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February 24, 2007

The best part of Dundee

The city of Dundee, just a few miles north of St Andrews, doesn't have a whole lot to recommend it to strangers. It's big and a bit dirty and doesn't have anything like the beauty and charm of it's southern neighbour.
However for my husband and me it offers several comforts which St Andrews does not and for that we will always be grateful. There is a Pizza Hut right in the town centre. What could be better than a couple hours lingering over that greasy yumminess? And there is a cinema, only a short bus ride away. This cinema has more than 2 and a half screens (not to disparage the St Andrews New Picture House, of course) and offers matinee prices...it's amazing how excited we get about only paying $18 for the two of us to see a film.
We intended to see the Pursuit of Happyness but it had recently been cut from the list and we ended up watching Hugh and Drew sing and dance their way into teenage pop culture. 2 hours of fun but don't go out of your way to see it.
All in all we like Dundee. It helps us feel like the pond between us and home is not really all that big.

Posted by j and b at 01:40 PM | Comments (2)

February 16, 2007

Great is thy faithfulness

I have never been very interested in the second verse of one of my favourite hymns which reads as follows:
"Summer and winter and seedtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
Of Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love."
Lately, however, my mind is often turning toward these words and they have begun to take on new meaning for me. I am grateful for the passage of time - for the promise that life on this earth will not cease until all is at last fulfilled. But, more than that, I am grateful that time will continue to bring those months and years and seasons that form the core of our earthly experience.
I am grateful that this winter, which has seemed so dark and so long, will become spring soon. The days are lengthening little by little. (There is no White Witch in St Andrews, as far as I know.) I am grateful that every week is followed by the weekend and today, at the end of a particularly long week, I am grateful for Friday. It arrived, just like I knew it would. And now I face the comforting prospect of two full days spent with my husband.

Posted by j and b at 06:24 PM | Comments (2)

February 10, 2007

Neighbours

The best thing about living at #5 has been our neighbours. We're a quiet bunch on our end of the Park - Josh and I probably make the most noise which isn't a whole lot, considering that our favorite thing to do on Friday evening is to watch a film and go to bed.
This block was built by the Council back in the 40's. Some of the Park is still Council housing but most of it is now privately owned by those who benefited from Margaret Thatcher's decree that the tenants of Council housing had the right to purchase their flats.
Directly above us is Mrs B. Years ago she walked by the site where this block was being built and spit on the wall. "That way I knew it was really mine," she told me. They raised their children in the flat where J and I are now. Later they moved to the flat upstairs and bought it from the Council, thanks to the Iron Lady. Mrs B is a widow now and sorely missing her husband of 50-some years. I love to sit by her fire and listen to her stories about St Andrews during and after the wars. During those years she worked at one of the local banks - it was so cold they had to wear gloves to keep their fingers warm while counting the money.
And, just over and up from us, Mr and Mrs T. Pure Scot all the way to the core he is happiest when labouring over his garden and takes his whiskey with just a drop of water. She is an affectionate, caring and busy wife - eager to tell us all about the town of St Andrews and all that they have experienced here. Working at the Old Course means you meet lots of famous people and they have got some terrific stories. The best beef stew I have ever had was in their dining room.
In the midst of our sojourn in this country I am grateful to know those for whom St Andrews means comfort, home and family.

Posted by j and b at 12:54 PM | Comments (1)

February 02, 2007

Narrative Histories and History's Narrative

I just recently (well, over Christmas) finished two books of "popular" history, or "narrative" history -- A.C. Grayling's Descartes and Tom Holland's Rubicon. The second was interesting, tracing the last years of the Roman Republic up to the crowning of Augustus as Emporer. It was enjoyable because almost entirely 'uncritical': he believes Caesar's telling of the story, or that of Suetonius, or Cato, Cicero, etc. At times it felt as though he was putting together the most interesting bits of the various sources to make the most compelling story, with all the twists and turns of a fast-paced novel. I thought it was brilliantly written, insofar as this goes, and recommend it with that in mind. Grayling's book was much more of a disappointment. I'm not a 17th century scholar, nor a Descartes scholar, but reading this book didn't help me get closer to that. Again, it was a popular history, and I'm not criticising it for its lack of academic precision or depth. I sometimes really like sweeping histories. But this was something else. Grayling is a philosopher by trade, down in London. So I guess I expected something more than what I got. Grayling speaks so much in the 'Enlightenment' mould of telling history: after darkness, light -- after the whole of the philosophical/theological tradition, Descartes and modern science. The book seems to be...

Continue reading "Narrative Histories and History's Narrative"

Posted by j and b at 04:31 PM | Comments (3)