A short start of day call with the super smart Los Angelenos. Most of them have headed off to Palm Springs for the weekend but two have been delegated to stay close to home over Thanksgiving. Seems the world is just too volatile to leave the office completely unattended. This morning we deal with a bomb blast in Canada, a not so unexpected result in the Dutch elections and the politics behind the delay in implementing the Gaza ceasefire .
The dustmen out and about as we head back from the beach. They are dealing with a large pile of cardboard boxes outside the country clothing emporium. It would be fair to say that they don't appreciate this additional work. We leave them muttering heavily accented deprecations. The weather forecast says a cold snap is headed north. By this time tomorrow there may be snow on the hills on the other side of the bay.
A touch of Scottish humour hanging on the walls of the cafe by the church.
It's a fancy cafe. A bacon roll goes for £5.50. In the place by the harbour it's £2.20. In the ( subsidized ) Student Union - I'm told - they are still on sale for £1 with a cup of coffee thrown in. Angus, despite 'The Fonts' disapproval , orders a piece of Millionaires shortbread.
Next to us a young couple sharing avocado toast. He devours the eggs, she mashes a slice of avocado. The tables are very close together so we can't help but hear snippets of their conversation. She's from England. He's from Reno. He's suggesting she doesn't return home to Suffolk for Christmas but fly to the States and spend the festive season with him and his family. She isn't at all sure her parents will appreciate that. " It may be a bit sudden. They're expecting me ". We leave as he's countering with ' My folks are so cool. You'll just love them '. Poor girl. Not only does she have to contend with end of term exams but she also has to deal with a love stricken beau. Life for a late teen comes thick and fast.
Christmas mania now running amok. The delicatessen camouflaged by a mass of seasonal foliage. A milk churn completes the rustic tableau. When was the last time you saw a milk churn ?
11 comments:
The porridge on the menu sounds good.
The word 'hobgoblin' does not feature in my school hymn book's version of the Pilgrim's song!
Cheers, Gail.
This was my school hymn - ordinary state secondary in the north of Scotland, 1970s. We certainly sang with relish the lines about hobgoblins and foul fiends. We also had a school song, music and words written while they were still at school by a pupil who went on to study Classics at Oxford. We used to have to practice the Latin verses in advance of prize giving, so that they're etched in my brain "Saecla per futur academia nostra..."
I was wishing I had chosen the millionaire's shortbread yesterday in my local garden centre café. Instead I had an iced ginger square into which someone had forgotten to put the ginger. The millionaire's shortbread looked twice the size of the slices in your photo. Appetites are large here in rural NE Scotland.
Cardboard is apparently now such a hot value item for recycling that there are cardboard mafia 'wars' in some cities in Spain. Oh for a bacon roll....
Tiggers Mum - Spanish cardboard wars sound quite the thing.
Expensive treats but clearly the students are well-heeled.
I agree with Gail, the porridge sounds extremely nice. Also interesting about the cardboard mafia. Our garage is full of cardboard from packing boxes, and we have been trying to gauge how much we can throw away each week without annoying the trashmen - so far, three or four 50L sacks on top of what fits in the rolling bin seems to pass (today is recycled trash day, so this is much on my mind currently - still many sacks to go so we need to handle with good diplomacy).
That looks like a 10-gallon size, in the USA we would call it a milk-can, a churn is something you make butter in. Full it weighs in at close to 100 pounds (about 45 kilos.) Growing up we used them on the farm for liquids other than milk, I have moved hundreds of them. I much preferred the 5-gallon size. The really nice one's were stainless steel.
If the "bomb blast in Canada" refers to the explosion at the Rainbow Bridge crossing, in fact it occurred on the American side of the border per the CBC report. Just saying!
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it. Angus, I am thankful for your blog every morning!
"Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot."
~ Hausa Proverb
So thankful that a neighbor told me about your blog. Your stories start my days with a smile.
I too, am thankful for your blog - and this mall community of 'regulars'
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