St Andrews

Slept pretty well, and wandered downstairs and out of Mog and Jerome's house and into Sam and Jade's home. A strong Sam style cup of coffee and toast and Lorraine's seedy breakfast and all was well. Jade drove us to St Andrews, where she works. She was a great tour guide today.

We looked at the amazing building Jade works in, and the castle ruin, and along the coast for a couple of hundred metres to a small harbour, where people were fishing for crabs with ground lines. Looming behind us were the remains of a medieval castle, framing sections of the sky. Next food. Went to eat on the pavement outside a cafe, and as the day was warm and fine, and the whole thing felt unexpectedly mediterranean. I ate an unbelievably healthy salady vegan style dish.

Afterwards Jade became guided us through town through academic courtyards of mowed lawns and centuries old buildings and into a wonderful bookshop, where I bought Alasdair Gray's The Ends of Our Tethers, 13 sorry stories, and a Penguin translation of a two Japanese texts, called Essays in Idle ness and Hojoki. The sorts of reading materials not ready to hand in your average Waterstones. Lorraine found a book on Floral Embroidery, and we also got Sam a pocket book of Scottish birds, as he enjoys identifying them.

Then we popped into Jade's office -- she enters via a door that says University of St Andrews Department of Logic and Metaphysics, and we walked into the little philosophy reading room and library there. There is  smell like that of the furious dust that emanates from a library of tomes regularly frowned over by philosophers. 

Then to somewhere called The Bowhouse, by St Monans which was an barn like art space, and had a few artisanal shops and a bakery and several boisterous young male pigs grubbing in the mud. We had a quick drink there, a glass of beer and a cider for Lorraine.

Jade then drove us home, and we met Jerome and Mog, and Mog. Pleasant lively folks, and clearly great pals of Sam and Jade.

A bit later we went for a walk down to Cellardyke, which as Sam told us abuts Anstruther, the two villages running into one another. Mooched about taking some photos, and then we repaired to the garden of a pub called The Haven. I had a pint of Caledonian Best, which was rather nice. 

Home then, and after some lurking about, simply pushed off to bed. Jade saying that she hoped the ghost which likes men apparently, doesn't trouble us. 

Below... Jade's door marked Logic and Metaphysics that she walks through each day, her building in rugged black and white, a bit of the ruined castle by the sea, Lorraine, Sam and Jade on the pier, and later in the day a couple of snaps of several of Jade at Cellardyke.