To Edinburgh... and back.

Wednesday morning. The gardeners announce they'll be working through until eight at night to catch up with their schedule. Stone cutting and sand blasting are planned. This is our cue to change our plans and head down into Edinburgh for dinner before an appointment with the eye man on Thursday morning. We try the train but there's been a breakdown on the line south from Stonehaven so we head back over the footbridge to the station car park and continue on in the Volvo.

Edinburgh has already had more than double its average April rainfall in the first week of the month. Amazingly for our overnight visit the weather is not only dry but warm. A quick search throws up a hotel on St Andrews Square. This proves to be as good as our last experience with the new 'W' was bad.

The first of the tourists arriving. Our Edinburgh early morning coffee stop already full with students and Scotland savvy Californian retirees. Seems there are a surprising number of folks who spend six months in the US and then head to their pied a terre here for the rest of the year . We head to Starbucks across the street. It is completely empty.

The squares in town looking very springlike.

In the evening a chance to stop off for a pre-dinner drink. 'The Font' orders a Negroni and receives a Negroni on steroids. It is exchanged for a Campari and Soda.

Our usual safe bolt hole closed on a Wednesday night.

A new favourite presents itself. They're fully booked but as we stand at the front desk a man phones to cancel. A window table magically becomes available. The food is good and the service excellent. The price half of what you'd pay in London.

After an ' I'll see you again in four months ' visit with the surgeon ( Whatever happened to eye doctors ? Angus discovers that these days there are front of eye, mid-eye and back of eye specialists ) we head back to the airport. We've parked the car there in the belief that finding anywhere in the middle of town would be impossible. Angus has managed to find a spot in the short term parking area.  The first 24 hours cost an eyewatering £60. We arrive 9 minutes over the 24 hour mark and get charged another £60. I'll not do that again.

Souvenirs

 

Yesterday started off sunny before quickly turning to heavy, incessant rain. Even our diligent gardeners had to finally call it quits. The team hope to make up lost time today. They manage to get most of the sandstone paths laid but the rain stops them from  grouting the slabs into place. 'Puppy' and her sister sit contentedly in the middle of the lawn and observe developments.

Last night, in a break in the clouds, we see a large cruise liner heading slowly north across the mouth of the bay. It's one of those huge, top heavy, ships the size of a skyscraper. From here it looks like a mountain of light. The brief round Britain cruise season has started. Last year the sea was as calm as a mill pond. The same can't be said this year. 

A fresh batch of caramel buns in the bakers window. Revision week is the time of year when they literally fly out of the door.

Archie , the arthritic labrador, is enjoying his morning walk. Younger dogs rush around him but Archie ignores them and walks in a straight, unhurried line. Slow and dignified never fails. 

Vapour trails overhead a sign that the trans-Atlantic flights are being rerouted over eastern Iceland and Scotland to avoid  the huge area of turbulence over the Atlantic that's been dislocating travel for the last week.

The harbour filling up with boat owners and their vessels. So far only the brave ... or the foolhardy .... have ventured out into the North Sea.

The souvenir shops getting ready for the summer influx of day trippers. Some truly bizarre 'medieval' beakers complete a tableau of shot glasses, Scotland snow globes and dancing 'Mr.Beans'. 

All of these memories of Scotland are presumably made in Chengdu or Bangalore rather than Glasgow or Ecclefechan. A green Loch Ness monster in a tartan bonnet has the redeeming grace of being cheerful.

The kilt maker next to the Italian coffee shop has a 'purple' creation. It would work well as camouflage wear in the heather.

What's in the water ? :https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/how-deep-does-life-go/

China :https://www.salon.com/2024/04/08/ancient-chinese-climate-change-whispers-a-warning-to-the-worlds-green-energy-leader/

Gaps in their knowledge.

 

The town settling into its tried and tested routines. Two weeks of revision time before exams start. Some students lock themselves in the library for the duration. Others foreswear alcohol or 'dating'. A few deal with exam time stress by having a  pre-breakfast game of football on the lawn. Being students the football players  ignore ( or are oblivious to ) the netting that has been put up to keep them off the newly seeded grass.

