Purple dawn

A wonderful purple sunrise. For a while the sand turns lilac. The colours last for all of two minutes before shading back to something more mundane. The tide has just gone out and the local rook population are feasting on thousands of small shrimp washed up along the high water line.

On our way back to the car we meet the courier driver from Dundee who was supposed to drop off a package at the house yesterday. Despite a small blizzard of texts saying he was on the way he didn't show up. " The intercooler went on my van " he says by way of excuse. ' Repairing that'll be a big job ' I reply although I have no idea whether repairing or replacing an intercooler on a Peugeot van is, or isn't, a big job. 

On the golf course two grey haired gentlemen are ambling along and aiming for the green on the fourth hole. One of them has ended up in a bunker from which he has difficulty extracting himself. Muted muttering can be heard of the type Edwardians would have coyly called 'effing and blinding'. 

A gull watches the golfers with self evident boredom. The gull paws the ground with its feet and is rewarded when a long, juicy, worm pops to the surface. Today, there are only a few lights on in the big 5 star hotel. Things will start to pick up mid-week when golfing fathers, insistent on returning their offspring to their halls of residence, will start to arrive in large Home Counties registered cars. There was a time when Jaguars were popular but now Range Rovers are the urban professionals marque of choice. This influx of middle aged males reflects the ' I may as well play a round or two as I'm here' approach to parenting.

Some middle aged ladies have been for a swim in the salt water pool beneath the castle. They've lit a small and ineffectual fire. We can smell the smoke from the top of the cliff. Having emerged from the water and toweled themselves dry they now seem to be enjoying a restorative wee dram to keep the cold at bay.

So starts a Monday morning in a small, off season, university town on the North Sea coast. Later today the Texan tenants arrive for a week of pre-semester acclimatization.

A new V&A extension. Why don't more museums do this ? :https://www.vam.ac.uk/east

Good question :https://www.statnews.com/2025/01/16/calorie-counts-on-menus-effects-on-choices-cochrane-review/

Seeing risk in the mundane ? : https://theconversation.com/the-hidden-health-risk-of-having-your-hair-washed-244317