St Andrews in Focus Issue 78 Sep Oct 2016 by Mike Collins

St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more

September/October 2016 Issue 78, £2.00

the award winning magazine for St Andrews, Scotland www.standrewsinfocus.com

St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more

From the Editor Birds puzzle me. I have goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, bullfinches, blackbirds, sparrows, blue and great tits, an occasional thrush, and for the second year running none of them is singing. I’ve opened my window several times at the crack of dawn (sometime between 2.00am and 3.00am) hoping to hear a dawn chorus – nothing. The only bird in my garden singing, apart from the pesky wood pigeons and gulls, is the faithful wren. A blackbird did try a rather half-hearted attempt at singing, mostly to himself, before giving up completely. Rachel Carson wrote about a silent spring, but she was talking of an Apocalypse. I garden organically and everything is thriving. We do live in strange times! A year or two ago I was startled one dark November evening to hear a blackbird in full voice in a tree in South Street; none of the passers-by seemed remotely interested. I have recorded both blackbirds and thrushes in my garden before last year. A sparrow hawk has occasionally visited, but things generally returned to normal thereafter. Can anyone suggest a reason for my silent birds? Flora Selwyn

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The views expressed elsewhere in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor. © St Andrews in Focus (2003) SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2016 EDITOR Flora Selwyn Tel: 01334 472375 Email: editor@standrewsinfocus.com DESIGNER University of St Andrews Print & Design (printanddesign@st-andrews.ac.uk) PRINTER Winter & Simpson (stephen@wintersimpson.co.uk) DISTRIBUTER Drop 2 Door (billy@drop2door.co.uk) PUBLISHER (address for correspondence) Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ. Tel: 01334 472375 Email: editor@standrewsinfocus.com SUBSCRIPTIONS St Andrews in Focus is published 6 times a year. Subscriptions for 6 issues are: £14 in the UK (post & packing included). Please send cheques to: Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ. £25 overseas (post and packing included). Please send remittance by International MoneyGram. See website at: http://global.moneygram.com/in/en/money-transfers REGISTERED IN SCOTLAND: 255564 THE PAPER USED IS 100% RECYCLED POST-CONSUMER WASTE

Contents FEATURES • Community Council • John Cameron’s column • Michel Joullie • Lunch in Anstruther • Wild Horses • Reviews: – Endgame: Poems New & Used – Scotland: A Literary Guide for Travellers

4 4 5 6 6 7 7

SPECIAL DOUBLE PAGE FEATURE • St Andrews’ Leper Hospital

8-9

SHOPS & SERVICES • Recruit for Spouses • Neck Pain • Roving Reporter

11 12 13

PULL-OUT FEATURE • Concert Diary

15-18

TOWN & GOWN • Saints Sport • New: children’s orchestra • Inploi • Michael Buchanan reflects • Bell Rock House

19 20 20 21 21

EVENTS • Play True • St Athernase • A summer concert • Football trophies • Selected Events

22 23 24 24 25

ORGANISATIONS • Families First • Award for John Sturrock • The HORTI • BID St Andrews • Probus Club

26 27 27 28 28

OUT & ABOUT • A labyrinth • Nature Notes • Walking • Hidden Gems

29 29 30 31

NEXT ISSUE – Nov/Dec 2016 COPY DEADLINE: STRICTLY 28 SEPTEMBER

All contributions welcome. The Editor reserves the right to publish copy according to available space.

Cover: ‘Pier Walkers’, an original photo by Gerald McGarry

FEATURES Callum McLeod, from the Provost’s Chair

The Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council It is a great pleasure, but an even greater privilege, to have been elected in May to be Chairman of the Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council, a statutory representative body which I would like to see increasingly at the heart of this ancient, but vibrant and forward-looking community, squeezed into this little neuk of Scotland, home to its citizens, destination for its many visitors, and a more than significant player on the world stage in the fields of learning and sport. In introducing myself as incoming Chairman, I should like to pay tribute to my immediate predecessor, Howard Greenwell, and thank him for his service to his community: I am delighted that Howard is continuing to serve as a community councillor; he has been charged with reinvigorating our Recreation Committee. The Burgh of St Andrews, with its all its diverse and sometimes contradictory elements, is certainly unique – it is, of course, a small Scottish town with a fairly high proportion of retired residents, but throughout the winter we welcome large numbers of young people from all over the world to study here; we jealously guard our right to play a few holes of golf after work of an evening, but we also welcome people from around the globe, including the greats of golf, royalty, and presidents, who see visiting that same piece of green links ground as akin to a holy pilgrimage. Serving such a community, then, is not only a privilege, it is also great fun. Having come as a student to the university in 1978 (and, thanks to Mrs Thatcher’s higher education cutbacks in the 1980s, one of the few to hold a degree in Music from that ancient institution), I first taught at Madras College (where my son Jonathan is currently a pupil, having followed his three brothers there). I first joined the Community Council in 1986 when there were 24 members, and interest in it was great enough to have an actual election. The late ‘80s and early ‘90s were something of a golden age for the Community Council, I think, perhaps to some extent because there was no home internet, no emails, social media, or the dozens