This morning we count a dozen or so brave souls heading down the steps that lead to the shore. Hardy youngsters opting for a short sharp dip in the sea as a  sure fire way to shock their systems into overdrive. Two cheerful lads take the 'dive in at the deep end' approach. Their screams can be heard half a mile away. 

Outside the cathedral a group of forty or so have gathered and are blocking the pavement . Early arriving foreign tourists peer at them. The students peer back. Some of the boys are wearing black tie. Perhaps its a ceremony to mark the execution of one of the towns many martyrs ? The tourists are more than happy to see this colourful display. They probably go away thinking this is how students here always dress.

By the time we set off home the parking spots are filling up. University staff coming in to provide last minute help to those with 'gaps in their knowledge'. Being a small place St Andrews ranks #1 in surveys for student satisfaction and support. This annoys larger and better known English institutions no end.

The local fisherman busy making more lobster creels. The arrival of the big spending golfers means the demand for fresh seafood  is skyrocketing. The fisherman spent the last two days out in the deep waters and hopes to go out again today - if the weather holds. 

The gardeners continue to amaze us with their hard work. Twenty shrubs went in yesterday, stone borders were laid and the first of the sandstone paving slabs put  in place. Today they will start turfing the lawns.

So starts a quiet Tuesday morning in April with the Scottish weather proving to be highly 'changeable'.

This seems important:https://gizmodo.com/fusion-reactor-princeton-muse-experiment-magnets-plasma-1851387646

Dogs :https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/05/dogs-prozac-fluoxetine-rising-use-reflects-owner-anxiety/

Strange eclipse fact :https://twitter.com/Jac5Connor/status/1777410289300033672

Joshing

 

The weather forecast has been warning of Rainmaggedon but the day starts bright and warm. In the Quad two Westies observe that some rubbish has blown out of a bin. They take their heavily tartaned owner across to investigate.

By chapel a group of revelers are noisily winding down after a night of excess. For some reason they're singing ' With a little bit of luck' from My Fair Lady.  From their age - and the song -  I'm guessing they're a group of students who have just learnt that they've been accepted into post-grad courses. The traffic cone worn as a hat is a rite of passage that signals much amber nectar has been consumed. 'The Font' observes that they seem to be having fun 'joshing'. This is a word that seems strangely Edwardian .

Outside the International Relations Department a group of students in gowns. They look as if they're going to be spending the day escorting applicants around. 

Down on the beach a dog owner is trying to teach his young dog basic commands. The puppy has almost got 'sit' down pat but then some oystercatchers hove into view. Why sit when you can chase ?

Back at 'The last wee house before Denmark' an oil service boat has moored in the bay. On the horizon two more can be seen steaming towards us. This is a pretty sure sign that strong winds are expected. Overnight two friends came in on BA282 from Los Angeles. The flight was as smooth as anything until UK airspace when it suddenly wasn't.

The gardeners are due any minute. We're fast moving towards that time of the year when constant darkness is replaced by constant daylight. 

Every evening, prior to dinner, we open a bottle of wine and sit and watch an hours television. There was a time when we'd watch the news. Now it's the latest offering from Netflix or Amazon. We give up on 'The Man from Moscow' and start on 'Ripley'. Andrew Scott  is too old for the part ( although he does ooze dialed back  malevolence ) but the black and white photography is lushly masterful. We shall stick with it.

The most difficult place, apparently,  in France to get a table reservation. They claim to have more cheeses than any other restaurant in the world :https://www.lesgrandsbuffets.com/en/gallery/pics

In 'difficult' times old alliances are rediscovered  . Friends who share your values  are always good things to have :https://www.bfmtv.com/politique/la-france-et-le-royaume-uni-organisent-une-releve-croisee-de-leur-garde_VN-202404070056.html

They knew how to do state visits sixty years ago. A young Eisenhower appears at the 1:28 mark :https://twitter.com/Gaullisme_Fr/status/1776357846730371315

Revision week

 

The four landscape gardeners are  amazingly hard workers. They stay until nightfall and do in a day the work that I thought would take at least a week. Three more days of step building and shrub planting are scheduled with the work due to finish on Wednesday evening - that's a full week less than estimated. They have carefully  sourced local sandstone to match the old stone walls that run round the garden. The plants will come from a Scottish nursery so they'll ( hopefully ) withstand the wind. Imported plants from the Netherlands are cheaper but  tend to give up the ghost when they come face to face with their first root wrenching Scottish gales.

