Heading home to Shetland on tonight’s boat for less than a week, before having to go south again for the Belladrum festival. It’s a dreich old day in Castle Greyskull, but yesterday and the day before were nice…and on a hot day, Aberdeen’s beachfront really comes into its own.

Down to the King’s Links for 50 balls on the golf range, a windswept walk along the (must be the longest in the UK) prom, check out the surfers/kayakers/oil supply boats/paragliders and then head for the coterie of cafes for seaside food at its most elemental: TC’s restaurant, in the former Harry Ramsden’s, is very good indeed – a splendid bit of haddock (they had monkfish and halibut too, with grilling an option for those not willing to be battered) with proper chips and mushy peas. A redundant salad, but then, aren’t they all? Two pots of tea, bread and butter (which was inappropriately wholemeal) and then, ahem, a chocolate fudge sundae using some serious local Italianate ice cream.

I felt drugged with sugar and fat for about 15 minutes, then alarmingly ill, then very sleepy indeed. Which led to a disastrous 8.00pm to midnight snooze and the consequent inability to get back to sleep until 4.00am. It wasn’t all wasted, though: I finished Don Winslow’s The Dawn Patrol, which is, sadly, nowhere near as good as his phenomenal The Winter of Frankie Machine, soon to be a Michael Mann movie with Robert De Niro, or its predecessor The Power of the Dog. Good on surfing, though. Which I’m now tempted to try.