welcome


When jackets you’ve had for years get more than a little tight, and thoughts turn to the unmitigated horror of summer holidays involving too-tight budgie smugglers, you know it’s time to take action. Apart from any other considerations, I would rather stick pins in my eyes than spend my days off wasting cash on the same clothes I now possess, only in a more, ahem, ample size. Action, in my case, means exercise. I could, of course,


‘All told I do five miles a day along the sprawling network of cycle paths that are the capital’s best-kept secret’


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stop eating, but I know from past experience (diets tried: 2; days lasted: 0) that I lack an iron will. Abstinence, it appears, is not part of my DNA, even if my campaign to give white bread a miss seems to be going well, despite the arrival of a bread maker.


So, I’ve taken to cycling. All told, I do fi ve miles a day to work and back along the network of cycle paths


that are the capital’s best-kept secret, which has left me feeling virtuous, slightly sweaty and, according to colleagues, borderline smug (even if I am still overtaken by little old ladies on an alarmingly regular basis). The burgeoning pot belly is now back ta small tureen, I seem to be saving a few quid into the bargain, while my unfeasibly smart bike from the Edinburgh Bike Co-Operative remains my pride and joy. I even managed my fi rst big ride recently, setting off at the ungodly hour of 8am on a Sunday. Prodded


into action by a pal who turns into a MAMIL – Middle Aged Man in Lycra – at weekends, we did the fi fty-mile round journey from Edinburgh to North Berwick by lunchtime, buzzing around the area’s cycle paths and cycle-friendly roads and giving thanks to the Lord every fi ve minutes for the fact that He made East Lothian as fl at as a pancake. I also learned something on that ride by watching passing cyclists: chubby boys like me should not wear lycra. Not ever, no matter the provocation. If you ever see me wearing the dayglo, body- hugging kit, then please feel free to laugh, heckle or just do the decent thing and ride me off the road.


Richard Bath, Editor Contributors this month...


RORY BREMNER The impressionist explains why it’s good to laugh at our politicians – and wonders what will happen to Andy Murray after the independence referendum.


PETER MAY


Filming Gaelic soap opera Machair on Lewis and Harris caused the writer to fall in love with the Outer Hebrides, which also became the setting for his series of detective novels.


FI McGRAVIE More than 3,000 former cage, barn and free-range chickens have been rescued by the volunteers at Wing And A Prayer Rescue and given new homes where they can rest and recuperate.


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