of television channels available today. Life seemed to move at a slower pace and there was a greater appetite for participation in community activities, a revival in which we are now seeing. Under the then-chairman, Keith McCartney, now representing St Andrews on Fife Council, a plethora of successful initiatives took place – a 200 Club was established (still going), which provided funding for tree-planting, public benches, photography, local history competitions, and so on. In 1991 we marked the (somewhat notional) 850th Anniversary of the establishment of the Burgh with outdoor performances of the “Masque of St Andrews” and a service in the grounds of the Cathedral, both attended by hundreds of people. Like many community councillors, I went on to serve on North East Fife District Council. I mention these events from the past, which many readers will perhaps remember or even have been involved in, because it is my wish and intention to see the standing and profile of the Community Council rise in the public eye – my fellow community councillors, are, I know, as eager as I am to see this happen – many are already (and have been for years) heavily involved in various exciting and varied projects. I will return to all of these in due course; in the meantime, I welcome hearing from you at callummac@aol.com or at 01334 478 584. Dum spiro spero. (Photo courtesy Callum McLeod)

John Cameron’s Column As a son of the manse I was brought up with three brothers; I did notice that manse girls tended to be either frighteningly formidable, or totally “off-the-wall”, so I am unsurprised that two of the former now run Germany and Britain. Angela Merkel was born in Hamburg to Lutheran Pastor Horst Kasner, who decided to take on a parish in East Germany, where she was brought up bilingual in German and Russian, and read Physics in the University of Leipzig. She was briefly married to fellow student Ulrich Merkel before becoming a research scientist in Berlin’s Academy of Sciences, gaining her PhD in 1986. She then seized the opportunity to enter politics after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the first all-German elections in 1990 she was elected to represent the East German town Stralsund, and was taken under the wing of Chancellor Helmut Kohl, becoming a highly competent Minister for Women and Youth. Her Equal Opportunities Act greatly improved women’s professional status, while every child

rightly suspecting that her eyes were on the was given a kindergarten place – a major step main prize. Instead of promoting her to Foreign forward for Germany. By 2000 she was head Secretary in his last reshuffle, he kept her in the of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Home Office. It was Cameron’s unforced error Now married to Joachim Sauer, a leading of calling a Brexit referendum that gave this scientist, she defeated Gerhard Schröder in the austere and remote politician, who shuns the Bundestag elections becoming Germany’s first media and refuses to expose her private life, a female Federal Chancellor – a position she has clear run to the top. filled with great distinction. She is the most formidable Tory leader Theresa May is just two years younger, also since Margaret Thatcher. While she looks just the daughter of a Protestant clergyman and, as tough, she is unquestionably smarter and a like Merkel, a non-ideological politician with a lot less shrill, never acting without a thorough ruthless streak, who gets on with the job and risk assessment. In an has never, ever, shown a awesome speech as Home “wild side”. Educated at a I did notice that manse Secretary she silenced the Catholic private school and girls tended to be either Police Federation, fixing a grammar school-turned state comprehensive, she frighteningly formidable, them with an icy stare, relentlessly listing the read geography at Oxford, or totally “off-the-wall” corruption, incompetence where she met her husband and gross misconduct that Philip May, who ditched had scarred policing for more than 20 years. his own considerable political ambitions for her ‘Mutti’ Angela has had her poll-tax moment in career settling for investment banking. that reckless refugee invitation – a wound that As has been cruelly observed, both women will simply not stop bleeding. I find it hard to are childless, but they have strong marriages imagine ‘Mother’ Theresa making such a prat while sharing a passion for Alpine hiking; yet fall, but we shall see. no-one has ever thought of Theresa as his “little girl”, as Helmut Kohl did of Angela. In fact David Cameron was wary of Theresa,

