The surprise offer.

This morning I receive a letter from the local health authority informing me that I'm eligible for a shingles vaccination. They've given me an appointment at the health centre this coming Monday. The offer comes as a bit of a surprise as I'd never considered having one. The letter delicately informs me that the vaccine ' is beneficial for those who reach a certain age'. 

The weather continues to be wet and windy and grey. It's rough enough for the fulmars to remain firmly anchored to their nests on the cliff edge. 

When we get there the bakers shop is already busy. We wait in line behind three builders who are torn between ordering a breakfast steak and haggis pie ...

... or a vegan haggis, neeps and tattie offering. The steak and haggis pies win out.

Burns Day biscuit production is now at full tilt. By the end of the weekend the Valentines Day variety of the all purpose biscuit will replace them. The year is racing onwards.

Windows that were dark at the start of the week are now blazing with light as more and more students return. I'd reckon 60% have already arrived and the rest will show up today. The railways have chosen this week to upgrade the track between here and Edinburgh. This means anyone hoping to take the train all the way from London will discover they're moved onto a bus at Waverley for the final hour north. You've got to feel sorry for those that are experiencing their first winter here. They leave the gentle weather of southern England and find themselves in a town with freezing temperatures and gale force winds. Our Texan tenants for the house in town arrive today. 'The Font' is heading there to turn the heating up to maximum.

Harvest mice :https://x.com/Britannica/status/2012569445734977954

Unlikely:https://www.popsci.com/science/do-trees-explode-from-cold/

That other thing :https://mei.edu/commentary/irans-coming-reckoning-regime-collapse-is-likely-democracy-is-not/

A very British monument :https://x.com/historydefined/status/2013786153220981148

That's surprising :https://x.com/the_transit_guy/status/2014094157862539631

Canada - again. 457 Brits also died fighting alongside the US in the front lines :https://x.com/glen_mcgregor/status/2014394485908607037

The January storm.

50 mph winds coupled to a high tide have whipped the sea into a fury. Waves crash theatrically over the end of the pier. Faced with the elements the fishermen and their boats have opted to remain in the safety of the harbour.  An engineer in bright red oilskins is nervously monitoring the temporary repairs that were done to the stonework after last years storms. He tells us that the high tide  has done serious damage to the flood defences on the other beach. Later on today we'll head down there to see the state of play. This serves as a little reminder that rising sea levels are indeed a thing.

Even the fulmars - usually dismissive of the elements - have opted to remain ledge  bound. 

The front door of the exam hall is open. The sound of a full fiddle and accordion band can be heard. The chairs have all been cleared away and a hundred or so youngsters are perfecting their dancing techniques for Burns Night. Although it's barely eight am they are having a whale of a time. Their laughter is infectious and we find ourselves chuckling as we head back to the car.  A day that starts with dancing is by definition a 'good' day.

This is the weather for staying at home and catching up with 'paperwork'.  On the radio the Chair of the Danish Parliaments Foreign Affairs Committee says his country has been treated with 'contempt' and that the claims on Greenland are ' majestic in their apocalypticism'. That's not a word you hear every day and is pretty strong language for an undemonstrative Scandi. We're left wondering what has practically been gained by all the recent drum beating.

This is the song the students are dancing to.  You can perhaps understand why anyone who hears it chuckles. This clip also gives a pretty good feel for what the village celebrations will be like :https://youtu.be/KPERf-9shf0?list=RDKPERf-9shf0&t=123

That state to the North of Texas is almost 100% :https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/a-very-detailed-map-of-trumps-job-approval

One of the best economists around writes this rather unusual report from Davos where he was a speaker and shared a platform with Howard Lutnick. The comments ( or at least some of them ) are also quite insightful :https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-250-after-the-thugs

1 million doughnuts

Wednesday morning and the girls hockey team  are out on the beach. There must be thirty of them. They move across the sand at a speed that older locals can only marvel at. The number of returning students is growing by the day.  Finding a 'free' parking spot is now impossible but the pay by the hour spaces are still under utilized. Students tend to avoid them. The mountains of beer cans in the rugby lads front windows grow at a rate that reflects their dedication to pre-semester partying. In the village hall  preparations for Burns Night continue apace. Tartan crepe paper is being stapled to the proscenium arch for a suitably 'Celtic' atmosphere.

The cashmere shop is setting up its new season display. The owner stops to tell us that a surprising number of foreign  visitors like to have matching outfits made. 

The first sermon of the new semester and the chaplain has opted for a Rabbie Burns theme.

Down by the golf course the person(s) who put out the memorial bouquets has been busy.

