2 degrees this morning. This doesn't deter the students who are out for a sunrise dip in the sea. It's Raisin Monday. A strange , residual, medieval holiday when students were allowed to take the day off to buy raisins ahead of the winter. These days it has morphed into an excuse for a three day party.
Dog owners who are used to having the town to themselves are surprised to find a thousand students cavorting on the beach by the harbour, another thousand at the pool under the castle and maybe another thousand or so on the sand by the golf course. Some of the local mutts look decidedly unhappy at sharing their morning promenade with this crowd of noisy revellers. A labrador picks up a bathers towel from the sand and , to the sound of cheers, heads off with it across the sand pursued by an unhappy young man in wet boxers shouting 'Come back. Come back '.
From the number of beach bonfires and discarded champagne bottles I'm guessing that most of the students have been up all night. Some of them are now at the unsteady on their feet 'one slug of Bacardi too many ' stage. Lots of blue and yellow flags being carried. It's 600 days exactly since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Angus is surprised at the number of bathers. Who in their right mind would go swimming in the North Sea in October ? 'The Font' observes that if you're a teenager studying in Scotland you' can't let a little cold and windy weather deter you from having fun.
The Coastguard show up and park their truck on the grass verge overlooking the sea. An overly enthusiastic girl has opted to go swimming on the rocks by the pier. She's cut her foot. Six concerned friends, six slightly bored male coastguards and a female paramedic are dealing with, what turns out to be, a minor scratch. The young lady has a plaster applied. One of the coastguards tells me that the water is 'quite warm'. I thank him for this information but have no intention of finding out if he's right.In town two affable police men are on duty outside the supermarket. They are reminding students that they can't buy alcohol until ten am and telling those who are ostentatiously displaying a bottle to 'carry it so we can't see it '. As we return home the post beach partying is still in full swing.
This guy at Salk is really good. Through the pandemic he provided sensible technical insight. Now it seems we're close to getting a nasal vaccine : https://erictopol.substack.com/p/covid-nasal-vaccines-get-a-boost
8 comments:
If there was a league table for the UK University for the highest number of slightly unhinged traditions, surely St Andrew would be at the top.
Yes, I remember hearing about "Raisin Day" when we toured the campus a few years ago and thinking it was extremely weird. On the other hand, my son told me yesterday that he's discovered that, like his college in Ohio, Glasgow has a Naked Week, where students run naked through campus in order to promote "body positivity." Now that he has reached the very mature age of 22, he will not be participating. I think he is finding it sufficiently exciting trying to figure out what to wear with the weather changing every fifteen minutes or so.
This morning I've had to prove that I'm not a robot before commenting.
If the students have been partying over the weekend, they are probably sufficiently inebriated not to notice that the sea is only a few degrees warmer than the air! Stealing something is a typical Labrador trick, we were forever apologising when our first Lab. stole something he'd taken a fancy to.
We were all young once,
I do agree with Travel, but all those puffy jackets (on those who are dressed!) on the beach would deter me!
'Quite warm' might be a relative measure...as in quite warm compared to polar melt water.
Coppa’s girl, I must prove I am not a robot every time before commenting. I must confess some morning’s I feel like a robot!
In the third photo, on the right, there appears to be a plant in a pot sitting on the wall joining in the fun.
Bailey Bob - Who doesn't go to the beach with a potted cactus ?
Post a Comment