The election tomorrow

Local elections tomorrow. The government is likely to be blamed for the surge in  food prices and rising inflation. Not all of the current woes can be laid at the Prime Ministers doorstep but he'll take the rap. A 'rout' is being forecast. People don't understand politics and they most certainly don't understand how Hegseths war is dislocating the economy so quickly and in such a major way. They just want to be left alone to get on with their lives - an affordable mortgage, jobs for the kids, a trip abroad every year, a health service that works and decent services for the elderly would suit them just fine. St Andrews, as befits a university town will, of course,  vote resolutely Liberal Democrat. 

The wee town is home to 10,000 students. With final exams nearing they're waking up to the fact that this is the time to knuckle under. As we head off on our morning walk a steady stream of them are heading off to the library. There is a certain 'solemnity' on their faces.

On our way back from the beach we stop at the bookstore to pick up a couple of books we've ordered. The staff in the bookstore now know us by name.

The weather is very Scottish. Warm and sunny one minute, grey and cold the next. On Monday it was in the 20's, yesterday, when Angus decided to paint a garden bench, the temperature fell into the low single digits.  The restoration of the town fountain seems to be nearing its end. The top section has been put in place. Will there be a great unveiling ceremony ?

We stop off for an espresso at one of the pavement cafes. We are the only customers.

A reminder of France for sale in one of the cafes.

We are ( slowly )  learning how to speak to whales - https://x.com/Whyman5Whyman/status/2044448771916824911

Will the roll out of AI be like the adoption of electricity ? :https://x.com/DKThomp/status/2044837052810699218

Affordability - or the lack of it . On the radio this morning a segment saying that food prices will soon be 50% higher than they were pre-Covid:https://www.cato.org/handbook-affordability/introduction

A British peculiarity. St Pauls full to commemorate Tyndall :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfspk3qp-6w

Rebirth. At long last a decent hotel in San Francisco :https://www.thehuntingtonhotel.com/

The Bank Holiday.

Monday was a UK bank holiday and the town was teeming with visitors. Seems that instead of heading abroad for a few days a lot of folk have opted to vacation at home. It's cheaper and you're not hostage to the availability of aviation fuel.  The golf courses have been busy but not hectic. This morning there's a dozen or so American golfers waiting for the seven am slot. Usually, there'd be twenty or so standing in line.

Lion's Mane Mushrooms on sale at a market stall. I'm guessing this is targeted at students needing all the brain power they can get in the last few days before exams kick off on Saturday.

The last mobile phone outlet has closed down. There are now no less than eight shop premises standing empty in town. This is highly unusual in a tourist destination like St Andrews. Is this a sign that retailing is shifting fully online ? Or, is it a sign that the economy is rapidly slowing ?

The ducks on the pavement outside the Shawarma House continue to act as if they own the place.

Bluebells on the clifftops. Down in the bay the post storm repair work on the Aquarium is nearly done.

On the beach our eyes are drawn to a small green plaque that someone has carefully positioned in a sand dune by the cafe.

Closer examination shows it to be a small memorial for a dog that's 'run ahead'. The spelling is charmingly incorrect. That old story of a dog that was loved and loved back. What simpler and happier story can there be ? This morning the beach is full of mutts cashing gulls, sniffing seaweed and generally living the life. 

The Swedish King gets given flowers on his 80th birthday. Formality is not always a Swedish thing  :https://youtu.be/Wm70hEwmQRc?t=423

Sugar and cavities :https://www.popsci.com/health/does-sugar-cause-cavities/

Things I never knew :https://www.mundane.beauty/p/how-britain-lost-its-dye-empire

Well I never. A forgotten breed of  dog :https://x.com/VisionaryVoid/status/2050893884801310894

3 ships.

3 cruise ships sheltering in the bay this morning. One huge Dutch one at the seaward end and two smaller American ones of the super-luxury variety closer to shore. This is the first time we've ever seen so many in one place. The farmer thinks that they're being rerouted from destinations in the Indian Ocean to the dull safety of northern waters. If he's right the passengers are going to find that the weather isn't all they'd hoped for. The farmer also tells me he's sold all of this years potato harvest to a company that makes oven chips. The prices aren't great but with the cost of fertilizer and diesel soaring he wants to lock in some some certainty with his cashflows. 

The local airport in Dundee will stop offering direct flights to London as of the first of September. Another quiet hint that the impact of the Gulf war will be bigger than most people think.  The airline says there's a review ' of its strategy '. This must unnerve those who rely on its service to get to the western isles. In another sign of economic turbulence the wine merchant that used to offer free delivery is now charging £12:95 for courier service.