FEATURES Michel Joullie chatted to Flora Selwyn about

A Personal ‘Auld Alliance’ At a dinner organised by the St Andrews-Loches Alliance, at which the events, to raise funds for his Humanitarian Association Aodai Apsara, guest of honour was the French Consul General, Emmanuel Cocher, I which he runs for disadvantaged children in Vietnam and Cambodia. So met Michel and his wife Clare. We got chatting, leading to a realisation he invited Richard Michael to Paris for a fundraising concert, hosting him that the Auld Alliance between France and Scotland still manifests on a and his family in Michel’s home in St-Germain. personal level. Michel says he inherited his scientist father’s charitable links with Born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Ile de France, a town steeped in Africa. Feeling privileged Westerners, Michel and his family believe history, Michel reminded me that Louis XIV was born there in 1638, while strongly that we should give something back. Michel, therefore, through, in 1688 James VII of Scotland (aka James his Humanitarian Association helps with II of England), following religious conflicts the education of homeless children both at home, exiled himself there, dying in Vietnam and Cambodia. 13 years later. Michel met and married An accomplished sculptor, a picture Clare in St-Germain, where they have an in the Maritime Museum in Liverpool apartment to which they regularly return. inspired the bronze of a child sitting on Working for Alitalia, Michel travelled a trunk looking lost, “as a kind of tribute widely, including in Africa. Promoted to to poor people who don’t know where to Director of a travel network, Michel then go.’’ Michel wishes very fervently to share being based in Marseilles. “I discovered his views on refugees, “With regard to an interest in tourism, including in golf, refugees I believe that we have a duty which I wanted to specialize in.” He to address these problems. Today we became Director of Golf National in Paris, can’t just reject, not tolerate, exclude which will host the Ryder Cup in 2018. people. We have to confront the situation Golf is the reason for Michel’s love and with the will to find organised humane involvement with St Andrews, coming here solutions and constructive international 25 years ago for the first time. “We were cooperation. My sculpture of a migrant so impressed with the character of the city, bears witness to something which has and the art of living here in St Andrews, also impacted the United Kingdom in the history of the town and the traditions of the 20th Century and which cannot be Scotland. We were also impressed by so ignored. It is, too, a symbol of human many golf courses, such a popular game, distress in the face of an unknown future which was not at that time the same in for the migrant. What kind of world France where golf was restricted to private In his retirement Michel has reinvented awaits? All this reflects my feelings clubs. We have discovered golf as a true and what I want to share.’’ He intends himself, and is busier than ever! sport. Finally we became true golfers, and to gift the sculpture to the Museum of we like it very much.” Immigration in Paris, to demonstrate his Still living mainly in France, the Joullies wanted to see what winter empathy for migrants. “I do trust in the cooperation between countries in was like here. Clare was worried about the early nights and possible cold, Europe as a guarantee of peace. I trust all the scientists, artists, teachers, but having sampled our winter this year the couple are delighted! It was and all those people working together improving our world.’’ made particularly enjoyable for Michel because, as a clarinetist, he joined For the past 6 years at the International Golf Fellowship Week the Music Centre’s StAFCO (St Andrews and Fife Community Orchestra) in St Andrews, Michel has awarded an annual Auld Alliance Trophy under the direction of Gillian Craig. (based on the Claret Cup) at the New Club; he describes the Week as, One of Michel’s four sons, Mervyn, gained his PhD in Peace & “a competition between St Andrews and the rest of the world. It’s really Conflict here at the University, working afterwards for the Red Cross in enjoyable.’’ Mali, then with the Danish Council for Refugees in the Republic of Congo. In August, in Brittany on Ile Grande, Michel planned a showing of One brother works in logistics, one in the golf industry, while the oldest the film (with French subtitles) of Whisky Galore, because people there works in HSBC bank. remember a similar story around the coast of Brittany. Also in Brittany Michel and his wife have been coming more and more to St Andrews, Michel owns an old sailing boat called the ‘James Braid’ as a tribute to not as simple visitors, but “to integrate, enjoy the social life.’’ Going every the golfer. It flies both the Breton flag and the Saltire flag. Michel has also day to the Younger Hall Music Centre to practise his clarinet as well as sculpted James Braid in terre cuite (terracotta). He learned to sculpt “only the piano, Michel also attends lessons in jazz improvisation with Richard 5 years ago’’ in St-Germain, “it’s a nice relaxation, I like it very much.’’ Michael, ‘one of Scotland’s most versatile musicians, who has influenced In his retirement Michel has reinvented himself, and is busier than a generation of teachers and students with his innovative methods.’ (the ever! Internet reveals). Michel organises concerts in Paris, as well as other

FEATURES Gordon Jarvie

Lunch at Anstruther, a Haiku

Ruth Walker

Wild Horses

For Jennifer and Roger Quin Sitting at table we watch white horses at play a mesmeric sea Battle is raging our coast the front line in a Hokusai woodcut Boats at the harbour crash and dance in the maelstrom hark at their havoc Flapping and belling weird noises in the background proclaim a real storm The picture window tells a whole story but too soon lunch is over

Comfort did not exist when I was young, a schoolgirl asleep in a wind rattled dorm preparing to face the great world beyond the stony confines of these grim surrounds. I remember my dream, such a vivid scene a fairground, like our local Lammas Fair and horses riding in a steady stream of glorious colour: Indian Red dove tailed with subtle blue in a silent film. There was no loud music, no jostling crowds. (Perhaps all our dreams are voiceless movies.) For that whole week I carried my dream around with me, until the day came when I could put it down in paint. From my high eyrie in the school Art Room I could see the sky above the walls and give my restless steeds free rein at last.

