilarious propaganda with little or no basis in fact.

I'd like to get to the point of walking at least two miles per day. It will be tough during December and January while it's freezing and icy outside, but I'll make the effort as I'm able and as things start to warm a bit in a couple of months, I expect to get more consistent. This scouting mission was a good start!