A braw morning. On the beach a husky loving family are out walking their dogs.

At the farm shop Whisky Shortbread.  Angus wholeheartedly approves.

However, he is not tempted by Dark Chocolate and Haggis Spice.

The ducks that nest outside the Shawarma shop have returned. Students and locals give them a wide berth. Of all the places they could choose to nest this has to be one of the worst. They come back year after year to the delight of local two year olds.  At certain times of day there is a long tail back of push chairs as mothers heading back from dropping of their elder children at kindergarten detour here with their youngest. The ducks seem oblivious to the toddlers shrieks of delight.

The calves are slowly adjusting to the excitement of village life. 

It may not be Shanghai but life in a small town has its recompenses.

Scotland should build data centres. It has a lot of offshore wind power that's not connected to the national grid and it also has water in abundance. This Virginia example indicates how much money there is to be made :https://x.com/dylanmatt/status/2050252241152675878

Mundane but vital technology :https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-an-oil-refinery-works

Plus ca change. We're all pre-Roman :https://www.science.org/content/article/modern-european-family-predates-fall-rome-dna-reveals?et_cid=5944876

Traffic in Jakarta :https://indevelopmentmag.com/jakarta-transit-transformation/

A sunny Sunday morning in May

Our monthly 'top up' of the central heating oil costs £368. Last year, for the same quantity, it was £227. I fear the government will be blamed for this surge in price and will be slaughtered in this weeks local elections.

Over Saturday lunch the farmers son announced to his family that he's decided to go to Cambridge. His rationale is that it's easy to get to. The pretty German girl who is in his class at school has also been offered a place there. Coincidence ? Between his exams, the upcoming trip to the World Cup and now this unexpected announcement his mother is suffering the particular angst that is reserved for mothers of teenage boys. The two Jack Russells are having lots of long, calming, walks.

In town our dear old next door neighbour has had a stroke. A bad one. She is one of those determined ladies who has steadfastly refused to move out of the family home. Born in 1940 she espoused that granitic ' My children were brought up here and here I'll die here' approach to life. She does not suffer fools gladly.  In fact she has a disapproving curtness that keeps conversations with local officials to a minimum. By pure chance her daughter had flown up from London on a 'surprise' visit only to find her sprawled at the bottom of the stairs. Talk about benign serendipity. Our old neighbour is now in a special care hospital sixty miles away. We're told there is little point in visiting her which speaks volumes about the diagnosis. The daughter sends long and informative texts to all the old ladies friends.

The calves on the village green are inquisitive enough to watch us walk past but not inquisitive enough to get any closer. This might be best described as 'prudent interest'.

Down on the beach the sun has brought out some council workmen with a tractor, a smattering of 'detectorists ' and a gaggle of students who have spent the night on the beach and who are now thinking of heading home. The workmen are here to clear up after the May Day dip :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSFdej_JPqw

We wander up the hill towards the cathedral ruins.

By the coast guard lookout a bank of primroses. This year the village verges are carpeted in their yellow flowers. The weather has somehow made this a bumper year for primroses. It is also a bumper year for hares. As I write this I can see eight of them dozing fitfully in the potato field outside the office window.

Heading back to the car we stop to watch a thoughtful heron musing silently in the stream down by the pier.

Life at the start of May is quiet and uneventful and calm.  On our way back to the house we walk by a group of villagers. They're discussing the Kings speeches in America. " We're blessed to have him as sovereign "  says the church elder in a tone of voice that makes it quite clear that doubts about whether he could match his mother have been completely dispelled. There are some moments, never recorded in history books, that whisper all is as it should be. This brief conversation outside the village hall is one of them.

There is something strangely brilliant and unsettling in the choreography of this music video. It was being played on the tv in the trendy student coffee shop this morning . The feel is very English although the lead singer is ( according to 'The Font' ) Swedish. The Hej Hej Hej line will be very popular with rappers. Retiring to a university town has the advantage of keeping one abreast of much in modern culture that might otherwise pass you by :https://youtu.be/x6_mbnsh6VU?t=262

Trying not to buy anything for a year :https://emmastephenson1.substack.com/p/all-consuming

Chat GPT, Goblins and weirdness :https://www.piratewires.com/p/why-openai-models-goblins

Summer musings :https://patricknathan.substack.com/p/nothing-to-see-here

Interesting psychology :https://patricemersault.substack.com/p/a-funny-thing-happened-over-breakfast

Back to village life.

