A long walk on the beach. We chat to a lady in a Hermes headscarf walking her labrador. The labrador has found a stick which it holds in its jaws with a head high sense of accomplishment. Only dog owners would understand this tail wagging level of contentment. The woman tells us that in the middle ages the beach would have been crowded with pilgrims washing off the dust from their long journeys. Suitably cleansed they would then have headed to the cathedral to see the Saints relics. In a place like this there are people who walk their dogs and there are Professors of medieval history who walk their dogs. We part company after learning more about medieval body odours and body hygiene than we would ever have expected to know - or would have possibly ever wanted to.
It's rubbish collection day. The streets lined with wheelie bins. We're left to ponder what medieval pilgrims would have made of this strange and unsightly ritual. The seagulls have found a black rubbish bag and emptied all its contents on the pavement in front of the opticians.
A detour to the Italian coffee shop for a restorative espresso. A man is out testing his new motability scooter. We watch his progress. He hurtles past the kirk , heads down the road in front of the closed newsagents , crosses the road , does a U-turn and then returns. As he passes us he stops to describe the various features of the vehicle. After a series of unhappy hip replacements the scooter enables him to get out and about again. It has a top speed of 8 mph. He is testing it to the max.
Before heading back to the car there's time for a bacon roll at the cafe on the beach. They're just opening as we show up. Post Tokyo jet lag has left Angus ravenously hungry at strange hours of the day. It seems that we can longer breeze through time zone changes with the casual indifference we did in our twenties.
The evening lecture on right ( and left ) wing terrorism in the US by the Georgetown professors was notable for it lucidity and sobriety. Seats have been reserved for us on the front row right by the lectern. This is a kind but unwelcome gesture. We had hoped to be able to slip in and sit anonymously ( and dreamily ) at the back. I'm guessing the average age of the audience ( even adjusting for the old fogeys on the front row ) is 20. We learn about the Turner Diaries and the importance of the six words ' Very fine people on both sides'. Q Anon figures largely, and appallingly, in the presentation. In the 80's and 90's terrorists were driven by ideology now they're often linked by where they appear on the spectrum. The students ask thoughtful questions with impressive lucidity. Angus is once again left feeling the current generation is so much more adult than their predecessors. This is the link to the book :https://www.cfr.org/book/god-guns-and-sedition
After a very serious dinner ( enlivened by the fact that one of the academics met his wife to be in this very same restaurant eleven years ago this coming Friday ) we creep away to the new cocktail bar in the old Post Office for a drink. It's quiet. Seems the students don't make an appearance until ten so we have the place to ourselves. 'The Font' thinks the new bar has a 'louche' feel. I have to agree. Presbyterian it ain't. The high bar stools are designed for a younger, less jet lagged, clientele. It will be very popular with the late teens crowd which in a town like this means it will enjoy rip-roaring commercial success.
9 comments:
After a series of hip replacements my late father wanted to get a mobility scooter for indoor use. We dissuaded him - the vision of him charging it to open closed doors at 8mph was too much.
What an interesting selection of people you meet.
Nice to have reserved seats, but not so good if fighting the urge to let the eyelids droop.
My mother had an indoor mobility scooter, and one of my daughter's favorite memories is of the two of them blasting along the corridors of her retirement home.
Hari OM
My father caused some serious skirting board damage with his motorised indoor chair. He did make noises about having one 'for outside', but thankfully, he lost interest in that! The talk sounds like a good challenge to keep one awake... YAM xx
Angus and the Font in a 'louche' bar. Whatever next!
I'm afraid that seagulls' penchant for ripping open black plastic rubbish bags is the reason for wheelie bin blight.
Wheelie bins were the bane of my late father's life when he started using a mobility scooter. He was effectively house bound on bin day because of them blocking the pavement. The other problem was cars parked half on and half off the pavement, meaning he had to find a way to get onto the road without toppling off the kerb, then back on again.
On average we live twice as long as humans did in the middle ages, a big factor in that is sanitation and cleanliness. We smell better and live longer. And still something like 1/3 of people lack readily available safe drinking water.
Living in OKC, might not have learned about the Turner Diary’s, if not for one Tim McVeigh. The National Park Service did a fine job with the memorial, but the politics are almost completely ignored.
Seeing a Hermes scarf wearing woman on a beach paints quite a picture! One of those unexpected delights while walking on the beach in a university town.
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