August 12 - Saturday
St. Andrews
We decided to stay another day - just couldn't bring ourselves to get up and pack our bags and bikes. We agreed that there was laundry to do, journals and emails to write and general meandering around town to accomplish so we got up, had some breakfast, coffee, cocoa, porridge with brown sugar and raisins. A nap seemed in order after breakfast. We laid in bed watching tv before snoozing off.
After a we washed a load of laundry and turned our room into a big drying rack: clothes hanging from the tv stand, the door knobs, towel rack, hanagers, drawers, shelves. If there was an area that a piece of clothes could be hung, hooked, draped or hung across, it was fair game for wet clothes.
We walked into town passed the old course and watched the players for a while - Jon reliving the previous day then into town. We signed up for a library card and was able to get free internet access for half a hour. I bought a couple cards the proceeds of which went to the local cat shelter - I miss my kitties. We zig zagged our way through the streets enjoying the sunny but windy weather. By late afternoon the sun was out but the wind had turned chilly and I was wearing shorts since my pants were drying back in the room. This whole idea of packing only the essential of the essentials (ie one pair of pants) had proved challenging at times. We bought some dinner at the local Tesco's market (a frozen pizza to keep with the college dorm theme, salad - to give the illusion of healthy eating, fizzy drinks and chocolate mousse) and quickly walked back to the dorm. I was freezing by the time we got back to our now humid room. Jon was kind enough to 'make' dinner. More BBC tv - we love bbc. This time we watched a show on "where we come from" the first in a series. The show mainly talked about microcephalics and how the most concentrated population is in Pakistan and is found amongst those that marry their first cousin. There was also a believe among the Punjabi that if barren women prayed at a particlar alter (I forget which one) to become fertile, their prayers would be answered with the trade off being that their first born would be a microcephalic child. Microcephalics are often given away by their families and are used, like they were back in the day when freak shows were popular, to beg for money on the street. It was really interesting. They have rodent-like features and often have the developmental age of about a one year old. Since the development of the Human Genome Project, scientists have been able to isolate the gene causing microcephaly so, with genetic testing, first cousins can marry and procreate with much less fear of having a microcephalic child! Great.
By this time I was comfy cozy all snuggled in on our double bed with the thinnest mattress I've ever slept on. If you plopped down with any force or even no force, you could feel the box spring mattress underneath. I fell asleep at some point and don't remember Jon coming to bed, I think my sleepiness is from all the wind and salt air I've been experiencing the past few days. Or maybe it's just too many carbs with each meal...