It's taken four days but the jet lag is now largely gone and we're almost back to functioning as normal humans. Those 15 hour flights sure know how to interfere with happily established circadian rhythms. 50 years ago we could take the overnight flight from LA and get off the plane in London bright and bushy tailed. These days we're ready for a holiday by the time we've made it through security to the boarding gate. 

A final few comments about China.

The West Lake at Hangzhou has gardens that go back to the 8th century. Some folks say they're older than that ( the nearby Grand canal to Beijing dates to the 5th century BC ) but seeing gardens that are 1300 years old is good enough for us. Can there be anywhere else on earth with as many azaleas ? The place is a gem.

The weather when we got there was bad. Hot, sultry and with low cloud that sometimes picked up the courage to drizzle. Walking in this sauna like heat was exhausting so we opted for a tour by electric boat. On a clear day this excursion  must be as close to heaven as a tourist can get. Our boat had a crew of three to look after the two of us. Two men steered and a young woman prepared and served tea. Halfway through sustenance arrived in the shape of a plate of tired looking strawberries. All of the crew thought it odd that we should from time to time want to venture onto the deck rather than stay in the air conditioned cabin. None of them spoke a word of English which says volumes about tourism in China. If we did venture out onto deck one of them would come and attempt to usher us back inside like stray chickens. All wore very smart navy blue uniforms that had something of the 19th century Prussian postal system to them.

Some of the pagodas and temples get busy. I mean crazy busy. In fact  neither of us have ever seen so many people in one spot. We'd not understood that Hangzhou is a BIG Chinese tourist destination. It makes Kyoto in peak season look quiet. I'd still have to say that the biggest shock ( amongst many ) for European visitors to the Shanghai area is the sheer number of people.

The sultry weather follows us back up to Shanghai.

Business Class on Chinese railways has the longest leg room of any trains we've ever been on. The seats fold out like First Class airline seats. Our journey is only an hour but some folks have been on the train for a seven hour trip down to Hainan. By the time we board the carriage is nearing the end of its journey and has a ' well lived in' look that passengers on ScotRail will immediately recognize.

Weekends, it seems,  are peak marriage time. Some young couples opt for a 'traditional' look.

It's also the time for folks from the 'burbs' to come into town. They have a ' we're determined to enjoy ourselves' vibe.

'The Font' insists on visiting an exhibition of Chinese fashion of the 20's and 30's.  I express my displeasure but it turns out to be interesting and surprisingly 'cheeky' for puritan China.

How did these clothes survive the barren uniformity of the cultural revolution ?  Did they continue to make silk during the upheavals ? There's nothing to tell us.

All Chinese hotel rooms are supplied with these.

Back in Scotland life is moving along at a hectic pace. We saw our first student heading off home for the summer. To have no exams must make these early leavers the envy of their friends. Exams start on Monday so give it a couple of weeks and the town will start thinning out big time as the students head off. The farmers wife continues to be on tenterhooks over her youngest and his bac exams. He is of course fixated on the upcoming trip to the World Cup and treats the exams with a insouciant disregard that drives her mad.

Talking to strangers. Thought for the day :https://miniphilosophy.substack.com/p/when-did-a-stranger-change-your-life

Larry, the Downing Street cat, has an iconoclasts sense of humour :https://x.com/Number10cat

A new ( old ) discovery :https://x.com/ProfTCSchmidt/status/2046565772235776211

The ultimate Taiwanese movie ? :https://notnottalmud.substack.com/p/on-yi-yi-my-favourite-movie-and-why

Microdramas. The next big thing from China :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNAWtuWzToE

Quiet, but welcome, progress :https://x.com/anishmoonka/status/2045757539409621414

A shimmering necklace

23 degrees here in Scotland yesterday. The same temperatures forecast for today. That's warmer than it was in Shanghai. The garden is parched. Rain is forecast on Sunday. It will be welcomed by the local farmers. The farm track is so dry that clouds of fine dust drift into the sky whenever a van or tractor drives along it.

The reason for going all the way to Shanghai was to see The Bund. A collection of stunning 1920's era buildings that stretch for a mile or so along one bank of the river. They miraculously survived the traumas of the 30's and 40's largely undamaged. At night they are floodlit and shimmer like a mile long strand of limestone coloured pearls. Even the most jaded of travellers would have to say it is a truly wonderful sight. We find ourselves standing for twenty or thirty minutes just soaking it all in. It's a long time since anything ot anywhere was awesome enough to make us do that. At night tens of thousands of teenage TikTokers capture the scene for posterity. For the Chinese May Day holiday the place attracts millions.

