Old fella

That refers to this chap who guards Tain Golf Club, not the man we were going to listen to - James Naughtie - in the 19th hole. We enjoyed 90 minutes of political gossip and name dropping, where he tried to keep the audience upbeat, despite everything, by assuring us that Trump will not get re-elected. Hmmmm. The only thing that will stop him, I think, is if he goes to prison. Naughtie also referred to Jeremy Hunt, presumably to avoid being asked about it and inadvertently repeating the same “mistake”.

That was the second of two events in the St Duthac Book and Arts Festival which we attended, the first being a presentation by Cal Flynn about her book Islands of Abandonment. In fact, we chose to come up to Tain this weekend precisely because of this wee arts festival, which is just getting in to its stride. We thought it would be a great opportunity to engage with the place. We chatted to a few people, including one couple who had been to the same events who only arrived in Tain eight weeks ago.

Work was mainly a paperwork day, plus my regular Friday meeting.