Puppy and her sister show up to see what's going on . They are delighted to have found new friends. They leap in and out of wheelbarrows and look beguilingly at the gardeners in the hope of biscuits. Both are eventually picked up and carried, one under each arm, back to the farmhouse. This is repeated  three times until I go round and tell the farmers wife to come and collect them. 'Are they being a nuisance ?' she asks. " The builders are finding they're getting under their feet " comes my diplomatic reply.

Down on the beach nervous parents stand watching their pre-teens having a sand yacht race. At this early hour mothers are much in evidence; fathers less so.

By the harbour a group of students debate whether they should go for a start of day dip in the North Sea. One 'wild thing' strips down to her underwear and rushes into the water. She re-emerges to find none of her friends have followed her in. How we'd love to be able to hear the ensuing conversation. Revision fortnight starts on Monday. Two weeks of cramming before the exams start on the 22nd. Frightening to think that by this time next month the youngsters will be heading home for the summer.

This morning two  gentlemen from a German television station are out and about asking passers by for their views on 'Duchess Kate'. Scottish diffidence and the early hour  combine to make theirs a thankless task. One German gentleman has a wee 'bob' of hair sticking out at 90 degrees from the top of his head. His colleague has a very Teutonic camera mount with all sorts of highly technical looking gimbles.

At the Italian coffee shop  we stand outside and observe the ankle inundating  puddles caused by the overnight rain. There is a Thomas Tallis concert in the church at five o'clock this afternoon which we plan to attend.

The eclipse:https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-ancient-art-of-eclipse-prediction-became-an-exact-science-20240405/

Only in Italy :https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2024/04/04/italy-Alicudi-island-free-goats/1721712250711/

Washington bell ringing. Is this an American thing ? The bishop seems very happy :https://youtu.be/mS9RQxFle1g?t=4670

The return of the moustache

To our surprise the landscape gardener phones to say he's going to start work this morning. Although unexpected this is one of those 'good' surprises. After six months of unrelenting rain I'd expected him to come up with an excuse to delay. The landscape gardener is extremely serious and extremely taciturn ( can you be clinically taciturn?) so any form of communication is welcome.

'The Man from Moscow' showing on Amazon Prime. Ewan McGregor tries to bring some gravitas to the role but there's something slightly too breezy about his performance. I'm not sure whether it's supposed to be a comedy or a tragedy. The moustache he grew for the part is a thing of wonder. Over the last couple of weeks I've noticed that pencil moustaches are becoming a thing among some of the students. 

The Lindt chocolate bunny has been granted a stay of execution by our trip to London. It's luck is about to run out.

The postman stops his van for a 'wee blether' and tells me that everyone is complaining about the rain. ' Even the old timers are saying they've nae seen anything like it '. The postman is heading off to Dominica for two weeks with his girlfriend. He's shopped around and found that the same holiday is 45% cheaper if they fly from Manchester rather than Glasgow.  He adds that his girlfriend is happy to drive them down to Manchester. This might be my cue to say driving to Manchester would be a Postmans holiday but some things are best left unsaid.

A break in the clouds lets us get down onto the beach for our start of day walk. It goes without saying that the weather forecast expects there to be solid rain by mid-morning. The weekly forecast also features rain .... and lots of it.

Work on the Royal and Ancient Clubhouse is now finished. Some gardeners are busy planting heathers in the new flowerbeds and some workmen are putting up fencing. Now the outside is pretty much finished I expect they'll start work on the inside. The new portico has been well done. It's barely noticeable although the stone work looks freshly quarried and unweathered.

Four golfers and a caddy are waiting to be the first outbound foursome of the day. They seem oblivious to the cloud building up to the north.

Morning radio music :https://youtu.be/J0ld-w1BvFY?t=279

Sending  a letter. Warning to any Harvard grads out there - be prepared to be shocked :https://youtu.be/CyytCU9_T6Q?t=640

300 years ago :https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the-passion-of-bach/

Latin or Scot ?