Yesterday, 'The Font' went to a lecture by a 5th generation member of the family that started the bakery in 1919. Highlights of the talk included :

• In 2025 demand for fudge doughnuts passed the 1 million mark for the first time.
• They have two foreign products - baguettes made with French flour and Coffee Towers. The Coffee Towers are what the French would call Religieuse and were copied by a great aunt who discovered them on a family holiday to France in the 1950's.
• Until recently they had no need for an HR department. Employment, often for life, was based on a handshake. Health regulations surrounding Covid changed that and everything became more contractual in 2020.

Another of those questions I'd never thought of asking :https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/hand-dryers-more-bacteria-rep/

This cow is both clever and photogenic :https://www.livescience.com/animals/land-mammals/ever-seen-a-pet-cow-pick-up-a-broom-and-scratch-herself-with-it-you-have-now

More about that place :https://www.militarytimes.com/opinion/commentary/2026/01/14/us-military-has-a-long-history-in-greenland-from-wwii-to-cold-war/

I haven't thought of this poem in 50 years but this morning the first stanza seems to have been written for today :https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming

Our local Professor of International Relations continues to be alarmed :https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/people-are-still-not-getting-trump

What a cake.

It's one of those unmistakably Scottish winter mornings. The cobbled streets glistening with last nights rain. Bobble hats are much in evidence.  As we head off to Starbucks we see that some of the municipal Christmas lights have been disconnected. Others haven't. Two strings of them shine happily away in the distance. I guess this makes it a quasi-festive time of the year. A small group of  supermarket staff in tee shirts brave the cold and rush out to set up a line of traffic cones by their front door. Cones laid out they rush back into the warmth. The lorry from the warehouse is due any minute.

A little later, by the time we're caffeined up, the sky has brightened. There's three extra minutes of light every day now.  We marvel at the fulmars on the cliffs by the Catholic church who seem quite happy nesting on a rock ledge six inches deep. 

The baker has bowed to the gravitational pull of Burns Night and has a suitably seasonal display in his front window. The all purpose biscuits reappear.

The shop by the ice cream parlour has also got into the spirit of things and opted to welcome Burns Night with a collection of Scottish fudge. The 'Oor Wullie' bucket o'fudge will confuse bemuse English visitors.

Angus returns to buy one of the bakers Burns Night cakes in the shape of the bards home. " It's just angel cake with a coffee roof but it's good " says the lady behind the counter. 'The Font' mutters something about someone having the taste buds of a six year old. This jibe is ignored although by way of redemptive explanation I point out how important it is to support local businesses in the off season. I'm looking forward to seeing what the chimney stacks are made of. The green icing is an artistic touch that in these parts might pass for sophistication.

Video of the week :https://x.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/2012796305366548684

Shrimp as pets :https://x.com/mrjeffu/status/2012897688334082075

Unusual things in space :https://interestingengineering.com/science/iron-cloud-in-ring-nebula

'Give them enough rope ' :https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/who-built-ussr

" Something has snapped ".

Yesterday afternoon had a mix of heavy rain, fog and low cloud. This is an unlikely meteorological mix akin to being wrapped in a cold grey blanket of murk. This morning the weather is altogether more welcoming. 

The same can't be said about the news.  " Something has snapped " says the BBC breakfast broadcast reporting on the letter to the Norwegian Prime Minister that is read out word for word on air. I don't know about you but although it's only January 19th  it feels as though we've already had enough news to keep us occupied for the rest of the year.

The crows ( or more correctly rooks ) are still using the fields around the wee house as their winter nesting spot. The birds have got used to our presence and most  have determined that we're not a threat.  A few flutter, irritatedly, skywards as we approach but the majority continue to feed amid the stubble in the barley field.

The pizza restaurant facing the butcher has closed down for all of January. A pile of Christmas decorations in the window hint at a sudden " I'll take care of it when we get back "closing of the door and turning of the lock.

The cathedral is open again but the old gravestones have been cordoned off by some zealous health and safety official. Seems the recent frosts have caused ground heave which has led to some of them falling over. An ancient by-law ( of which St Andrews seems to have many )  means that relatives must be contacted before remedial work to straighten them can take place. As many of the tombstones are well over 200 years old this is unlikely to be an easy  task. The groundsman also tells us that they've also discovered mould in the cathedral shop. Unsure how to respond we commiserate. 

