Monday morning and Christmas music #7

From a distance we can see people on the beach below the castle. A group of four young women are standing on the waters edge discussing whether it's wise to venture into the water. As they're making no attempt to move I'd guess that 'wisdom' is winning out.

Up closer, we see two youngsters in the sea water pool. With 70 mph winds and the climate unsure which side of zero  to settle on  their devotion to sea water swimming ..or each other ... must be considerable. The young man is wearing a woolen bobble hat. The young woman an altogether more practical swim cap. 

Christmas decorations showing up in the late to decorate shops.

In the ironmongers window a tea towel with a poem that requires a degree of creativity in making  'be' and 'beauty' rhyme. The locals pronounce beauty as ' bewteee' which works.

Peak winter. It's pitch dark by four thirty. The University catering department serves mince pies in one of the lecture halls after each evenings carol service. We forego the mince pies and head to the trendy warm cocktail bar for a glass of Pinot Grigio and a pint of beer with the unlikely name of Bitter and Twisted. A group of bubbly girl students come in and order some seasonal Cranachan. It seems this is a house speciality. There are four of them and they cost consciously share one portion using one spoon. They then less cost consciously order cocktails and ... before we leave ... a second round. A third ... and quite possibly fourth round ... may follow. One of them is about to ditch her boyfriend and the others are there to persuade / reassure her that she's making the right decision. The young man in question would not be happy if he could overhear the merciless snippets of conversation we and the other customers at the bar become privy to. One of the inquisitorial jury describes him the soon to be ditched young man as 'gormless' which is an unusual and strangely  old fashioned word.

Gentle Christmas music #7 from Australia :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbSIAmv2CaM

A small company selling unusual Christmas table decorations :https://theshopfloorproject.com/collections/festive-table

We stayed here the last time we were in California and were underwhelmed. On the basis of an e-mail that's just landed it seems to have had a makeover and offers a design-forward experience. I have no idea what a design-forward experience is. :https://casalomalagunabeach.com/