This is our Highland Games weekend. Tonight there'll be a boat race on the firth - heavy, wooden, two-man cobles rowed half a mile against the tide and half a mile with the tide. A gun shot begins and ends each heat. There's a beer tent, and a barbecue, a band and a flypast. For spectators, the whole event will seem as arbitrary as the Caucus race in Alice in Wonderland.

The weather forecast for this weekend is amazing! Sun and [C degree] temperatures in the 20s!! I shan't go to the race tonight, but if the weather is real, I'll spend tomorrow afternoon under a straw hat, lounging around on the grass in the games field, drinking cold beer, and passing the time with the rest of the village, while men in kilts toss cabers and girls in kilts dance between crossed swords and dozens of pipers compete to produce the longest, most elaborately mournful variations on a pibroch.

Today I have a visit from another estimator ~~~