Weather Breaks into Snow

Monday
Today got off to a rather disconcerting start. When Judi got up at 6.00am, it was still dark and she turned on the kitchen lights to put on the kettle. One of the downlight globes blew immediately which in turn blew a fuse plunging the whole house into darkness. A slight sense of panic ensued, before Judi started to ascertain what was and was not working. It seemed that power points were unaffected, so all of the occasional lights worked. Luckily, the kettle also worked. There then followed an extensive search of the house to try to locate the fuse board. It was nowhere to be found, so a call the the landlord was necessary as soon as it was a reasonable time for phone calls. No wonder the fuse board was hard to find - it was behind a sliding door at the back of one of the wardrobes. However, once located, it was just a matter of putting the trip switch up and all the main lights came on (except for the one where the globe had gone of course).

Lloyd gave his second seminar at 11.00am while Judi got on with correcting the page proofs from the book chapter that was recently accepted. The proofs are due back to the publisher on Wednesday which is the day Judi is travelling down to Birkenhead.

After the class we went to a local pub for lunch. On several occasions we had noticed a special offer on 'Bangers and Mash' at this pub from Mondays to Fridays. The weather was ideal for the meal as the warm sunshine had been replaced by cloud and a rather cold wind. The 'Bangers and Mash' fully lived up to expectations and was served with a rich gravy and pickle - delicious! After a brief time at the house, Lloyd went off for the afternoon 4.30pm seminar and Judi returned to the page proofs.

Tuesday

Snow on Patio

At about 5.00am we were both woken up by a strange noise, which we determined was a howling gale blowing around the house. All the time since we had arrived, the forecast for Tuesday had been bad with the possibility of snow. We had tended to take it all with a grain of salt until we got up later to see snow definitely falling in the garden.

Snowing at Cobwebs

Judi in Snow

This afternoon we went to the 'local' Sainsburys' to stock groceries up for Lloyd up before Judi leaves in the morning tomorrow, and the drive involves slightly higher ground. We were astonished to see fairly thick snow beside the road and over the countryside, so we could not resist photographing each other in it as a contrast to the photos taken only a few days ago in bright warm sunshine.

Lloyd in Snow

Snow Covered Countryside

Sadly, Judi will be packing tonight and leaving St Andrews tomorrow. However, luckily we have organised for her to return at the end of May.

Palm Sunday & East Neuk Tour of Fishing Villages

Today is Palm Sunday, and since we are living almost next door to an Episcopalian Church (i.e. a Church of England church in Scotland), Judi decided to attend the morning Sung Eucharist at 10.00am.

On arrival, she was presented with a Palm Cross, as had happened last year at Joy's church; but there the similarity between the two occasions ended. This local church conducted the most 'high church' service Judi had ever attended. The clergy blessed the palm crosses at the start with incense, and than the whole congregation processed behind the clergy and choir on a complete circuit of the church while singing the first hymn. The entire service was sung (including all the responses from the congregation); however, the choir was excellent. They sang an anthem, the Agnus Dei and a motet during the service absolutely beautifully. During the preparation for communion, there was a considerable amount of incense released from the swinging censor, the sounding of a bell and the church bell several times. These practices Judi had always thought were confined to the Roman Catholic church, but it did illustrate how close the high church of England is to the Roman Catholic church in terms of practices.

There was no sermon, but the service did not conclude until 11.45am. It was nevertheless an interesting and spiritual experience.

Lloyd at Pittenweem Harbour

After lunch we decided to go along the coast to see some very picturesque fishing villages. This whole area of Fife is known as East Neuk. The first village was called Pittenweem, which had a delightful active fishing harbour (pictured).

Pittenweem Harbour

Judi at Pittenweem Harbour

Beach at Anstruther

We then travelled further along the coast to Anstruther, where we walked along the side of a beach to look back up to the town, before heading back to St Andrews via Crail. We were by now a little too weary to walk down to Crail harbour - perhaps another day, when I return to St Andrews in May.



Anstruther from Coastal Walk

Saturday Staying Local

Today was the first of the projected cooler days, so we allocated it to household activities like running the washing, visiting the supermarket and a trip into Lloyd's office to see if the network connection was now working so that he can print some documents for Monday afternoon's seminar.

The washing and supermarket trip were successful, although the washing machine and dryer both take much longer to complete a cycle than the ones at Dai Court. Nevertheless, all washing and ironing are now complete in readiness for Judi's departure to Birkenhead on Wednesday.

The trip to the office was not quite as successful. The cable connection still did not work, but we were able to get Lloyd's laptop onto the University of St Andrews secure network. We think that Judi may not have provided the correct Mac address, sowe emailed an alternative in the hope that it can be set up before Judi leaves. Unfortunately, printing over the network depends on being connected on a cable, so Lloyd had to put a USB key into the computer attached to the printer in order to print the documents.


North Point Café

The remainder of the day we spent just wandering around St Andrews and visiting the local shops - of which there are plenty. Very near the house is North Point Café
which has an interesting sign in the window which reads:, 'Where Kate met Wills (for coffee)'.

Pipers Welcoming Guests

One very attractive aspect of Scottish Towns and cities (including St Andrews) is the prevalence of bagpipers. They are not performing as such, but being used to welcome people into hotels and buildings, or in the case of a wedding at the University Chapel yesterday, heralding the arrival of the bride. While we were having afternoon tea yesterday, the pipers in the photo started up across the street to mark the start of some function in the building. It is a strikingly appropriate sound for these contexts.