(Anstruther harbour by Peter Adamson)

This vivid dream while a schoolgirl at St Leonards inspired Ruth Walker to become an artist, much celebrated today. Illustrated by part of a lithograph by Ruth Walker, with her kind permission.

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FEATURES: REVIEWS Garry MacKenzie reviews

Endgame: Poems New & Used by Gordon Jarvie Published in London by Greenwich Exchange 2016, price £11.99

Crail-based poet Gordon Jarvie published his memoir with poems, A Man Passing Through, in 2014. Combining brief autobiographical chapters with groups of poems on related subjects, it’s an entertaining and often moving book. Gordon describes his latest book Endgame as a ‘postscript’ to Passing Through, as it includes additional sections on subjects such as his time in Africa and, only marginally less exotic, his reflections on life in the East Neuk. In Endgame there’s a lot of variety to the poems, which range from elegies for departed friends to ‘stomping poems’ written for children (with the accompaniment of clapping hands and stomping feet). The natural world is a recurring subject, including several keenly-observed yet charming poems about local birdlife. ‘Six Herons at Cambo’ describes the group of birds which regularly gathers in a field near Kingsbarns – any traveller on the 95 bus to St Andrews will know them well. For Gordon they are ‘a rural presbytery’, with one of the birds appearing like a ‘minister chairing a clutch of elders’. Another group of popular local birds, the fulmars, which nest on the cliffs above Crail harbour, are celebrated in

another poem: ‘Fulmars are the only birds I can think of / that seem to fly for the simple joy of it.’ Isn’t this a perfect description of their flight, so seemingly effortless and elegant? St Andrews’ birdlife also gets a mention, albeit a less glamorous one, in ‘Harbour Scene with Swans’. The poet encounters a woman from the RSPB carrying cygnets in ‘a grubby old towel’. Having caused a disturbance in the Morrison’s carpark, they’re being relocated to a more suitable location near East Sands. Endgame is more than a collection of poems about birds, however. In the second chapter, ‘The People Come and Go’, there are a number of sombre verse farewells to friends and fellow poets. Alongside these is a happier poem, ‘Birthday Girl: For Abigail’, which marks the birth of Gordon’s first grandchild. She was born 15 August 2013, and the poem begins in a spirit of play and adventure:

Despite the fact that many of the poems draw on the poet’s own experiences, Endgame also looks outward. Toward the end of the book is a sequence of poems that reflect on the interactions and differences between Scottishness and Englishness: questions of accent, nationhood and the ‘mither tongue’ loom large; Gordon also revels in the richness of Scotland’s place names. Endgame is a rewarding read which, whilst rooted in St Andrews and the East Neuk, ranges far and wide, and deserves a similarly wide readership.

You share your day in August with Napoleon, so on that day we’ll fly the pirate flag of Corsica The poem ends in a more reflective vein, noting that grandchildren tend to grow up all too quickly: So here’s a word to the wise. Time flies. Don’t say you’ve not been warned.

Gordon Javie and Brodie by Peter Adamson (Photo courtesy Gordon Jarvie)

Gordon Jarvie reviews

Scotland: A Literary Guide for Travellers by Garry MacKenzie Published in London by I B Tauris, 2016. Available at all good bookshops price £16.99 Garry MacKenzie’s new book, Scotland: A Literary Guide for Travellers is a veritable Cook’s Tour – if not a Baedeker – for literary tourists. It is a wholly appropriate addition to a growing and discriminating series that contains already-published literary guides to Andalucía, Berlin, Florence and Tuscany, The French Riviera, Sicily, Tangier, and Venice. The Scottish title will delight many natives and visitors alike. The author is a well-read native Scot, and this book shows him to be a worthy contributor to an established project. The text carries its author’s literary knowledge lightly, with many a confident aperçu and humorous or quirky comment. And it is up to date, with references to many of the new kids on the block (Kirsty Gunn, Kathleen Jamie, Andrew O’Hagan, Irvine Welsh, et al ), as well as to the old faithfuls (Scott, Burns, Hogg, Stevenson) and much that sits betwixt and between. Also, and importantly, many “furth of Scotland” contributors to the Scottish scene receive due attention (the Wordsworths, Jules Verne, George Orwell, J K Rowling, et al ). And what of non-fiction? David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Carlyle are here. Nature writing? John Muir, Gavin Maxwell, Robert Macfarlane are here. A wide net is spread. The book shows Scotland to be possessed of a literary landscape par excellence, whether Glasgow or Edinburgh, the Borders or the Trossachs, Lowlands or Highlands, islands or mountains, Ayrshire or Fife. The book therefore has a more-than-adequate index of places as well as writers, a necessary user-friendly feature allowing the reader to dip and delve easily and widely.