On the other side of the river from our hotel the brightly lit spires of the new business district - an Asian Manhattan. A professor from the university says that in the early 90's half of the worlds entire output of cement was used in building the new city . This seems excessive but who am I to judge ? If you add in the huge new airport and the motorways and railway arches then there might be a kernel of truth in the statement.

The view at night is indeed bucket list worthy. Shanghai is built on a working river and to our surprise barges, sightseeing boats and tankers ( and a couple of destroyers ) plough back and forwards day and night.

During the day it's also pretty impressive.

Foreigners tend to go on 'western' style night cruises or have private yacht trips arranged by their hotels. We took a Chinese one. The party animals on our boat were avid consumers of neat alcohol. The presence of Europeans on our cruise with Chinese characteristics was clearly unusual. People would come onto the deck and stare at us. This slightly unnerving response also happened to us on a station platform in Udaipur. 

Book reviews :https://www.millersbookreview.com/p/who-killed-the-book-review-newspaper-book-coverage-is-dying-but-dont-hold-a-funeral-for-literary-culture

Most amazing thing I've read all year :https://x.com/anishmoonka/status/2045064737478848687

A story about Starbucks :https://substack.com/home/post/p-195863299

On order . The old one has worn out :https://store.anatomica.jp/en/products/single-raglan-coat-1-gabardine-navy

Mischief is universal.

There was a time when travelling was easy. You bought a ticket, got on a plane and then at your destination showed your passport to an immigration official who would stamp it and let you in. These days you have to deal with AI and 'time saving ' machines that take your picture and demand your finger prints. That's fine if the technology works. At Shanghai it didn't . The automatic passport readers refused to read. After six attempts we were forced to download a QR code to access an online form which required slow and laborious filling in. On an i-Phone that's easy for those with nimble fingers but for those who don't it means you're forever entering the wrong letter or number on the screen and having to start again. It took us an hour and a half to make it to the passport counter. Our process was quick in comparison with some.

We'd been told that the West Lake and the gardens in Hangzhou were bucket list must sees. After an easy journey down from Shanghai on a bullet train we settle in for a glass ( or two ) of wine to reclaim our humanity. A very proud grandmother is meeting a friend in the lobby bar of our hotel. She's brought  her grandson. I'd reckon he's all of 18 months old. The wee boy is fussed over in the way only a proud first time grandmother can. While she and her friend are deep in conversation the lad  silently slips off the sofa and heads to the centre of the hotel foyer which has a large and complex flower arrangement. Low level flower arrangements are the sort of thing that attract toddlers like iron filings are attracted to a magnet. There is a loud and piercing shriek as granny looks up just as the small boy is about to launch himself onto the middle of the vases. A quick witted bell hop saves the day. Mischief is universal.

In a shopping mall an old man with his shaggy dog. He's there when we arrive and we see him again as we leave an hour later. He chats to the dog and the dog looks back, adoringly, at him. Finally, it's time to go and the dog leads him across acres of marble floors to the exit. Both are at a certain stage in life and are clearly inseparable and devoted. The old man walks very slowly while the dog walks ahead. Every so often the dog turns to make sure his companion is following. Their progress is conducted in magisterial slow motion. Sometimes the dog circles behind and gives the old man a 'get a move on' nudge with his nose. Love, like mischief, is also universal.

Some unusual names on coffee shops.

Hotels have 'cheerful' displays . These seem to have no purpose but provide space for smiling ceramic animals. Rabbits are very popular. Must be a cultural thing.

In the evening there are parts of Shanghai where you could ( almost ) think you were on Rodeo Drive or Bond Street. Face masks used to be the rule. Now I'd reckon 1 in 20 wear them.

Doors have unusual signs.

I'll post tomorrow on the skyline of Shanghai and maybe our trip to Hangzhou Gardens and then we'll be back to life in the village.  Exams start next week so there are a lot of earnest teenagers in town.

Why Huggies ( Thank God ) conquered :https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/how-disposable-diapers-conquered

Stanford understands the value of courtesy :https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/news/how-not-deal-allies

One virtual guys take on the royal visit :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9so4RYQVO0

A new restaurant in the South of France :https://www.zannierhotels.com/hotels/bendor/drink-dine/nonna-bazaar/