Saturday, January 4, 2025

The stolen car.

Great excitement. A black Volkswagen Polo 'R'  with tinted windows was 'borrowed' by some joy riders on New Years Eve and left, carefully parked, on the grass verge by the village notice board. We know it's a Volkswagen Polo 'R' because the farmers youngest son informs us that the 'R' model is 'braw'. That's teenage for fast. After three days people started commenting on the presence of the car in a ' I wonder who still has family  staying with them ? ' sort of way. The village grapevine soon provided an answer to that  question - nobody. Calls have been made to the Police who will arrange for the vehicle to be collected and reunited with its lawful owner. ' Whatever will be next ?' asks the kirk treasurer in a scandalized tone of voice that suggests a stolen car is but one step away from big city reprobates dealing Molly behind the village potato barns...or worse.

Well below freezing this morning. The display on the dashboard says it's minus 3. That seems about right . The wooden ramp that leads down onto the sand covered in a thin but treacherous layer of frost.


The usual band of dog owners have reclaimed the beach after the Hogmanay break. Their dogs seem to be super happy that their normal routine has been restored. They rush down to the waters edge, tripping over their feet as they go.


The good weather has also brought out the tour groups. We look as a large bus disgorges 20 or so Japanese tourists outside the cathedral. The Japanese sensibly head off to the warmth of the cafe where William met Kate . They leave exploration of the cathedral until such time as the sun rises or it gets warmer. The tourists must have left their hotel in Edinburgh at seven this morning. What must they make of a small town where nothing - except a few cafes and Starbucks - opens until ten am ?


One of the houses in the small street that runs down to the castle has an interesting tower. It looks wonderful but would make for a miserable home. You can be sure you'd forever be leaving the car keys on the top floor and climbing back up to fetch them.


Well I never : 2024's top 10 staircases:https://www.dezeen.com/2024/12/21/top-10-staircases-2024/  This was our favourite :https://www.dezeen.com/2024/07/13/westerpunt-studio-moto-concrete-lookout-point-belgium/

Time :https://theconversation.com/time-expansion-experiences-why-time-slows-down-in-altered-states-of-consciousness-244949

A little esoteric substack  history and perspective :https://yawboadu.substack.com/p/from-pre-colonial-roots-to-independence


9 comments:

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
Not even a glimmer of daybreak over the Cowal as of 0750h... suspect very heavy cloud cover. Am with you on the staircase - and appreciative of the Sudan article. A conflict that flies under the radar. YAM xx

Anonymous said...

Three inches of snow in Aberdeenshire. But the dog needs walking

Travel said...

A dusting of snow here in DC last night. I think I would put my office at the top of the tower.

Anonymous said...

The tower would be useful as a place to store those things you should actually throw out, but don't, just in case you need them again!
Warm and sunny with a hazy blue sky here today.
Coppa's Girl (still having trouble with Google!)

jabblog said...

Minus 3 this morning, now zero at 14:30-ish
I liked the Cadenza staircase - hopeless for dogs or toddlers!

Sharon said...

-8, wind chill -15, no snow, bright shining sun, no clouds. Perfect day on the north shore of Lake Ontario.

Anonymous said...

Well, I'll be - we actually happen to have a black VW "R", safely parked in our driveway. We bought it when we moved to France and it is indeed "braw". It is unfortunately not a perfect fit for our narrow twisting roads and we haven't made it out to the Autobahn yet, so we are now looking for something a little better-mannered but still peppy to replace it, probably a plug-in hybrid, almost certainly not a BMW. I loved staircases and enjoyed the article, although any house with a floating staircase was an automatic "no" for us.

rottrover said...

The Belgian staircase was also my favorite, and I agree with Lisa, floating staircases make me dizzy just looking at them. It's 50
in LA and very clear. Beautiful, but we need some rain.

Liz Hamblyn said...

My VW R is sitting in our garage. It is bright yellow and yes, they can go fast, however, they are not very accommodating to rural New Zealand roads. I managed to blow out four tyres in the first six months of owning it. Car's designed for the highways of Europe, don't like to many pot holes caused by logging/stock trucks. But I love it.