Quiet morning ....

7th May 2025 (Wednesday)    08.15 .... "Sunny intervals with a light breeze" is today's weather

forecast for.... KY9, Ellon, Uckfield (Sussex) and London:  it's going to be a bonnie day all over the UK.  The breeze is from the Easterly direction so the East coast will be cooler; but it will be warm sheltered from the breeze.   It's a nice, peaceful kind of morning at Elie and Earlsferry:  the sky is a mix of fluffy clouds and blue bits, and the temperature is 11.6C just now.   3.3C was the minimum overnight. 

20.30     I'd been reading about the cyber attack on M & S, Harrods and the Co-op... so, feeling inquisitive, for my morning 'mission' I decided to go to The Store (Ainster) and see how the 'attack' was affecting our local 'Store'.   The first thing I noticed was the car park wasn't as busy as normal and all the Disabled spaces were empty.  Inside the store,  the empty vegetable and fruit shelves stuck out like sair thumbs.  There wasn't any milk, and a lot of spaces had 'Out of Stock' notices.   Having done my shopping yesterday (Leven) I didn't need to buy anything;  but they did have plenty of, what I call my 'Marie Antoinette' diet'selection (it's like Jane's only tastier)... i.e. goodies!   So ... let's face it it would have been silly not to;  I stocked up on Marie Antoinette Emergency Rations, and bumbled my way back home, to have a late morning coffee and a bit o' Victoria sponge cake!   It's not easy being "me".   Oh I also bought 'food';  they had two packs of sausages, which had me fancying sausages and mash, so I bought the second last pack of those.:  And had 'sausages and mash' for dinner.

22.00   After lunch the air changed.   I'd thought of going to Nana's Seat at one time, but whatever was in the air prevented that; so I sat outside, and read my book for a wee while before making the aforementioned 'sausages and mash'.   

The 'News' has been mostly about the Cardinals meeting (conclave) to elect a new Pope.   They, the Cardinals,  eventually got locked into the Sistine Chapel to do the voting etc.   By this time crowds had gathered in St Peter's Square, to watch for smoke coming from a specially erected chimney atop the Sistine Chapel.  Well I don't know what happened but that lum was on the TV screen for nearly three hours.... and when there no smoke coming from it, it is not the most interesting 'lum'.   Watching it was like bird watching a plastic duck.   Luckily there was a presenter interviewing different people, which made it more interesting (it was a split screen so the lum was there all the time). about what was happening.   One of the questions she asked one of the officials whom she interviewed was.... "what happens once they have all voted"?  That's when they discover that they'd left the matches outside!... and that none of the Cardinals smoked.   No... I jest.   There are more Cardinals (133) than there used to be so voting would take longer; especially if they had to have a recount.  

I must say, when there is smoke coming from it, that puny looking lum becomes a lot more interesting. 

Eventually black smoke began pouring out of it (nae new Pope today), my word, it was spectacular.   Just like a lum going up in the auld days.  White smoke means a new Pope.   We have more voting tomorrow.   Actually it's quite interesting;  and the voting should happen quicker tomorrow, now that the new Cardinals (80 of them are 'new) know what they are doing!