 

Downsizing brings with it new challenges. Wallpapers that work in a large old house in France might be too much in a small house a fifth the size. The wallpaper man comes up with three possibilities. 

Our favourite is designed for walls 11 feet high. There is a distinct 'top' and 'bottom' end to each roll.  Cutting the pattern to go up the angle of the stairs might tax the skill set of the local decorator. This reduces the possibilities down to one.

The gardens in the West End bursting into bloom. We might have missed the cherry blossom in Tokyo but we've found it here.

Angus views a Calder mobile for his desk.

There is no stewardess on the flight home. Instead, the safety demonstrations and cabin checks are done by an exceedingly tall trainee pilot. He has been seconded to one of those ' You need to do every job in the airline ' roles. Having done a week on the ticket desk and a week with ground handling he is now on passenger and safety  'interface'. The young man takes his job very seriously. Woe betide any passenger that doesn't have their seat belt securely fastened. The plane seats 45 and today there are 19 passengers. The trainee pilot sees a very pretty girl boarding and suggests she move up to the front row.  ' It's like an upgrade to first ' he informs her with as much gravity as a trainee pilot wearing a red tartan waistcoat can muster. The rest of the passengers are served drinks and Tunnocks caramel wafers with Presbyterian sternness. By contrast the young lady gets personal attention. This involves small talk, a smile and a bag of Cheesy Whotsits. ' The Font' observes that Latin males having nothing on the courting style of the young Scot. What girl could resist the charms of a front row seat, Orcadian small talk and a bag of Cheesy Whotsits ?

Dust :https://theconversation.com/why-we-need-to-rethink-what-we-know-about-dust-222536

Physics :https://bigthink.com/hard-science/19th-century-physics-kelvin/

A kettle :https://shop.japanhouselondon.uk/shop/stainless-steel-coffee-drip-kettle-itteki/

Dry ... or at least dryish.

 

London remained dry .... or at least  dryish ..... during our stay.

The Post Office Tower - that super thin and super tall symbol of 1960's England - has been sold off to a developer and is to be converted into a luxury hotel. A more impractical building for a hotel would be hard to imagine. Circular buildings rarely if ever have the ideal floor plan for hotel use. Lots of window area ( good ) with the bed and bathroom squeezed in at the dark, tapered end ( bad and very bad ). Perhaps, now the military has taken down the microwave dishes, the rotating restaurant on the top will re-open ? As a nine year old Angus remembers the disappointment of discovering that the restaurant rotated so slowly that its movement was imperceptible. He had been hoping for something more adrenalin packed. There was something similar on the top floor of the Peachtree Hotel in Atlanta in the 1970's but I assume that it too has closed. New York never had one - or if it did we never found it. In the intervening years the whole concept of rotating while dining seems to have died a natural - and perhaps well justified -  death.

We find a florist that sells hyacinths and sweet peas that are actually scented.

Phone boxes that work. Are they ever used ? They seem to have been upgraded so that you can pay by tapping your card. The same is also true of the Big Issue sellers on Marylebone High Street who have moved to Apple Pay.

We've heard reviews of this new book on BBC 4. It's certainly taken pride of place in the local bookshop window. The woman at check out says ' You'll love it'.

While Angus goes to the dentist 'The Font' shops. Angus has got the time of his appointments wrong so sees the dentist but not the hygienist. The next check-up is scheduled for the same time next year. This is reassuring. A new brand of toothpaste is recommended. ' For the time being it's prescription only ' says the dentist. This strikes me as unusual but thoughts on prescription only toothpaste are best left unvoiced. 

We look enviously at a French Frasier in a bakers window and reflect on the difference between Scottish and continental patisserie.

A new Australian shop that seems to specialize in plates. Perhaps there's more to it than meets the eye ?

Town is very quiet after Easter. We are surprised to see that Oxford Street is decorated with lights saying " Happy Ramadan ". Has this ever been done before ? : https://ramadanlights.co.uk/

 

This is - I think - reassuring :https://gizmodo.com/bird-avian-flu-outbreak-health-risks-pandemics-1851382572

Havana Syndrome again :https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/60-minutes-episode-on-havana-syndrome-is-tabloid-journalism/

Would Carrie shock todays teenagers ? :https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/carrie-50-anniversary-stephen-king-debut-history-b2520193.html#Echobox=1711952354

Out of scale.