At the spot where the shrine of St.Andrew once stood we stop to enjoy the sunshine. No one seems to know what happened to the Saints relics after the cathedral was ransacked by a religious mob in June 1559. The cardinal at the time must have sensed that trouble was afoot and might have packed them off to Rome or Paris ahead of time. If so no one has ever admitted seeing them again. The same groundsman who told us about the mould in the shop tells us the Catholic cathedral in Edinburgh was gifted part of the saints skull by a Pope in the 1990's. We are left to ponder how quickly the sureties of an age can change. 

The student sports teams are back for 'training' week. One of the neighbouring houses in town  is let out to eight lads in the rugby first XV.  They are a 'lively' bunch but thankfully the house is far enough away for us ( or the Texan tenants ) not to hear them. This morning as we pass we see an Everest of beer cans piled high in their front window. A sure sign of their new semester priorities. We watch the youngsters heading off to the sports centre. They run down the centre of the road kicking a rugby ball and laughing as they go. They are oblivious to the fact that this is a main road. Classes start again on the 26th which allows them a week to further refine their beer drinking skills.

A blast from the past that ( we're told ) is exceedingly well made. Perhaps the fact he was dying from cancer and didn't tell the film makers somehow elevates and enhances the story ? :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVx74C-RGDw

Not all Spanish is the same :https://x.com/hispanicnomad/status/2012495753122361697

The sins of the fathers :https://www.france24.com/en/environment/20250607-searching-radioactive-waste-depths-atlantic-france-nuclear

Did you read this ? :https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/01/16/civil-war-university-of-austin-bari-weiss-00729688  I didn't know it was so small.  Can there really be only 100 students ? 'The Font' receives this from the young mother who headed back to Austin for her husbands work. I found it interesting in an unexciting  university administrator sort of way :https://arnoldkling.substack.com/p/corporate-soap-opera-at-uatx

Scottish television is aimed at a local audience with a low stress threshold. It is a sure antidote for the daily news programmes. Many years ago I used to take one of these ferries to the mainland ... and school. Nothing has changed :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxg04MsWmmM

Horses and misjudged projections.

Scotland isn't an exotic place but the sunrise and sunsets here rank alongside the best of them.

As we're heading down the beach two of the ladies from the local stables arrive.

Most mornings they spend a full, happy hour promenading from one end of the beach to the other and then back. The water, they say, works miracles on tired legs and hooves.

Back in the village the burn is fit to burst after the recent rains. There's still no sign of the snow drops that usually carpet the banks. Give it a bit longer and the primroses will be out.

I pop into the book store to pick up a recent history of Uganda. Recent events with the attempted arrest of Bobi Wine by Musevenis police make me feel as though I should know more about what's going on there. An American professor of Social Anthropology informs me, with doubtful precision, that only 3% of the US population are aware that Greenland is not as big as it appears on a Mercator map :https://thetruesize.com/ . 

On the counter by the front door a book with the title ' Tails of Scotland - The story of Scottish dogs '.  Two Skye Terriers peer back at me from the front cover. Inside there's a photo of a trio of Dandy Dinmonts hurtling along a loch side in top gear. What better reason can there be for the sudden decision to buy a book than a photo of Dandy Dinmonts ?

Sunday links :

Bye bye California. Shifting populations :https://bluebookmke.substack.com/p/where-americans-choose-to-move-and

Chinese food. Another of those questions I'd never thought of asking :https://substack.com/home/post/p-184397627

Some reflective prose :https://substack.com/home/post/p-184439590

A new opening and already the 'in' place in Marrakesh. Love the goats in the lobby :https://jnanerumi.com/

What a hairstyle. Reminder that trade agreements take a long time to draft and be approved :https://x.com/Valen10Francois/status/2010017960598102520

A C-A-T watercolourist :https://substack.com/@alicestevenson

Whoever knew Kentucky has its own version of Welsh Rarebit ? :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Brown

Cancelled flights and comfortable trains.

We learn from the morning radio bulletin that the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson,  has arrived in London . To kick of the American quarter millennium celebrations he will be giving an address to parliament. He'll be the first ever Speaker to do so. Getting here was tough. His government plane from Andrews had a technical problem and there was no back-up. This meant a quick dash across Washington to Dulles where he got a seat with United in premium economy. 'The Font' rather cynically wonders if the airlines management didn't ( wisely ) give him and his entourage an upgrade to something more comfortable. You'd rather think someone so important heading off on government business might have had access to something better.

Back here in Scotland life is calm. The light in the bathroom in the fancy hotel is annoyingly dim. It's weak enough to make shaving difficult. The hotel could do with putting in more powerful light bulbs.  Perhaps this is why the potted plant on a stand in the corner looks so light starved and unwell. Neither of us can ever remember staying in a hotel which had a potted plant in the bathroom before.

