'Off season' mode.

Ten years ago Donald Trump won his first term as President. We were staying at a pricey but not very good hotel in Laguna Beach. The hotel was notable for a) the forest of table lamps in the lobby and b) the staffs Olympian indifference to their guests. On the rare occasions there was anyone at the front desk they would sullenly greet me with the phrase ' Hey dude'. This may be a 'hip' California service culture thing. The hispanic gentleman ( a proud ex-Marine ) who cut my hair at the local barbers surprised me by saying he had enthusiastically voted for DJT. " He's gonna shake things up " he would say while snipping, happily, away. Boy was he right !  A decade on the world certainly seems very different. Informed of this anniversary 'The Font' , rather delphically, asks me to list the things that are better now. This makes for interesting breakfast table conversation. Would your list be long or very short ?

The Spanish and Italian tourists have gone and the golf courses are home to locals , a few 'Quiet Americans' , sixth formers from the high school and students fitting in a round ( or two ) between lectures. 

The streets that are manic in Spring and Summer are quiet. At five off the hour they fill with eight thousand undergraduates rushing to their next tutorial. On the hour they're once again deserted.

Fuchias love the Scottish climate. This fine example is passed on a small lane.

The Halloween decorations at the door of the new restaurant have been upgraded . One of those German nutcrackers has been added to the mix alongside some small tinsel draped Christmas trees.

The cobblers robotron has dropped its Halloween outfit and is all set for windy winter weather.

The town is firmly in 'off season' mode.

Cathedrals of light :https://blue-continuum.com/cathedrals-of-light

Masculinity :https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_ideas_of_masculinity_might_affect_a_countrys_wellbeing

The changing ocean colour :https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/pacific-garbage-patch-ocean-color-microplastics/

Problems in Paraguay ( a place I know nothing about ) :https://tomasmandl.substack.com/p/santis-hydra-a-bank-the-president

And proof that top hats are still worn min Edinburgh :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGWsfTUWvBc

The rain holds off.

A shooting in Krakow, Russian bomb threats against Irish flights and a Chinese 'honey trap' involving the Chairman of Nvidia the news headlines this morning.

Yesterday was Remembrance Day. The rain held off . For Scotland in November this is no small miracle. 

For the first time ever I see people stopping in the street for the two minutes silence . Not everyone, nor the majority, but enough to remind you what day it is. Black ties are much in evidence. We both note that the old medieval bells have been muffled and peel in a most unusual high pitched way.

The students were out in force.

So too the local regiment. Our Member of Parliament was there processing with a flock of civic worthies. There was a time when the councillors would wear top hats but top hats are well and truly  a thing of the past.

Guides, Scouts, and a melee of local school children ( and their parents) follow along behind. The procession here has little of the formality of the one in Edinburgh but the turnout is youthful and the street is packed solid a full three hundred yards back from the war memorial to the cafe where Kate met Wills ( allegedly ). 

In small rural communities remembrance of global tragedies continues to be a big thing. There is an understanding that try as you might they never pass you by. 

The next big event will be St Andrews Day. Until then the town takes on a quieter air as 'they' come to the sobriety inducing realisation that exams are now less than a month away.

A Pictish memory. Coming up for auction in Edinburgh. Why were they made ? What were they for ? :https://www.lyonandturnbull.com/auctions/form-through-time-929/lot/19

Made in China. An update :https://www.reuters.com/graphics/CHINA-ECONOMY/TRADE-OBJECTS/moparrmewva/

Academic technology :https://hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com/p/you-are-protesting-the-wrong-technology

Europe and America :https://karnitschnig.substack.com/p/europes-america-obsession

Loud

Saturday night. 'They', or at least a large group of them, had a party in a local barn. It was a lively affair. Bands had been hired and the students were determined to get their monies worth. At one in the morning 'The Font' observes that the noise is loud enough to make the pillows throb. The barn must be at least two, quite possibly three, miles away across open fields. After ten minutes 'The Font' also observes that there is no discernible tune or beat to the music. 'The Fonts' final observation is that the noise inside the barn must be like that standing next to a 777 on its takeoff roll. Teenage hearing truly is a remarkable thing.

Trust Private Eye to have their own take on world affairs. The Kings tour of the Caribbean has not been without 'issues'.

In Starbucks a customer has been promised a cup of milk foam. The barista is agonizingly slow in delivering it. The customer tries to hide the impatience that's gnawing at his soul.

Subway has closed. There was a time ( in the 80's ? ) when this American chain was everywhere.  I never saw anyone in the St Andrews branch. Perhaps we're past peak sandwich shops ?  A Blank Street coffee shop is about to take its place.  The town has turned into one vast coffee shop. There must be the better part of twenty of them which must be some sort of population / coffee outlet record.