“Scotland small ? Our multi-form, our infinite Scotland small ?” asks Hugh MacDiarmid rhetorically in a poem of that two-word title (then answering himself as verbosely as he alone could). Scotland may be territorially small perhaps – for example, if compared with the USA or Canada. But the reader may be forgiven for concluding that Scotland has been given over to writing in all genres like almost no other place on earth. Indeed it appears to have functioned as a scriptorium of writers good, bad and indifferent for many hundreds of years. Garry MacKenzie is an ideal author to tackle such a challenging and herculean task – approaching it as he does with the zest, enthusiasm, humour and clear vision of youth, and steering well clear of the platitudinous and repetitious tendencies of old age. A book like this is all the better for not being a total compendium. It is a generous and judicious oversight of a fascinatingly crowded landscape. Describing the New Town of Edinburgh in the 18th century, MacKenzie states that it “follows a thoroughly rational design: its broad streets, neat squares and geometric layout positively scream (or rather, enunciate elegantly) the Age of Enlightenment . . .” How apt is that authorial bracket! There are many such light touches in this delightful book. My hope is that the author may have the opportunity to give his book a new lease of life in ten years’ time with a full second edition. Either that, or a chunky volume II. This is an ongoing story, in good hands.

SPECIAL FEATURE Jurek Alexander Pütter

St Andrews’ Leper Hospital A cross bearer and a priest led the burial procession as it emerged from the north side of the Leper Hospital of St Nicholas-outwith-the-walls, making the short walk eastwards flanked by the apple and pear orchard, into the Hospital graveyard adjacent to the sea. The gardeners lined the path. Sheltered from the breeze by the east range, the cortege threaded its way through the forest of wooden crosses towards the grave dug the previous day in the sandy dune soil. That morning, the six pall bearers, lepers to a man, carried their deceased brother leper pilgrim on a door, that ubiquitous, traditional symbol of the ‘Doorway to Paradise’. It was a ritual, solemn and sacred, that they had participated in many times before. They had buried many of their number at intervals along their pilgrim ‘Camino’ or Highway, to their destination at the Holy Shrine of St Andrew. Their journey had begun two years previously. They had all fallen victim to the little-understood scourge of Leprosy, that capricious defacing disease, respecting neither man nor woman, young nor old, nor made any distinction between rich and poor, prince or peasant. The shock of being ostracized by a population fearful of contamination, from all walks of society, being condemned to a life of being ‘living dead’, dismayed, demoralized and shamed many of the afflicted. They had originally been twelve men from all walks of life. Two had been lesser knights who had fought in the crusades; another a successful town lawyer. Two had been City clerks and had led safe sedentary lives. There was a baker and two carpenters with calloused hands as was the stonemason. Last but not least there were a tanner, a weaver, and a tinsmith. All were from Southern England; all had been married, and many had children from whom they were now separated. They had met three years ago whilst ‘on the road’ working their unhappy ways from one Leper Hospital to another. Yet all twelve of them – the Twelve Apostles as they came to name themselves – had shared the common denominator of having been on pilgrimages, local, National, and International. Three had been to Santiago de Compostella in Spain; another two to Bruges, and two to Rome. Most had been to Glastonbury and Canterbury, and all to the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Walsingham. None of them had been north of Kings Lynn. Something of a common purpose had sprung up among them; a desire, a need, something at first vague and indefinable. They had started at first to begin the ‘wander’ as a group; there was undoubtedly, strength in numbers. Also collectively, despite some infirmity, they were all mobile, with a considerable range of skills. The Lawyer became their spokesman, the clerks their accountant and treasurer, and the knights their muscle. Despite their affliction, they had all remained men of faith. By and large they came to reject the idea that Christ was punishing them for some past sins, or abandoning them. The idea of embracing some noble spiritual cause that might strengthen their lives, or what remained of them, began to take hold forming, then rapidly congealing into the act of making one last great difficult pilgrimage to a distant Holy Shrine, all within a realistic timescale. For that reason, because they had never travelled north, they chose St Andrews, greatest of the Pilgrim Shrines north of Walsingham. Once there, their aim was to spend the last years of their lives in prayer and contemplation in the Leper Hospital of St Nicholas, within sight and sound of the Holy City, Jerusalem of the North. It was, as they all acknowledged, a farewell to the lands, towns, and villages of their births and lives up to that point. But, it was made easier by the fact that they had become strangers, unwelcome at that, in their England south of the Thames. Turning their backs, shaking off the dust from their

