Ten at night. There is a firework display followed by the sound of riotous music. A mile and half away, across the fields, a local farmers 'party venue' is hosting 2000 students for a 'Guy Fawkes' ball. The party venue is in the farmers old tattie barn repurposed with fairy lights and improved plumbing. Students love its ' authenticity '. The farmer loves the income. Tickets were £50 a head. This morning the village dog walkers are united in their belief that the peace of the countryside has been 'violated'. A letter will be sent to the farmer outlining ' noise ordinances'. The youngish New Zealand man who makes seaweed soap wonders how loud the music must have been inside the venue if we could hear it all the way down here. No one in the village lost a moments sleep due to the noise but we all feel much happier after having had a good grumble. One of the farmers wives observes that in her day students got drunk. ' Goodness only knows what they take today'. She goes on to say that in these troubled times she wouldn't be a teenager again for ' all the tea in China '.
The beach is looking rather sorry for itself. Much of the sand has been pushed further down the coast by the recent high tides and we find ourselves walking on a gloopy underlayer of clay. One of the Coastguards says that the old second world war tank traps have been picked up and moved two metres inland by the storms. They're listed structures so a team from Historic Scotland will be coming down to check up on them. 'That's more paperwork for me' he adds cheerily. We sympathize.
In the supermarket Christmas sandwiches make an appearance. They seem like ordinary sandwiches but with cranberry sauce added. They cost £1 more than their unseasonal cousins. Angus is awed by a marketing strategy that comes up with such a money spinning idea. Nothing like a BLT with cranberries to get you in the festive spirit.
The pier is now closed off. The police have taken some of the metal fences that protected visitors to the cathedral from falling masonry and moved them down the hill to the harbour. Blue and white 'Police' tape binds the fence panels together. It would seem the authorities are very safety conscious. A group of dog walkers are peering through the fencing at the damage. ' How much do you reckon it will cost to repair that ?' asks a man in a blue gilet holding onto a friendly labrador. We and the dog walkers jointly reckon, without any knowledge of such things whatsoever, that the bill will be at least a million.
The rain seems to have gone leaving the weather dry but blustery. We can happily live with that. No surfers in the sea this morning. It's too rough even for them.
On the stoop outside a student house in town three pumpkins. ' The Font' thinks that the inhabitants have gone away skiing and have forgotten all about the Halloween fixtures outside their front door.So starts an uneventful November ' Monday morning in a small , friendly , town on the North Sea coast .
13 comments:
Maybe, the farmer is on to a good thing. Charging 2000 students 50 quid each brings in an income of 1000,000 pounds. (NZ$206,374.14) That sum can buy a lot of plumbing and fireworks.
My son, who had absolutely no awareness of Guy Fawkes Night before this week, has had quite the introduction in Glasgow. His student apartment is close to the river and the road in front of his building was used as a staging ground for the fireworks, with the result that the tenants were not permitted to venture out of the building for the past two days, even to go to the market next door. (He suspects he might have received an email about this that he didn't bother to read.) He did get a view of things coming back from campus on Saturday morning and says the fireworks shells looked just like military shells. Many of the students in his building are Chinese, and I keep wondering what they thought of all of this - hopefully they read their emails.
@Lisa in France, during our 37 years in Edinburgh, Guy Fawkes fireworks across the city became ever louder, more concentrated and started earlier, until in the week leading up to the day it was like living under an artillery barrage every evening.
No doubt the farmer is already working out how many more attractions he can arrange and charge the students premium rates! I wonder if the taxman knows about his little side-line? Perhaps he'd better keep the music down next time.
How distressing that the beach has lost all it's sand.
Liz, Lisa, Linda, Coppa G - The £50 ticket does not include drinks which are provided by a 'pop up bar'. I'd reckon after the bands and DJ's have been paid for he must be making a 75% gross margin . That ain't bad for an old tattie barn. If he does one of those a month and can also tap the wedding / birthday/ graduation market he's onto a winner.
The storm damage is impressive and very worrying at the beginning of the winter season with the prospect of more storms.
Students in St Andrews seem to be well-heeled.
I see Angus has just answered my question, what did the students get for their £50? I'm also wondering about the age of the farmer's wife. Students have been accessing drugs stronger than alcohol for as long as I can remember!
Cheers, Gail.
Lisa, two things I think I know about the Chinese - they love fireworks and they're familiar with the concept of being ordered not to leave their apartment buildings!
Next time the farmer needs to share the profits, or at least invite the neighbors, or turn down the noise level.
As long as Puppy and her sisters were not disturbed by the festivities I'm not concerned.
Angus, here's something I'd never have given a second glance to if it weren't for what I've learned since your return to Scotland. Yesterday while thumbing through a thick compendium about "Florida's 500 Most influential business leaders," this from the CEO of a major transportation organization in Jacksonville. Question: "What have you always dreamed of?" Answer: "Teeing off at the Old Course on St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, is my dream as an avid golfer." Well, yes!!! (His second choice was the pyramids in Egypt.)
I remember the jet stream over the U.S. used to come from Canada down to the mid states, now it goes down to Texas and back up to bring us more rain than snow in the winter. Have no idea what brings a change in a jet stream though. May have to do some searching. ;)
A BLT with cranberries? Ew. No thank you.
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