A muted sunrise as we leave the courtyard on our way into town. The weather is now somewhere on the spectrum between chilly and cold with 'cold' having the upper hand . Tickets to play a round of golf on the Old Course become much cheaper after October 16th when only the hardiest of golfers are willing to suffer being buffeted by the North Sea winds. The tickets, unsurprisingly, get even cheaper in January.
By the time we make it onto the beach the muted sunrise has turned into a glorious one.
Three youngsters rush hollering out of the dunes and onto the sand where they strip down to their underwear. I'm guessing they're not so much early risers as late to bed Saturday night party goers . The youngsters had planned to go for a bracing dip but think better of it when they realize the strong wind is whipping the sand in their direction. Even eighteen year olds understand that wet underwear and wind blown sand make for an uncomfortable combination.
The student golf tournament is to be televised. The area by the club house already filling up with American teens soaking up the vibe. From the number of youngsters walking around it would seem that this tournament is a big thing. Around them technicians are setting up cameras. One youngster from Arizona is sitting on the steps that lead onto the first tee and saying ' Wow! Oh wow !' over and over. A real 'Mecca' moment. This morning the caddies are running up flags. The US flag at one end....
....the Scots flag at the other. In between the banners of the four universities battle the wind. The stand that had been put up for the Womens Open has finally been taken down. The residents in the hugely expensive flats behind it must be pleased to get their view back.
We stop off at Starbucks for a coffee. The few locals out and about have dropped any sense of stylishness in favour of a dress sense that's more appropriate to the sudden onset of frigid conditions.
8 comments:
Interesting about the profitable porch pumpkin business. I don't think it would catch on in St Andrews (although with all those Americans around, I could be wrong). Definitely not in Aberdeen.
I don't think Britain, or Europe, has embraced Hallow'een and Pumpkins in the same way that the US has.
The French "hip" is something to lull the kiddies to sleep and give them nightmares!
My son's birthday is the day before Halloween, so when he was small we always had a big Halloween party, with haunted house decorations and pumpkin carving. We were living in Tokyo than, and it was all quite novel for our non-US guests and their parents. My Japanese husband loved the Jack-o-lanterns, but he could never quite escape feeling queasy about the wastefulness of using food as decoration. It seems the woman in the article has that base covered, distributing the "used" pumpkins as animal food, but the whole thing still seems a bit (a lot?) too much.
Hallowe'en is growing slowly in popularity in UK, but is nowhere near as elaborate or celebrated as in the USA. I wonder why that is.
Well, you say UK, but Hallowe’en has always been big in Scotland. Not like now, but turnip lanterns, guising- you had to have a party piece ready-, dooking for apples treacle scones, dressing up.
Hari Om
The inside of the pizza box is unlined cardboard... Prone to absorbing grease, and, probably, ink, so would become illegible. Not sure how many bosses would be that bribable though... YAM xx
I envision tons of receptionists gobbling up those pizzas, then tossing the boxes. I don't think the folks who envisioned this quite understand how offices work.
Nina
Your description of the 18 year olds racing toward the North Sea, a bracing wind, and sandy underwear started my morning with a chuckle. Kids!
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