shoes in a former homeland, which had rejected them, they set off. They reckoned that with their various infirmities, it would take two years, wintering at either York or Durham. They were not the only leper group venturing north. From time to time they would gather intelligence about the options of the various routes, shrines, and Leper Hospitals en route. They started at St Albans, headed to Cambridge, Ely, and Walsingham. They took in lesser shrines and were prepared to deviate, as they did westwards to Coventry, retracing their steps back to Kings Lynn and Boston to Lincoln. It was at Lincoln that they acquired a small cart and a donkey from Lepers who could no longer walk and were hospitalized there. It was a godsend, for now they had a means of transporting tents they had bought en route, thus reducing their dependency on hospice accommodation. Alms they received as well as occasional remote field laboring, rough-and-ready carpentry, and dry dyking. They wintered at York. A year had passed. Miraculously none had contracted lesions of the foot, though the number of fingers lost to disease began to rise. Some were losing their looks as noses were deformed and lost. Despite what was to be expected, they retained something of their good humour. Black humour became an art form in itself; they surprised themselves by their light-heartedness, amplified by the fact that they had survived half the journey with a severe winter that had carried off droves of their fellow sufferers. York gave way to Durham and the great Cistercian Abbeys in between. The topography began to change, while the flat plains of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire seemed a distant memory. The land emptied of people. Towns and hamlets were further apart. The windswept empty Duneland of Northumberland’s coast they liked, for they could walk the beaches barefoot and immerse themselves in the sea. They walked the emerging causeway to Holy Island, camping in the dunes near the beaches where the Vikings had landed centuries before, whose memory was still alive. The Roman roads, some still reasonably intact, ran out at Berwick-on-Tweed. At Dunbar they first caught sight of the south Fife coast; as the crow flies they were told that St Andrews was only twenty-six miles, tantalisingly close. A ferry could take them from North Berwick to the Statio Maritimus Anstroyensis at Anstruther, but it was a luxury denied to Lepers. So they went by the great estuary of the Firth of Forth, which presented many stunning Venduta pellegrinaggio – the Pilgrims’ Views; North Berwick to Fife; The Lammermoor hilltop Hospital at Soutra Mains overlooking the Lothians; Edinburgh; Fife; The Pentlands; the Lomond Hills of Fife; Reres Hill and the Shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary overlooking Earlsferry; and back over the Forth to the Lothians. From Dunbar to Reres Hill and St Andrews took six weeks. They had made it. They had stood atop the tower at St Nicholas and gazed at the Cathedral of St Andrews. But time, distance, and disease had taken their toll. The weaver and one of the knights died during the night of their second week. The Carpenters, with two hands between them, fashioned the ‘door without locks’. The Weaver, also their tailor, was interred first in his best clothes, but shrouded, a Scallop shell and pilgrim tokens made by the tinsmith, laid on his chest. The Knight followed that same day, similarly bedecked, and carried to the grave on the same door. Yes, they mourned at the gravesides, yet were strangely elated, oddly happy, not just for their departed Companions of the Camino, but for their own accomplishment in adversity. With roughened voices they bade their farewells with the departing pilgrims’ traditional prayer, the ‘Nunc Dimittis’: ‘Now Lord, you let your servant depart in peace, for I have seen the Glory of the Lord’.

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117 North Street, St Andrews Tel: 013334 474902

SHOPS & SERVICES Sarah Stone, for and on behalf of

Recruit for Spouses Scotland looking for work who are experienced Journalists, A&E Nurses, An award-winning recruitment business that Surgeons, Teachers, GPs, Vets, Dentists, Executive Assistants, Office helps military spouses back into work has Managers, Interior Designers, Architects, Accountants, IT Consultants, recently begun operating in the St Andrews Retail Managers & Retail Assistants, Call Centre Operatives, Graphic area. Recruit for Spouses (RfS) has established Designers, Scientists, Personal Trainers, Yoga Instructors, Beauticians. an office in Leuchars in order to enable Just about every profession you can think of is represented in a military employers across Fife to gain access to the community, so you are highly likely to find someone with a level of pool of talent currently lying dormant across the experience and expertise that you wouldn’t normally expect outside of a region. major city. A lot of our wives have worked for big brands and High Street There are thousands of qualified, companies. That’s a huge amount of talent on offer to employers in experienced, motivated people living in and towns like St Andrews.” around military bases across Scotland, who are Founded in 2012 by Heledd Kendrick, a military spouse herself, RfS unemployed purely because of their husband’s is a gateway for employers who would otherwise find it difficult to gain or wife’s career choice. They are keen to access to the military spouse network. Heledd said, “Good candidates work, and because of their lifestyle have a can often be hard to find. Military wives make excellent candidates, but wide variety of skills and experience forming they often don’t respond to traditional job advertisements. They don’t see an untapped resource with huge potential for themselves as part of the local ‘labour market’, the local economy. Forces’ spouses have skills making it hard for employers to reach them. RfS and advantages which make them an asset to any has an excellent network we can leverage to help employer. There are clear business benefits in because employers are you find the perfect person with the skills and accessing the skills and experience within military experience you need, who would otherwise be off communities including: recruiting people who live the radar to you.” locally, the money will As well as filling job vacancies and giving • Access to a largely untapped resource • A workforce which may be particularly interested stay in the local economy, employers access to a new source of talent and resources, using Recruit for Spouses is in flexible, part-time, or ‘seasonal’ work which is good for everyone human also a really good, practical way for Scotland’s • Interesting and diverse skill sets, including businesses to support the armed forces language skills community locally. And because employers • Military spouses have often developed skills are recruiting people who live locally, the money will stay in the local such as adaptability, resourcefulness, and communication, as a economy, which is good for everyone. result of their association with the military. RfS have made this film to help employers get a better • Military spouses are capable of forging good relationships in a fastunderstanding of what it is they can do for them: changing environment, are loyal and dedicated with a strong work https://vimeo.com/170621106/fa50edf090 ethic. • In addition, those who recruit, retain and advance military-affiliated employees will benefit from supporting the British Armed Forces. Recruit for Spouses is keen to hear from employers in St Andrews, • There are additional advantages for organisations tendering for work large and small. If you would like to know how you can access this with the Ministry of Defence (MOD). unique community please contact Sarah Stone: 07779 111 176 or email s.stone@recruitforspouses.co.uk Sarah Stone, RfS’ representative in Scotland said, “Our candidates would love the opportunity to work for you. I’m a military wife; I’m also a former adviser to then-Prime Minister David Cameron, and worked in (Photo courtesy Sarah Stone) Downing Street before my husband’s career meant a move for the family, when I had to give up my job. I’m not unusual either; we have spouses in

