Brexit day

The sun woke me just before 6am. I had about two minutes of peace before I remembered, and reached for my iPad. Even the lock screen told me the unbelievable news that the UK would be quitting the EU. Once more I was plunged into that special gloom that only politics can produce ...

At least it got me out of bed. By 10am I was in the supermarket, feeling it the equivalent of St Peter's fishing after the crucifixion. No-one of the few customers at that hour seemed cheerful. 

We redeemed the afternoon by going for a good walk in the unexpected sunshine of the Ardyne area (we both took cagoules and had to carry them ...) We exchanged conversation with an American family, ancestor-hunting in a car and seeking Inverchaolain churchyard: they were sympathetic and appalled. We met five cheerful Dutch cyclists who were talking to some cows: "You're leaving us!" they said. We had a phone call from our #1 son in London, as despondent as ourselves. The sun shone on all this, and we felt marginally better. 

I went home to an answering machine message from friends in Alabama - left wing Americans wishing we could dispose of Trump while he was in Scotland. We drank some defiant champagne and ate some cosmopolitan curry. 

Come the revolution ...