The National Portrait Gallery is a good place to go for a coffee . Although we're there just after opening it has already filled up. A non-consequential percentage of the Spanish population always seem to be visiting Scotland and they all seem to be here for a start of day caffeine boost.

The cafe is full but the gallery itself is empty. We stop to envy the lights in the entry hall.

Deserted corridors provide a chance to get up close to the frescoes that cover the walls. This is a portion of the wall showing a gory interpretation of the battle of Bannockburn. The blood on the bandage around the mans head and on the womans apron stop it looking sterile and  'cartoonish'. All the battles have the common denominator of being fought against the English.

If ever you're in Edinburgh the gallery library is a good place to stop and rest your feet.

The train home runs on time and is both clean and empty. It's one of the ancient 125's that have been rerouted onto the Aberdeen line. In modern trains the seats are much closer together.

Something I wouldn't like to fly through :https://physicstoday.aip.org/quick-study/megaflashes-the-worlds-longest-lightning-discharges

Generational differences :https://x.com/avidcommentator/status/2011614079027392907?s=46

George Washingtons classical allusions :https://classicaled.substack.com/p/stoke-the-fire-for-americas-250th

Not sure what this all means but I get the message that AI is on fire :https://x.com/kimmonismus/status/2011824816966295879?s=61

The gallery has an exhibition of photos taken by Alfred Buckham - a Scottish pilot in the 20's and early 30's. This one of the newly completed Empire State Building standing on its own shows just how much the town has changed

On the radar by Easter ?

First Greenland then Iceland :https://www.politico.eu/article/iceland-us-ambassador-billy-long-donald-trump-52nd-state/ . At this rate of northerly expansion it will  soon be Scotlands turn. Who knows ? By Easter we could be humming  Yankee Doodle and driving on the right.

Down to Edinburgh on the train to see the eye surgeon for the thrice yearly check-up. He's on time and in a jocular mood. Angus wonders why surgeons - or at least the ones he meets - all wear those padded sleeveless gilets ? Does wearing one signal they're too senior to wear a suit ? This morning the eye man is wearing a padded example of the genre in a memorable shade of red with a small 'logo' on the left hand side. After peering into my eyes and having read the eye chart aloud twice to his satisfaction we agree to meet again in four months. I then head off to join 'The Font' at the Society of Scottish Artists exhibition .

The exhibition is showing works by their young graduates. Much of the art is a little too modern for our staid tastes but a few are cleverly executed. This one looks as though someone has shattered the glass.

We decide that the discipline of Dry January should be forgotten for a night . Sobriety will resume again tomorrow. There's a new wine bar on Thistle Street. It has a good ( and reasonably priced ) selection, the service is efficient , you can hear yourself speak ( a factor that seems to become ever more attractive with each passing year ) and it is heated so that it is enticingly ( but not overpoweringly ) warm. It is also straight across the road from the fish restaurant which has become our default dinner venue.

Edinburgh without the crowds is looking at its best. Off season pricing means we try a hotel that is usually priced on the wrong side of  'exorbitant'. The rooms are on sale at a huge January discount. I'd reckon it's barely a third full. 

We find a roof top bar for a night cap. It has a view over St. Andrew Square. 'The Font' thinks the decor is louche in a 1950's Fellini's Rome type of way. It's the sort of decor that appeals to the 1%. A lampshade tilting at an annoyingly jaunty angle is surreptitiously straightened. I wonder if this behaviour  is OCDish but am told it isn't.  We are the only customers. 'The Font' asks for something exotic and gets a drink that the barman calls a 'Last Word'. This is made with green Chartreuse and a variety of other ingredients that are difficult to place. Oddly, for Scotland in the winter, the glass is brimming over with ice.

This morning after buying some fresh pasta from Valvona's we shall head fifty minutes back north on the train.

French embassy humour. Clip of the day :https://x.com/franceintheus/status/2011834406475088202

They survive in the Highlands but I've never seen one. A cousin in Killin claims to catch a glimpse of them at least once a month:https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260112-rare-images-of-europes-ghost-cat

Groceries in New York are expensive for unusual reasons :https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/nyc-grocery-cost-explained

Raise this topic at a dinner party and then stand well back :https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/why-are-intelligent-people-more-liberal

Moscow changes the syllabus :https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/01/13/russia-plans-new-economics-textbook-reviving-stalin-era-ideas-a91666

" How will the miracle happen today ?" .This writer remains positive amid the noise :https://kevinkelly.substack.com/p/how-will-the-miracle-happen-today

5% of the population heading to America ?