More books dropped off at the library. There are, the ap informs me, 186 students already at work. That's pretty good for a Sunday morning. None of the titles being donated were memorable.

Two Remembrance Sunday ceremonies. The University one and the civic one. Both will merge into a semi-chaotic whole. Attendee numbers have been growing in recent years. 

On the radio some well known Pipe music . This will be played in  just about every town and city this morning  :https://youtu.be/fKqiu92hYOo?t=203

Columbia calls the future :https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/11/05/could-the-2026-election-results-lead-to-a-decrease-in-political-polarization/

Good(ish) news :https://x.com/trevorabranch/status/2118397842574512504?s=46

A strange analysis of ham :https://primitivepines.com/pork-roll-vs-taylor-ham/

Fin de saison poppies.

A grey but mild start to the day. Two of the young American fathers who are on a years sabbatical at the university are out on the beach. They miss the familiar routines of  Berkeley and Notre Dame but admit to enjoying the chance to have a daily pre-work walk with their three year olds in the fresh air. Neither particularly enjoys the mind numbing drudgery of having to teach undergraduates four times a week.  

Scotland play New Zealand in this afternoons rugby match in Edinburgh. Scotland have never beaten New Zealand at Murrayfield so expectations have been adjusted accordingly.  There are elections in New Zealand but the BBC's attempts to describe the passions being raised leave me confused.

The cormorants and herons are skittish birds and take off when the gesticulating  three year olds start to move in their direction. By contrast the gulls remain resolutely indifferent to the presence of these brightly dressed small humans and cluster defiantly on the  rocks.

On the way back up the hill a splash of colour in the grass. This late in the season the poppies petals have a thin and brittle beauty. 

The town has two booksellers. This morning there's a group of people standing  outside Waterstones waiting for the doors to open. No student would be that keen on a book. The store is opening up early at eight so devotees can get a copy of a new sci-fi novel. The Queen of the Xenons does battle with the evil Guptreaders .... or some such thing. There is much about modern life that leaves me bemused. 

A new store has opened up where the Vodafone shop used to be. Everyone buys their mobile phone on line these days so their days were numbered. There have been delays in getting planning permission for the new branch of 'Accessorize'. The original colour scheme was to have been a shocking Barbie Pink but this was thought to be ' out of keeping with the historic environment '. Plans were resubmitted and a pale grey with gold lettering was approved.  Even in its toned down form it is still very 'bright'. 

The flickering mind :https://www.zmescience.com/medicine/mind-and-brain/your-brain-flickers-between-two-realities-15-times-a-second/

No Paul Simon :https://miniphilosophy.substack.com/p/the-most-philosophical-songs-in-history

Intelligence :https://iai.tv/articles/michael-levin-memory-and-intelligence-do-not-require-a-brain-auid-3719

Moronic pepper eaters. 'The Font' reminds me I - against advice - once ate a wild pepper in Ecuador and lost the power of speech for a day :https://www.acsh.org/news/2026/11/05/youtube-idiots-eat-worlds-hottest-peppers-what-could-possibly-go-wrong-50436

Military bands :https://stevepabst.substack.com/p/why-does-an-army-need-a-band

Texas before Tehran.

The American mid-term election results continue to generate excitement in the global media. The BBC quotes a former Portugese Foreign Minister who says, rather pithily, that ' Regime change came to Texas before it came to Tehran '. This makes both of us chuckle.

Christmas is officially here. Heathrow airport has put up one of those minimalist  conical Christmas trees in the departure hall. It does little to generate a festive spirit.

Our flight home leaves on time, arrives ten minutes early and is completely full. There was a time when November would be a quiet off season for flights heading north. No longer. I'd reckon fully two thirds of the passengers are tourists. Many have taken warnings about Scottish weather to heart and are dressed as if they're going to the Arctic. 

Something I've never seen at an airport before. A 'privacy' booth for those conversations that simply can't be overheard.

We take the tram from the airport which gives us enough time to have a coffee at Haymarket while waiting for the connecting train. The platform is full of late 20's something men in black tie heading off to some sports club award shindig. There must be three hundred of them which makes for an unusual sight. Never has the Dundee InterCity looked so smart !

Last night there was a Guy Fawkes firework display on the West Sands. The students enter into the spirit of fireworks displays with unmuted enthusiasm. Young couples seeking a little privacy in the sand dunes are warned of the danger of falling rockets. 

The weather may be chilly but it's dry and bright. Two out of three ain't bad.