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SHOPS & SERVICES Heather Lang

“ The man may be the head of the household. But the woman is the neck, and she can turn the head whichever way she pleases.”

– Nia Vardalos

One of the most common questions I get asked by patients coming to see me with neck and shoulder pain is, “How did this happen?” Personally, I blame their parents for encouraging them as infants to balance on their hind legs then continue this circus trick at all times, for the rest of their lives. Walking and running in optimal health is actually a very effective and energy-efficient method of bouncing round from A to B. Our muscles and ligaments are designed to turn us into a big spring, but modern living doesn’t involve much carefree bouncing around in ideal conditions. The problem with the design of the human spring in the modern age is that primary senses of sight, sound, smell, and taste are gathered in the head, the highest point of the body. Whilst it makes sense to have the head and neck act as an observation pod connected to a flexible tower for gathering the most information, this is effectively perching a big heavy thing on top of a narrow bendy tube. For balance and threedimensional vision, the eyes and ears need to be level. The neck is a fantastic design for pivoting the head in the right direction and levelling any imbalance further down in the body, such as a leg-length discrepancy, but it suffers from continually having to compensate for our imperfections, such as – again, leg-

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length discrepancy. If the pelvis is tilted to the left, the neck will tilt right to keep the eyes and ears level. Another problem from not spending our days bouncing around as nature intended is that when we sit driving, reading, watching television, or anything that involves focusing with the eyes, we are subjected to what is known as the oculocephalogyric reflex (many points on a scrabble board!). What this means is that wherever we focus our eyes, our bodies prepare to follow by slightly tensing up the neck and shoulders, and the head gets pulled towards the object of our focus. For a classic example of this in action, observe school pupils at lunchtime texting on their phones. The average adult head weighs 12 pounds, but for every inch that the head creeps forward from the ideal posture, it increases the weight of the head on the spine by an additional 10 pounds. This puts a tremendous strain on the muscles, ligaments and connective tissue of the back and shortens the muscles at the front of the throat and chest as they act like guy ropes. This off-centre tension pulls the neck into an exaggerated curve. In addition to the soft tissue strain and damage, this lordotic curve increases wear on the joints and ligaments of the neck and can put strain on the throat at the front. The inflammation from the strain can irritate and trap the nerves in the neck and shoulders causing referred pain and weakness

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into the head, arms, hands, shoulders, and abdomen. Headaches are also a common result of neck imbalance. If you are suffering from any of these symptoms, it is advisable to get your neck checked out and body rebalanced. A place to start is by stretching the arms and shoulders at least once or twice a day. Roll the shoulders as much as is comfortable and remember the words of Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of the Japanese martial art of Aikido, “A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind.”

Heather Lang is a registered osteopath and ergonomic consultant. For further information, she can be contacted at St Andrews Osteopaths, www.standrewsosteopaths.co.uk Tel: 01334 477 000 Mob: 07501 113 480 (Images courtesy Heather Lang)

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SHOPS & SERVICES

Roving Reporter, busy as usual . . . 1. Reporter loves good news! Jamie Fraser, who provided St Andrews with wonderful flowers for 25 years, then got himself reinvented as the florist at the Balgove Larder Farm Shop (01334 476 798) is now a married man! The lucky lady, a long-standing friend, is Karen Morton, Fife’s most highly regarded teacher in Employability. It was a quiet, but romantic, wedding in Malta on 25 July. Reporter wishes the couple a long and very happy life together, wreathed in beautiful flowers, of course!

