Audience participation.

 

Friday night. We head off to the theatre to see a Scottish comedian doing a monologue on 'My life with David Bowie'. https://byretheatre.com/shows/jack-docherty-in-david-bowie-and-me-parallel-lives/ This appeals to a wider theatre going demographic  than is usual. Ten minutes before curtain up the place is packed and the queue for the bar zigzags through the foyer and back out towards the courtyard. There is an element of audience 'participation ' to the performance. This highlights the fact that most Scots, but not all, are extremely undemonstrative. Those that aren't can hold their own anywhere.

After the performance we head quickly to the towns one and indeed only cocktail bar for a night cap. The cocktail bar has recently had a makeover. At nine thirty the place is quiet apart from four lads who are determined to forget next weeks chemistry and physics papers. From the rapidity of their ordering it would appear that nothing - and certainly not a lack of revision - is going to stop them enjoying their Friday night. Most of the students won't start appearing until ten thirty or eleven but we have now reached an age where our idea of eleven pm excitement is a cup of Bovril. The cocktail bars makeover has given it a sort of primary coloured stridency. 'The Font' observes that there is ivy growing out of the air conditioning outlets above us. This is presumably intentional. We agree that blue and orange is a 'bold' choice of colour scheme.

Saturday - again - dawns bright and fair. Puppy - who hasn't been seen for a day or two due to a cut in her paw - appears at  the door at first light. She chases off the pigeons who are already hard at work eating what's left of the grass seed that's been put down by the gardeners.

We're in town early. The farm shop is now selling Scottish strawberries which ( although being forced along in a polytunnel) prove to be delicious. We have to get to the shop before they sell out.

Strawberries safely in the back of the car we head off for a long walk on the beach. This morning its completely deserted. Not even the dog owners are out and about yet.

The Gospel Hall is a strange hold out from a previous world. Sometimes a lady in a tweed skirt can be seen standing outside handing out edifying tracts. The last time I came this way she was standing outside and asking passing students if they were  washed in the blood of the lamb. 

A rather jaunty outfit in the kilt makers by the Italian coffee shop. There are at least four kilt makers in town which suggests  that there is a sustainable business model based on selling Highland outfits to visiting golfers. 

An eternal question :https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/society/2024/when-are-parents-responsible-for-their-kids-behavior

Can this really be new?:https://theconversation.com/nearsightedness-is-at-epidemic-levels-and-the-problem-begins-in-childhood-225255

Will this time be different ? :https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/dispatch-from-rome-political-stability-gives-italy-meloni/