The BBC breakfast programme has a remarkably long section on the Zeptoverse. This is broadcast from Cambridge so it is presumably seen as a 'British' field of science :https://thedebrief.org/into-the-zeptoverse-cern-experiments-detect-evidence-of-something-so-rare-it-could-potentially-reveal-new-forces-of-nature/

Taxing food fairly :https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2026/10/whats-the-fairest-way-to-put-a-carbon-tax-on-a-hamburger/

A very Princeton thought :https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/what-brains-are-for

One of my favourite French Xwitter accounts  ( written by their former ambassador in the US ) has this uplifting reminder that eloquence isn't dead :https://x.com/GerardAraud/status/2118279655962931220

I'm a buyer.

The eye exam is now done with the help of a set of virtual reality goggles. It takes ten minutes to complete what five different machines took three quarters of an hour to do . This is the first time I've ever come across AI medical technology and if this is what it does then put me down as a believer. The plan was to be in and out of the hospital in an hour but the consultants flight from the South of France is late arriving thanks to yet another French air traffic controllers strike. At least he shows up this time. 

Why is it all hospital waiting rooms have non-matching chairs with saggy cushions and scuffed legs ?

Dinner at a modern restaurant in Marylebone Village that 'The Font' thinks will be fun. It's busy, trendy and has had good reviews but I can't help notice that our arrival raises the age profile several notches. The Scottish quarter zip and corduroys look fails to win plaudits in the inner city fashion stakes.  They only have four staff working front of house but somehow they manage to make the service efficient and the place feel relaxed. We shall go again. London still seems to act as a magnet for cheerful young Australians and New Zealanders wanting to spend a year or two working abroad.

On the wine list there's a 1976 Chambolle-Musigny. It's one of those solitary , unloved and neglected bottles that never gets sold and is passed on from one generation of restaurant owners to the next until serendipity plucks it from obscurity.

Pentons the hardware store continues to supply all those things that other hardware stores no longer stock. They still have those old fashioned high sheen metal watering cans.

Some restaurants are already in the Christmas groove. The Ivy has a life size polar bear by the front door.  Despite the twinkling lights customers aren't yet festive enough to want to sit outside.

Daunts have a late night book launch that is packed solid. Afterwards people mill around on the pavement chatting affably. Life in London can still be very civilized.

Stonehenge of the East :https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/eastern-stonehenge-mystery-deepens-rep/

Fish are changing :https://sentientmedia.org/the-fishing-industry-is-changing-fish/

We shall be back in time for Guy Fawkes night :https://www.worldhistory.org/Gunpowder_Plot/

Interactive devices.

The flight leaves Edinburgh on time and is completely full. As we've noted on recent flights the British Airways food and service is much improved. The cabin staff have all learned to smile. Amazingly, we arrive half an hour ahead of schedule. London when we get there turns out to be colder and wetter than St Andrews ! The volunteers at the Poppy stand at Paddington station look as if its been a long day. Stations are always cold and draughty places. Next to them is one of those interactive 'Share your station experience with us' devices.  I think we know which button the poppy sellers would push.

The view from the hotel room is very 'London'.

Ox heart on a restaurant menu. Even 'The Font' who has a palate that likes marinated herring thinks this is a tad too adventurous . Pressed pigs ears are also rejected. There is a bottle of seriously under priced Chateau Ausone hidden on the wine list which we drink with partridge. Some opportunities can't be spurned. The staff are relaxed and chatty as well as being efficient. This is that quiet time before the office Christmas parties start. There's a group of ten smartly turned out young women at a table next to us. We prepare ourselves for a noisy hen do night but it turns out that they're a group of nine junior barristers and one more senior barrister  working on a case. They're still there when we leave. They plan to return to their chambers to carry on working. 'All nighters' are the bane of young lawyers lives.

More Poppy sellers at a trestle table outside Waitrose. Cenotaph Sunday almost upon us so demand is strong. Apple pay options start at £5 per poppy and goes up (optimistically) to £50. A friendly German Shepherd oversees things and has been gifted a luminescent red British Legion collar. The old paper poppies seem to have been replaced by small enameled metal ones. In this genteel part of town 50% of people are wearing them. The percentage of wearers is higher amongst older demographics. In what is presumably 'imposed' etiquette all the staff at the reception desk in the Irish owned hotel are sporting them in their lapels. Poppy wearing is one of those national rituals that somehow seems to not only survive but thrive.  They still do something similar in Canada and I assume in Oz and New Zealand and other parts of the Commonwealth.

The Christmas lights are going up. They will be switched on next week. For now  London is quiet but the lure of the lights will bring out the seasonal shoppers en masse. We shall not head south until Christmas is over and things have calmed down again. This morning we wake to the news from the US mid-term elections.  The BBC eschews immediate political judgements about the rejection of venality and takes the Olympian view that it won't be easy for the American President to replace Supreme Court Justices with ease.