(Photo by Michelle VanTine)

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2. Hurrah for young entrepreneurship, Reporter enthuses! 20-year-old Guy Wade has launched a mobile gourmet burger bar with the eye-catching name of Screaming Peacock (why? asks Reporter. “Burgers worth screaming about”, replies Guy!) Specialising in hand-made Venison Burgers (all gluten-free), Guy sources his wild venison from his family stalking company Woodmill Shootings in Fife. “Whatever your event or party,” says Guy, “Screaming Peacock promises to provide an entertaining and tasty attraction with its memorable Screamer and Squeaker burgers.” To discuss your catering requirements, please contact Guy by email: guy@screamingpeacock.co.uk, phone: 07896 210 168 or: 01337 810 428. In the pipeline also is a chocolate pheasant burger, so watch this space!

(Photo courtesy Guy Wade)

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Eleven years ago the ladies & gents hairdresser Dynamic Hair moved to 100 South Street (01334 477 150). As always Reporter enjoys celebrating success, persuading owner Paula Baker to let him add her business’ news to his column. Paula is pleased to take this opportunity to thank her customers for their loyal support. She now has 7 girls working for her, including the original ones from the start. Paula is proud that over the 11 years “9 babies have joined the Dynamic Family”, adding that, “The girls work extremely well together. We ensure that we give all our clients value for money at all times. We adopt a very personal approach, making sure our clients feel welcome and valued when they are in our salon. Having been here for 11 years we now feel an established part of the community and have taken this responsibility seriously by supporting a number of local organisations.” And guess who their truly most famous customer was? Yes, it was Hamish McHamish, ‘Cool Cat About Town’! Dynamic Hair saw to his toilet regularly, brushing and combing his fur, “and he never complained about anything!” And nor would anyone else, concludes Reporter with feeling!

5. For a happy change, Reporter includes here a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Fife Council. Gordon Gall contacted the Council in August 2015 to let them know that the barriers across the Lade Braes, at the Mill Pond and at the other end made access to the Braes impossible for electric mobility scooters. John Easton of the Parks Department, together with Gordon Hughes in the Roads & Traffic Management Department set to work. By the start of last autumn both barriers had been rearranged. Gordon’s daughter, Cordelia, said that her father “is overjoyed at being able to get back along there, hence wanting to acknowledge the action of both councillors. At 82 years-old I’m sure it brings back many happy memories for him, as he is St Andrews born and bred and with the exception of living for 15 years in Newporton-Tay, he has lived here all his life. I know he played there when he was young, but it was also a place we visited regularly as children with him. Latterly he took both his grandchildren along there too, who are now 19 and 16 years old.”

(Photo courtesy Gordon Gall)

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4. Reporter learned that – Lawson & Thompson, the student lettings agency, has launched a discount card entitling their landlords and tenants to exclusive discounts across a range of St Andrews shops and restaurants. Over 25 businesses have signed up for the launch, with discounts including up to 30% off at numerous restaurants, hair cuts for £10, and 50% off yoga classes. It is free to sign up, and the discount cards are provided to over 250 Lawson & Thompson tenants at no cost. The company have also announced they are to be moving to new premises on South Street later this year. Contact: 01334 845 145, email info@lawsonthompson.co.uk or visit the website www.lawsonthompson.co.uk Reporter is impressed!

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Leuchars Station £10 Dundee City Centre £25

Print & Design

Edinburgh Airport £70 We welcome commercial enquiries St Katharine’s West, 16 The Scores St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AX

T: (01334) 463020 E: printanddesign@st-andrews.ac.uk The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No: SC013532

SHOPS & SERVICES Would you like to advertise in this space? Please see: www.standrewsinfocus.com for information on sizes, costs, distribution/readership, contact details, etc

We have pleasure in offering: • a mobile hairdresser • cutting/colouring services • party/wedding hair styling 07445 764 289

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ST ANDREWS CONCERT DIARY SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2016

www.st-andrews.ac.uk /music

PULL-OUT FEATURE The University of St Andrews Music Centre once again presents a diverse offering of concerts covering a huge variety of genres. Highlights include world class chamber music from the Aurea Quartet and renowned pianist Susan Tomes, St Andrews Voices (Scotland’s Festival of Vocal and Choral Music), former Vienna Philharmonic Principal Trombonist Ian Bousfield’s solo recital and a concert by Adriaan Hoek, who in 2015 won no fewer than four international organ competitions. This in addition to the regular concerts by our Orchestra in Residence, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the unique array of student music-making at the heart of the University. SEMESTER

TIME

VENUE

CONCERT

Every Sunday during Semester