Visit to Perth

Perth Bridge

We are making the most of this patch of lovely sunny spring weather to visit some of the local towns. In the case of Perth, it is in fact no longer a town, but was conferred with 'city status' for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee on March 14, 2012.

It is a very pretty place (about an hour's drive from St Andrews) accessed by the Perth Bridge over the River Tay.

Perth City Hall

We parked the car as soon as possible after arrival in a typical UK multistorey carpark. The entry and exit ramps for the carpark are only just wide enough for a car and go around hairin bends. The parking lots are also about wide and long enough to house a 'Smart Car'. I needed to let Lloyd out before parking, and once into the spot, I had to take a deep breath to be able to squeeze my way out of the car!

As soon as we had abandoned the car we walked aoround the town and back to the river. Perth has a very attractive City Hall, but we learnt from a program about Perth shown in Melbourne recently, that there are plans to demolish this building to create a 'city square', since there is currently no such designated area.

Judi & Perth Bridge

We are particularly enjoying the fact that these towns and cities in Scotland have many independant shops and not just the chain stores that are so prevalent in the south of England. We found a lovely old-fashioned department store called McEwans that seemed to also have maintained old-fashioned service to match the goods sold. That said though, we have been delighted with the general friendliness and good service we have experienced here since arriving.

St Andrews by the Sea

Looking up North Street

The weather has been so glorious over the past few days that we decided to investigate the local area on foot. The first photo shows a view of the street we live in (North Street) if you look left when leaving the house. In the bottom left hand corner of the picture is our car (a Ford Focus).

Cathedral Ruins at end of North Street

Cathedral Ruins

Turning the other way, you can see the ruins of the old cathedral, which is right on the clifftop by the sea.

St Andrews Pier

St Andrews is perched up on a rocky promontory between two sandy beaches. An easy walk from the house leads down to the pier.

Castle Ruins

Castle Ruins

Sea View from Castle Ruins

 

On the other side of the promontory from the pier are the castle ruins. The views out to sea from both the castle and the pier are magnificent.

Settling into St Andrews University

Lloyd gave his first seminar on Monday morning at 11.00am. He had been a little concerned that jet-lag might impact on his ability to deliver the material, after hearing similar accounts of problems of this sort from colleagues back in Melbourne. However, in the event, everything went fine.

Between this class and a seminar Lloyd was attending at 4.30pm, we were introduced to the administrative assistant for Arché, who showed him to his room in the Arché building. Accessing this building necessitates a series of button-pushes, and is a little difficult to execute accurately on the first attempt. Lloyd was provided with a temporary network password on Monday, but yesterday, he received his University of St Andrews staff card, email address, library access and permanent network access. The network access allows Lloyd to print from his room to an extremely fast laser printer.

We both have spent quite a bit of time at HR as well. Before leaving Melbourne we received documents about salary payments that seemed to not match the contract. Eventually yesterday the cause of the discrepancy was resolved and (with a bit of luck) Lloyd should get paid next week before I leave to head south.

One of the hardest things seems to have been to get a milkman to deliver milk as I had arranged before leaving Australia. The problem is definitely exacerbated by the house being accessed via a narrow alley. There is a gate at the end of the alley with the name of the house 'Cobwebs' written on it.

Milk was due to come for the first time on Monday morning. I looked in the alley and outside on the pavement at the other end of the alley, but there was no sign of it. I rang the dairy and the person with whom I had been in email contact answered. She was very apologetic and offered to deliver it on Tuesday - even though the delivery days are Monday and Thursday. I explained about the alley to her. Tuesday morning, I started the milk search again. I eventually tracked our two pints up on the top of a set of steps next door. I rang the dairy to let them know that the milk had gone to the wrong place and that the milkman needed to put it inside our gate. We even went out and bought a small metal milk carrier and put it, with the empty milk bottle from Tuesday's delivery, on the bottom one of the steps leading up to our front door. Today is Thursday and there was no milk again!! My telephone conversation this morning made it quite clear that if the milk is not here and in the correct place on Monday morning, I will be cancelling the order. We'll see what happens.

Arrived in St Andrews

Gate into Garden & Cobwebs

Back of Cobwebs from Garden

The house we have rented here in St Andrews is very typical. It is part of a terrace of 3 storey stone houses in one of the main streets (although not a shopping street).

We have the top two floors with a separate entrance and private walled garden. The living areas - lounge, dining area and kitchen - are upstairs on the top floor. Two bedrooms, a study (with shower and toilet) and the main bathroom are on the lower of the floors.

View of Garden from Patio

Lloyd on Patio

We woke today to a cool clear morning with the sun breaking through. By mid-morning it was a glorious spring day and Lloyd and I went for a walk around St Andrews. The sun was quite hot on our backs despite it only being late March. In fact it was so warm and sunny that we had lunch outside on the patio by our front door.

Judi on Patio

This afternoon Lloyd and I drove to Dundee over the Tay Bridge. This bridge is much longer than we imagined, and the centre of Dundee is more or less immediately at the end of the bridge. On the way we passed the nearest train station to St Andrews, called Leuchars. The mainline trains pass though this rather small village in the middle of nowhere and I will be catching the train to Manchester from Leuchars next week.

Dundee itself is quite large with two shopping precincts. We parked in one and after looking around it, we walked to the other, rather larger centre in the main street.

Tomorrow Lloyd gives his first seminar at 11.00am. He is hoping that he will not be too jet-lagged.