Snow on the hills on the far side of the bay. Here it's three degrees and what might ( in these latitudes ) pass for warm.

We're joined on our morning walk by the two Jack Russells. One of them has found an old potato. She's keen to have us spend the rest of our day throwing it for her.

The farmers eldest son is busy on the fork lift hoisting the last of the hay bales into the barn. There was a time when hay was cheap. Now it's shot up in price and is a useful additional source of income for the farm. The lad starts the new semester in Edinburgh in ten days time and he's busy working to keep in his fathers good books ahead of the trip to the World Cup. The travel agent has told him that 250,000 Scots will be heading off to the US this summer. That's 5% of the population which , at both first and second sight, seems high. All flights to Orlando are booked solid so it's probable that wives and children will be deposited there while husbands head off to follow the team. We're also told that the local postman had saved up £25,000 for a new kitchen but has convinced his girlfriend that they should use the money to go to the US for a dream holiday. She's interpreted this as a sign that he's going to propose. I'm guessing their respective views on what makes the perfect 'dream' holiday aren't perfectly aligned.

Three large anti-submarine warfare aircraft fly low overhead . They're off towards  the busy shipping lanes . A little reminder that not everywhere is as quiet and calm as our small corner of the world.

I didn't know about this :https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/time-when-new-york-city-seriously-considered-seceding-from-united-states-180987838/

Another of those studies :https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/health-and-human-nature/202601/the-truth-behind-red-wines-effect-on-health

Peak quiet.

Iran leads dominates the morning news bulletin. Jeanine Piro, a woman completely unknown to the British public two days ago, is mentioned in one, brief, segment.

The farmers wife stops by to thank us for the wine that's going into the Burns Night raffle. We let slip that we're going to the university Burns Night event before coming back to join the dancing in the village. " If you must " she says. At the university event black ties are worn with the kilt. Out here in the village the dress sense is altogether less formal and the music more 'spirited'. I shall take along a bottle of Macallan to soothe any local egos that think we're 'standoffish'. 

There is a 1970's era student dorm of  singular ugliness down by the ruins of the old cathedral. This morning one of those small retro Japanese cars of the type much beloved by a certain type of female student is parked in the dorm parking lot. Another sign that 'they' are drifting back into town. By the weekend I'd expect the trickle of returnees to turn into a rush. 

Many of the shops have closed for two weeks. Others are open but are empty of people browsing. Shop assistants look extremely bored.

Down by the golf club we find ourselves completely alone. This really is peak quiet. On the beach we stop to greet the owner of Archie the arthritic labrador. His sister is enjoying a morning walk but he's opted to stay at home dozing on his bed in front of the AGA. " Maybe he'll come out when it gets warmer " we're told in a tone of voice that says it all. 

Ambling along in the sunrise we note that the top of many of the buildings are  decorated with some rather fine carving.

One guys take on what's going on in the Middle East and what regional players want in Iran :https://critiqueanddigest.substack.com/p/the-saudi-pivot

A sad Presidential story :https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/saddest-stories-history-presidency

The 'other' Ireland :https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/protestant-magic-today

Something sensible on Iran :https://carnegieendowment.org/emissary/2026/01/irans-protests-pattern-trump-regime?lang=en

The Greek ship and work on the golf course.

Overnight a small Greek registered cargo ship has been sheltering in the bay. As we head off on our morning walk it's heading at full speed back out to sea. You don't usually see ships moving so quickly in these rocky inshore waters. Perhaps the crew have overslept ?

Town remains gloriously quiet. Finding a parking space remains easy. Today, after a week of rain, it is sunny. What a difference it makes when you can see blue sky.

One of the ceramic shaggy dogs remains unsold in the art gallery window.

This is a sign that shouts out to visitors  ' You're in St.Andrews '. 

The Links Committee are doing work on the sacred turf. New bunkers are being built.

Closer examination shows them to have walls made of thickly packed layers of turf. This is the way the Antonine Wall was built. The better part of 2,000 years on and the same skills are being used. There is something quietly beautiful about them. They also look treacherously difficult far any player who makes the mistake of landing in one.

Puffins. I'll wager this will be the most viewed link ever :https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2026/01/11/readers-wildlife-photos-2522/

Useful :https://hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com/p/how-to-tell-if-something-is-ai-written

What will they think of next ?:https://connectsci.au/news/news-parent/7627/These-pills-can-communicate-from-inside-the?searchresult=1

Warming oceans :https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/the-oceans-just-keep-getting-hotter/