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.

Completely oblivious.

Blogger issues. A condensed and belated update. British Airways WiFi and Blogger seem to have a technical disdain for each other.

The last of the Halloween cakes still on offer in the bakers window.

The weather remains oddly warm and mild. It can't last.

As we head out of town 'they' are heading towards their first tutorial of the day and are completely oblivious to the presence of buses and trucks. Roads are crossed as if cars haven't been invented.

We're off to London for the day. Instead of taking the train we're flying from Edinburgh to City. It's not as convenient as Heathrow and the cabins in the little Embraers always seem to get hot but British Airways are scheduling more and more of their London flights there. Has anyone else noted the recent improvement in BA's standards? Not so long ago the service was indifferent. Now it's hugely improved. The staff have started to smile again and the food is good in a British sort of way.

Security at UK airports is always tight. Today it seems even more so. As we parked the car at the local station both of us commented on how busy the local airbase is. Something ( let's hope nothing ) is in the wind.

Watching the sunrise.

Sunday afternoon was cloudless and warm. In these parts this is highly unusual weather for November. More of the same is expected today.

Haley Stevens was a name that a few days ago not one in a million Brits had ever heard of. This morning she has a segment all to herself on the breakfast news programme. Fame is a fickle friend.

This morning, as we head back to the car, the sound of laughter drifts towards us from the castle. A young couple have scaled a wall, clambered over a fence, crossed a moat and then climbed two more walls before settling down in a quiet spot high up on a tower. There they have opted to spend some quality time together while possibly watching the sunrise. Young love will, as they say, find a way. We have to quietly admire their athleticism and determination. In an hour or so, when it opens,  Historic Scotlands castle watchman will shoo them away. He'll also give  them a lecture about rock falls and safety. This will go completely unheeded.

Halloween festivities have been taken very seriously by some of the villagers .

Cats v Dogs :https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/185177743?asc=u

Too good to be true :https://futurism.com/future-society/endless-cruise-suddenly-ends

The future of school buses :https://www.changinglanesnewsletter.com/p/driverless-vehicles-should-replace

Magical and majestic.

North Korea has a GDP in the region of $25 billion. This morning the BBC news tells us they've stolen $6 billion from an American crypto firm. As a % of the economy that's quite some windfall. That would be the equivalent of somebody slipping an illicit $ 8 trillion into the US economy. 

Welcome to November. Boy! Isn't the year racing along ?  As if we needed reminding of this the geese are heading south. They fly over in their hundreds. Every so often a large solitary bird will land in the field outside the courtyard. Is it tired or is it lost ?  We're left to wonder if these drop outs will ever catch up with their flocks.

Two swans pass us as we're heading down to the shore. They're following us, flying low and level and until the last minute are hidden behind the stone field wall. They suddenly pop up and appear alongside us - a few feet away.  The look in their eyes tell us that they're as surprised as we are. The whoop whoop whoop of their wings as they pick up their pace is a mix of the magical and majestic. We stop and watch them head into the distance. The birds don't climb and keep flying a yard or so off the ground. Perhaps they're looking for somewhere safe to graze ?

In the window of an art gallery in town a 1940's era cartoon. A cheerful housewife is prepping for war. Sandbags in the garden, tape crisscrossed across the windows and a stirrup pump ready by the Anderson shelter. We by contrast are prepped for whatever the future holds with 48 two litre bottles of Evian. Plus ca change .

Halloween and the youngsters have been busy. There's foam in the fountain and bollards on the belisha beacons.

The wind has blow the foam into a large quivering pile that squats on the parking spaces outside the chocolate shop.

With the youngsters recovering from last nights Halloween revelries the dog walkers have the beach to themselves. 

Dog art :https://substack.com/@emilyfishman/note/c-366642359

The latest edition of the Atlantic magazine arrives. A letter inside says this was the best ever rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic :https://youtu.be/yhDVtntxRUk?t=190

This lands in the inbox and makes what seems to a simple foreigner sensible reading :https://politimix.net/p/if-democrats-take-both-chambers-here

Pete Hegseths concern :https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/men-please-stop-worrying-about-your-testosterone/

A youthful approach to oenology.

Friday night. There's a wine tasting in the bookstore to mark the launch of the new Atlas of Wine.  Half a dozen couples of a certain age are joined by twenty or so students. Full price tickets are £60 but students get a 2 for 1 deal and a discount. Numbers are lower than expected possibly because it's the final episode of Celebrity Traitors on BBC 1 and there's been a rush of last minute cancellations. The retired couples who've shown up taste the new world wines on offer with reserve and studied caution. 20 year old males impress their dates with lines like " I'd never have guessed this was a Bolivian Shiraz ". The older generation tend towards furrowed brows and excessive politeness while the students, by contrast, take an enthusiastic ' Just knock it back ' approach to oenology. It can safely be said that everyone has a good time but some have a better and more copious time than others.

This morning we see that the beach cafe has taken down its outside marquee. Last year the owners left it up but by mid-November the winter storms had shredded it.

A group of 'them' are sitting in a circle on the beach.

Closer examination shows that they're wearing conical party hats. We are left to wonder if they've just arrived or have been here all night.  When you're eighteen  a cold beach  is the perfect place to sit with friends and put the world to rights. At a more advanced age cold wet sand, no matter how vivacious the company,  is altogether less appealing.

Gutted by a fire this week :https://james1940.substack.com/p/the-mad-story-of-the-eagles-nest

A (good) Indian think tanks views on America :https://takshashila.org.in/content/publications/20261028-the-four-is-of-the-2026-us-midterm-elections.html#overlaps-and-outliers

Pompeii unveils its secrets :https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/how-scientists-could-soon-unravel-pompeiis-lost-secrets

The best Hamlet :https://www.andrewdoyle.org/p/which-hamlet-is-best