You see when I heard they were coming to visit Aberdeen for the first time, I told them we'd go to beach and there we would enjoy opportunities galore for daubing ourselves in the most exotic of seaside perfumes.
Well yesterday morning we searched high and low along the shoreline of the City Beach, but detected not a whiff of eviscerated seal, nor a feather of way past its sell-by date herring gull.
Even worse, after a while, Percy, who is not only HUGE but can also be ever so slightly patronising, said this to me: "Bertie lad, are you sure this really is the Aberdeen in North East Scotland, where it is supposed to always cold, wet, windy and dark at this time of year? How come the humans are enjoying morning coffee sitting outside at a café facing the North Sea? I do believe they are not even wearing their thermals. And their hands have not turned blue. Perhaps you are confused about your geography."
I did my best to reply in civil tones.
"Percy, old chap, you have been misled. It's always beach weather in Aberdeen in November..."
