With Burns Night behind us the attention of the towns hoteliers now shifts onwards to Valentines Day. A 3 course dinner - plus a glass of champagne - is advertised outside a student friendly hotel near the Catholic church. The price £58.95. It is highly unlikely that students ( or indeed anyone else ) will get by with just one glass of champagne so I'm guessing the price of true love will come out closer to £100....or quite possibly £150.
Very blowy this morning. We wander into the university museum ostensibly to view the Iran exhibition but more prosaically to warm up on our way back to the car . We are surprised to find this lapis lazuli exhibit was made in Afghanistan in 3000 BC. The label says it's a goddess who was able to switch from being human into a bird as a demonstration of her powers. This seems improbable to me but I guess the museum has a better idea of what's going on. How does anything survive for 5000 years? Clearly, as it's not broken, racked or chipped, it didn't come from a household with teenage sons. .
The flower beds outside the halls of residence freshly planted with a Presbyterian sense of order.
Town still humming with teenagers on 'pre-application' visits. A long line of Japanese girls can be seen battling against the wind on the road that leads from the Premier Inn to the student union. In town a local and his dog stand outside Pret a Manger as a group of teenage males devour bacon rolls on the pavement. The dog is hopeful they'll be messy eaters. Why the youngsters are wearing ties is something of a mystery. Have they been told to dress up for their introductory visit ? They'll almost certainly be more formally dressed than any professors they might meet.
When Valentines Day is over the restaurants will segue into Cocktail Week. It is said that todays students drink less than their predecessors. I have yet to see any evidence of this.
12 comments:
The only interviews St Andrews does now are for entry to Medicine and for the BA International Honours degrees. Everything else is just assessed on the UCAS form. Perhaps the teenagers are just being smart??
I enjoyed the Twitter thread. Thank you.
Cocktails? Tastes have become very much more sophisticated since I was a student. Apart from fruit juice, Babycham was all that was on offer or beer for the lads!
The Andrew Young sermon. Quite remarkable. Thank you for the link.
Hari OM
Oh, I must factor in a visit via St Andrews on my upcoming trip in The Grey... I am a paid up member of the Empire podcast; the recent series has been exploring the long history of area of Persia, Afghanistan, Syria, etc... and the final four episodes bring us right up to the fall of the Shah and arrival of Khomenei; the guest presenter with William and Anita is none other than Ali Ansari, the professor of Modern History (ref. Mid-East) at UofStA. He has just published a book eponomously named Iran. I am surprised this exhibition was not mentioned (promoted) on the podcast and I am grateful to you for having brought it to attention!
When mingling in crowds, I will be wearing a mask; I am an asthmatic and prone to lung disorders generally, so cannot be too careful. All my siblings have been down more than once with chest lurgies over the past few months as they insist on behaving like C19 has gone. It has not. It has mutated, as has RSV and there is no such thing as a simple cold anymore. Conspiratorial writing such as presented in that substack add nothing of value to the debate of whether one chooses to protect oneself or not. YAM xx
When I see someone wearing a mask these days my first thought is that they are hiding.
So lovely to see and hear Andrew Young. He's 91. A force for good throughout his life.
I just returned from a 4 day trip to the middle of the United States and back to Washington DC, I would say probably 10-20% of people in the airports were wearing face coverings, at the hotel and restaurants, probably about the same. One of the four flight attendants was wearing a mask.
Interesting to see the young man in a coat, wearing NB running shoes. Looks like something I would do.
I see more people here (Ontario) wearing masks as Covid is still here with people in the Hospital and ICU. There is also an increase in Strep A.
We're looking forward to listening to the Andrew Young sermon this morning. 91? Where have the years gone? As the title of yesterday's painting says, "tempus fugit."
I love the Twitter thread. I'm so envious of people who can tell a story so succinctly. I wear a mask to my exercise class. I'm the only one, but we're having a bit of an uptick in our wastewater numbers here, so why not? The piece from Afghanistan is beautiful. It also wasn't in an environment with dogs! I also want to report that the dogs and I have survived the most recent Atmospheric River/Pineapple Express/Bomb Cyclone experience here in Southern California. When did it stop being just rain??
We have just been depressingly wet in the extreme northwestern corner of the state while you've been thoroughly drenched. Sunshine today.
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