New Years Eve. The dawn washing over the Old Course. The lights are on in the red sandstone apartment block owned by America's King of sanitary fittings. Donald Trump repeatedly tried to buy the building but couldn't get a mortgage from the Bank of Scotland. The new extension to the old Marine Hotel is also aglow. The town, which has been eerily quiet, is filling up and springing back into life. Students are returning. Golfers are arriving. There is laughter in the streets. Parking spaces are hard to find. The book store is packed. If you can't be in the Highlands for Hogmanay then this isn't such a bad alternative. Tonight there will be firework displays and 'gala dinners' where grandparents can focus on family and leave the heavy lifting of Hogmanay preparation to hotel staff.
The whisky shop in town has been doing a roaring trade ahead of the great night. The shopkeepers now segueing on from 'Merry Christmas' to wishing their customers ' Health and happiness and a Guid New Year '.
Down on the beach Sophie is surprised to find that there are lots of early rising holiday makers out for a brisk walk. The family diva charges off to scatter the oystercatchers and greet her new friend the ageing black labrador. She also stares at passing couples in the belief that some of them must surely have Jaffa Cakes. The family diva shoulders her disappointment over the lack of Jaffa Cakes with quiet(ish) dignity.
We stop off for a coffee and a shared pain au raisin. Angus gets the 'raisin', Sophie gets the 'pain'. The location of our daily outing may change but Sophie's routines are immutable. Then we wander over the road to the cinema to see what's coming on in the New Year .
By the time we make it back to the wee cottage the wind has picked up. Sophie drinks from a puddle and maintains a watchful eye on twenty geese in the field by the sea. The geese have been there for the last three days. I thought they might be migrating south but it's more likely that they've come down from northern Sweden and are now staying to enjoy the relative warmth of the Scottish coast.
And so as 2022 drifts to its freedom testing end a simple wish from all of us at the wee cottage to all of you - May 2023 be the brightest portion of your life.
And here, once again, is Auld Lang Syne as it should be sung :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMFnqj6aFwY . Happy New Year !
23 comments:
Wishing Angus, Sophie and the Font all the best for a New Year full of joy, friendship and peace.
Gail (and Nobby).
PS Please tell us that story about Donald Trump being refused a mortgage is true!
Happy New Year to Sophie, Font & Angus. We love reading about all your adventures.
Wendy & Tom (Wales)
WFT - Here is a link that tells part of the story :
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/trump-failed-purchase-standrews-landmark-171737
The building was finally bought by Herb Kohler - the American plumbing magnate and turned into $10m apartments. All of which , bar two, sold quickly.
Happy New Year to all at the wee cottage. May Sophie's days in 2023, be filled with Jaffa cakes!
Happy Hogmanay to you both and Sophie (and the not- forgotten Bob), here’s to hoping the coming year brings good health to us all. Selina x
Hari Om
Warmest wishes to Angus and the Font and delicate ear scritchies to Mlle Sophie all the way from the other coast! YAM xx
The very best New Years wishes to Angus, The Font and Miss Sophie from Camille and Dottie Dog. X
Happy New Year and best wishes to Sophie's family and her loyal followers. I must say I love my Kohler towel rack; more than I can ever say about Donald Trump....
Happy New Year...Hogmanay...to Angus, the Font, and dear Sophie with our best wishes from South Florida for peace, happiness, and the flowering of sanity throughout the world. And thank you for the Auld Lang Syne.
Happy New Year!!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you and yours. Thank you for taking us along in 2022, we look forward to 2023.
‘Haud Hogmanay’ to Angus, ‘The Font’, and sweet Sophie! Happy New Years Eve to all readers of this beloved blog from around the world!
Wishing everyone at the wee cottage a happy and healthy 2023 and success getting the cottage to be be the home of your dreams.
We, too, shall not miss 2022...at all!
Wishing you a joyous new year! Stephanie in Northern
Oops, that's Stephanie in Northern California
Wishing all of you at the wee cottage just this side of Denmark a happy and healthy 2023!
-Lisa, Otto and Osa in Los Angeles
A very Happy New Year to you, your lovely wife, and sweet Sophie. Thank you for sharing the unimportant little things that are too important to be forgotten. It's a wonderful life.
Happy New Year to Angus, the Font and of course Sophie. Thank you for taking us on your journey through 2022.
Sharon, Ontario Canada
Happy New Year to you three from sunny, Christchurch, NZ - I hope your night is going well - as I recover from ours here. Thank you for 2022 - we look forward to life and more of your stories in 2023.
I look forward to more amazing stories from Scotland. I am loving it all so far. Thank you. Beth
Happy New Year! May all of your lives be filled with fun, good health, and happiness.
Happy New Year to all in the wee Scottish cottage. Thanks for all your interesting blogs over the years and pictures of lovely(sometimes) Sophie.First laugh of the year! We will appreciate seeing her more now since we lost our own lovely old dog this year. Thanks also for almost curing my occasional homesickness now I live in Llandudno, it's nice to see St Andrews again and compare it to when I lived there. Appalled to be told that Trump almost bought the building which was my student residence while there and also amused to hear a sanitary millionaire bought it...also a bit jealous,it was a lovely building and location.Happy days of the past and that is just what celebrating the new New Year is about. Megan.
Post a Comment