Sun in St Andrews!

This past week has been actually SUNNY. Even, occasionally (when the wind slowed as it did yesterday), WARM! I have to tell you, after last year's non-existent summer (I walked on the beach in shorts one day last summer, ONE!), this has felt amazing.

The problem with this sort of weather is that I instantly revert to my Western NY upbringing (pretty equivalent to a Scottish upbringing in this sense, I imagine) which says: "if it's sunny, go outside!" So outside I went, ignoring the fact that really the work I was supposed to be doing was at my computer. I couldn't sit inside at my computer when it was so so so gorgeous and warm and sunny and beautiful! So I picked up a book by my potential external examiner -- a book I need to read for inclusion in my thesis anyway, not merely to schmooze him -- and sat outside as much as possible on Saturday and yesterday. Yesterday, despite the fact that I dug around and found my sunscreen (a first for Scotland for me), I still have a sunburn. But I find I don't mind. It's a real sunburn, not the fake "my face is burned but the rest of me would still glow under a blacklight" burn. Thankfully I know my skin well enough that as soon as I realized I was burning I came inside and it's not a bad burn, just the sort that given a day will turn into a lovely base tan -- removing that glowy-white look. So I am happy.

But I'm also secretly happy that today is cooler and clouded over -- simply because I can work at my computer without frustration!