Grey

A dreich day all right; a scuttle out for the papers and then over to P&K’s to chat awhile over a mountain of soup, bread and cheese. And still room for cherry pie and cream. I’m disgusted at myself. 
While collecting the papers, the two assistants were still putting the various inserts together and discussing Brexit, and how at last it was off the front page - and both expressing a sort of admiration for how Mrs May has stuck to it. And just as I was about to make my payment, one said to the another, "I know, it’s not right what she’s had to put up with - especially at her age.” At that point I had to tell the pair of them off. At her age, indeed. Now, where’s my wallet?
So apart from all of the above there was much rugby watching, with Scotland’s victory cruelly stolen from them in extra time. Still, we get to keep the cup so efff off youse. And well done the plucky Taffs on the grand slam - a population of 3m playing against 197m others. Must be the leeks. Or that weird bread.
But of course the reason the front pages weren’t all Brexit was due to the appalling events in NZ. And that made us both reflect on our recent trip to Oz, home of the murderer. Now firstly of course, we’ll never be shot of alienated angry young men with their distorted world views - even if we could convert 99.99999% of the world full time to peace & love & understanding. What we can do, at least in the countries with functioning law and order is limit their ability to obtain weapons of mass murder. Bloody obvious. 
However, there’s no doubt there was an inverse to the genuine warm welcome we received in so many places. The fact we were from Scotland, from the old country - we were recipients of so many stories of where people’s families were originally from. We were seen as part of the same tribe. The white tribe, of course, and no matter how you spin that, it excludes others, and of course historically (and dare I say currently) quite brutally so. It’s an unpleasant thought, and maybe it should be left there on this cold sleet ridden day.