We've made it to London on Loganair - Scotlands national airline. Strong winds  and storms gave the flight a distinctive  'Shaken and stirred' feel. Refreshments came in the form of not one, but two, Tunnocks caramel wafers. The little propellor aircraft must be the smallest to come into Heathrow. It feels ridiculously out of scale next door to the Air Chinas 777's. With landing slots costing millions our presence is presumably thanks to some heavily subsidized government regional transport strategy. The airline uses Terminal 2 which promises a ' world class passenger experience from arrival to departure'. The unsmiling staff at security clearly haven't read the terminals website.

The flight back this evening leaves at 6:50 and is scheduled to land two hours later. This is a slightly awkward timing. By the we get to St Andrews on our way home it will be 9:15 and the chances of getting  a table for dinner in  the week after Easter is remote. 'The Font' is more hopeful. The American golfers like to eat at six and then head off to the bars to savour a dram or two of 'Scotch'. It is to be hoped that a table later in the evening will be available.

The ducks we passed in the chapel garden yesterday afternoon seem to be inured to this weather 

I'm still not sure whether Havana Syndrome is a thing :https://theness.com/neurologicablog/what-to-make-of-havana-syndrome/

Gales.

 

This morning the wind is flinging itself against the coast and the spume is tumbling across the sand in the direction of the golf course. Some intrepid Californian golfers are discovering that bobble hats, unless pulled down over the ears, can literally fly off their heads.

The Scots kids are back at school. English ones have a few more days of freedom. A group of pre-teens are having a beach buggy lesson. Nervous parents hover around making sure that helmets are fitted properly. 

Down on the beach another group watch as an adventurous nine year old sets off on his first journey under sail power. With the wind this strong the dune buggy accelerates away like a rocket. A member of staff chases after it.... and its driver.

Paragliding students show up followed shortly after by a group of six middle aged ladies. The weather may be dire but it's not putting anyone off going into the water.

As we head back to the car we see a horse and rider at full gallop. The horse is enjoying the feel of the water on its hooves. Seagulls fly in all directions as it approaches. The horse goes the full two miles down the beach and the full two miles coming back.

So starts a cold and exceedingly wet Tuesday in a small town on the North Sea. This afternoon we shall ( hopefully) be on the flight from Dundee to Heathrow to catch up on the dental appointments that were missed when our train was cancelled due to landslides.  The flight starts off in Sumburgh before reaching Dundee so I'm guessing these are conditions the Shetland crew will consider 'balmy'. 

Illinois :https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/03/the-entire-state-of-illinois-is-going-to-be-crawling-with-cicadas/

Hard wired :https://www.thetransmitter.org/learning/it-must-be-something-i-ate-is-hard-wired-into-the-brain/

Frosty hauteur

We park by the harbour and walk up the steep hill in the direction of the cathedral ruins. At this time of the morning we have the place to ourselves. Give it  a couple of hours and the place will be heaving with Easter Monday visitors enjoying the bank holiday. The forecast is for rain. In fact as we walk the cloud to the North  builds up.

St Andrews is a town of three streets and scores of small lanes. Get away from the streets and into the lanes and you get away from the crowds. We walk for quarter of an hour without seeing another soul.

On the beach below the castle a start of week church service for the students. Snatches of music drift upwards on the breeze. The service seems to be well attended. A cynic might observe that exams are now impinging on the consciousness of the student body. A little heavenly help can't go amiss. The first of the exams will start exactly three weeks today. The path that leads to the library, usually quiet, is now extremely busy. The library shuts for five hours between two and  seven in the morning. At five to seven there's a queue formed up waiting to go back in.

A group of early rising tourists stop on the cliff top and look down at the students below.

In the window of a bungalow  a cat looks at this activity with a frosty hauteur.

Farming :https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2024/03/does-organic-farming-ironically-lead-to-more-pesticide-use-overall/

A video on kelp :https://thebulletin.org/2024/03/why-you-should-be-more-worried-about-kelp/#post-heading