Fun times.

July. We're into the second half of the year. I won't ask where the times gone but you have to wonder how it can move by so quickly.

There are two graduation ceremonies every day this week. The first is at ten thirty in the morning the second at two thirty in the afternoon. From breakfast time onwards excited mothers can be found posing outside chapel with their offspring. That unmistakable ' this is for the family album ' smile is much in evidence. Younger siblings dragged off from city and friends for this family event stand around looking extremely bored.  The Turkish barbers open early and are super busy. Those who forgot to book a short back and sides for the great day beg plaintively for a haircut. Prices are adjusted accordingly. All of the world suddenly and briefly appears in this small Presbyterian town. Dourness gives way to broad smiles. This morning a group of fifty or so unsuspecting Hungarian teenagers on a school tour get out of their bus and are surprised to find themselves in this maelstrom of activity. They look bemused. What must they make of it ?

By eight in the morning, photos taken, parents and offspring are left wondering what to do for the next two hours before the first ceremony starts. Starbucks becomes a zoo. The cafe by the old Post Office a throng of mothers in hats bought for the great event. The 'trendy' place by the cinema besieged. Fathers worry about the two hour parking limit. Traffic wardens circle looking for easy pickings.

Flower stalls have sprung up to cater for the big day. A large one has appeared on the street outside the supermarket . It's soon stripped almost bare. Bouquet giving has become a serious business.

The florist we go to for our Christmas wreath has a table of blooms waiting for collection. At this time of the year they can easily sell 200 a day. Local peonies are a big thing . In previous years bouquets were a female only gift. This year the boys are also getting them.

After each ceremony the  bells peel and the new graduates are piped down the street to the chapel. Here they are greeted by family and friends. Family tend to be decorous in their greeting. Friends less so - some much less so. Large lunged members of the rugby club greet each other with raucous delight. Yesterday we saw more fathers weeping with joy than mothers. Scots men are thought to be unemotional but there are occasions when this isn't true. A number of American fathers also seem to have been overwhelmed by the happiness in the air. In large cities this would go unnoticed. In a small town like this it doesn't. The organizers ensure that each ceremony is small and formal enough to make it feel 'special'. I'd like to be critical but it would seem that they get the tone just right. At five champagne corks 'pop' and the Principal in her John Knox outfit circulates and shakes everyones hand.

This weeks reading started with Regime Change. Once picked up I ( almost ) couldn't put it down. 'The Font' also finds it spell binding. I'd thought the most stupid bizarre political move this century was the Brits with Brexit. Having read this I'm coming to the view that I might be wrong on that score. On balance the authors manage to write with a disciplined and dispassionate neutrality. At no time are they disobliging towards any of the figures who appear in their book.

This book on China was excellent and managed to find the balance between historic complexity and easy reading. This is no small literary task.

Earlier today I picked up a copy of J D Vance's Communion from the bookstore. They had ordered one copy which had been put on the 'Religion' sections shelves. The bookstore employee shares a dry joke about being unsure whether to look for it under politics, self help or religion. ' Lucky I tried religion first' he says. I laugh politely.

Tipping culture in Canada is very surprising to Europeans :https://canadianreturnee.substack.com/p/what-canada-could-learn-from-abroad

No more land lines in Finland :https://yle.fi/a/74-20233910

Flying in Bangladesh :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzF5DmnXhC0

Oh dear :https://www.edwest.co.uk/p/the-triumph-of-brand-scotland

Oh dear #2. Definitely not a link for the farmers wife  :https://nypost.com/2026/06/19/us-news/boston-gals-predict-baby-boom-in-9-months-after-partying-with-charming-scots-during-world-cup/