A good turnout.

The bird scarer doesn't start until four thirty this morning. Almost a full hour later than yesterday. This might still be too early for the villages young fathers who had gathered in the village hall to watch the first matches of the World Cup and sink a few beers. The New Zealand mans television projector was deemed to be a great success although the wind blowing through the corrugated iron roof caused the large sheet that acts as a screen to sway. The effect on the viewer was said to be not unlike being on a small boat in a brisk breeze. The local farmer says there was a good turnout but reckons a quarter of the village population are away on vacation.

This morning we walk past the pier and up the hill to the ruins of the cathedral. It's bright but decidedly nippy. There's been an abandoned bike left lying on the shoreline for the last month. Perhaps someone will come and pick it up before it rusts away in the salt air ? The BBC have sensibly focused on football this morning and limit their comments on the Middle East to the 'whiplash' nature of the negotiations. Everyone seems to agree that the resignation of not one but two Defence Ministers will be the final nail in the British Prime Ministers coffin.

The town fountain looks as if it might, finally, be getting ready to be turned on. The workmen have been restoring it for the better part of a year and now the top tier is being gently put in place. The fountain hasn't worked in decades. In fact I'm not sure it worked properly when we were here fifty years ago but we think it will transform this busy corner of the shopping street.

'Fifteens' for sale in the farm shop. They certainly aren't a Scottish thing. The young woman behind the counter thinks they might be an Ulster delicacy. I buy two and shall report on them tomorrow. They don't look like the sort of thing you'd want to eat for breakfast but I might be wrong.

The local fishermen were out at first light and are already safely moored back in the harbour with their daily catch of lobster and langoustines for the pricey golf restaurants. Someone has bought the penthouse in the 1960's era apartment block that overlooks the outer basin. They are having a major revamp to take out the original metal farmed windows and install modern ones that are robust enough to keep out the North Sea gales. 

Tattie Soup todays special at the harbour cafe. 

Once again, as you might be able to tell, life here remains quiet as only life in a small northerly university town out of term time can be.

The secret of avocados :https://sftw.substack.com/p/how-avocados-stopped-being-seasonal

Chile v Argentina :https://marcusnunes.substack.com/p/the-chilean-mirror-what-argentina

And so it begins :https://youtu.be/gHT_fl6EYBs

The Pope weights in on the World Cup :https://x.com/Pontifex/status/2064739688104001872

2027 on the horizon :https://www.theopen.com/st-andrews-2027