Goats Heading to a Vampire Weekend,

Sunlight is something that I've been thinking about. It's so easily taken for granted despite the fact that in Scotland, we do without it for a couple of months. We were subject to a ridge of high pressure on Wednesday; although the temperature only reached 7 degrees C, the sky was clear. I had planned to go for a run over lunchtime, just to be outside during some relatively decent weather. Unfortunately, my services were required for a hastily arranged friendly football match in the evening and my energy had to be conserved. My new plan was to have lunch at my desk but I could not ignore light shining through the windows and I ventured out for a walk.

I often become lost around St Andrews. It plays tricks with my mental compass - it must be something to do with the big magnets they keep in the university. As the duffer who reignited national interest in the declining sparrow population (not Pete Masson), I was delighted to discover that on the cliffs by the harbour, there is a decent fulmar population. I may have been alerted to this by one of those helpful boards put up for tourists but seeing something that looked like a gull (the kind of bird that has replaced the sparrow in the back garden) but was not a gull (the kind of bird that knows its boundaries) was quite absorbing for a while.

Back I went to the office, it was a long walk. This could potentially be the reason why I struggled to last 90 minutes in that evening's match. It was a 3-0 defeat versus a side from the top division, it was a friendly so 'rolling substitutes' was at play, but somehow I was the only player made to play all of the 90 minutes. I didn't feel that I did well but many people said that I did. Football is a game with many opposing opinions, this is accepted but it's difficult to understand why so many people are so wrong, so much of the time.

Sunlight, fulmars and football have been discussed so far. I also have issues with electric leaf blowers but I'll take them on another day.