Huttonian is off to the very peripheries of the Borders to talk on his favourite subject to the Tweeddale University of the Third Age (U3A) in Peebles. No not about the new wall in Kirk Lane but about the Middle East. I often wonder about the nomenclature and why the 'Third Age' In the Shakespearean sonnet Seven Ages, the Third Age is the Lover sighing like a furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress'eyebrow'. I would have thought that this is not an appropriate description of U3A denizens. More likely the Sixth Age according to our Will:

The lean and slippered pantaloon, with spectacles on his nose and pouch on side. His youthful hose well saved, a world too wide for his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, turning again towards childish treble, pipes and whistles in his sound' Perhaps not although at the U3A in Eyemouth much of my talk was accompanied by 'pipes and whistles'as a member of the audience had turned up his digital hearing aid too high and lapsed into slumber.

So it must be another kind of Third Age: Childhood, Adulthood and decrepitude perhaps but again not really applicable. In my experience U3A members may tend towards being clad in 'youthful hose well saved'-flannels and sports jackets in many cases, including mine and lean shanks (if not shrunk) abound but there is nothing decrepit about the intellect and knowledge on parade. No one should try and get away with simplistic sermonising to such people. Try and you are going to get demolished in the Q and A session which follows talks. In Kelso-Three Abbeys U3A the most penetrating observations came from a man who appeared to be sound asleep throughout my presentation, awoke to grill me and then relapsed into apparent slumber during the business part of the meeting when members were being urged to renew subscriptions. A true Borderer.

So it is Paris for business and Peebles for pontification. I'll report further

If I am spared

Spellchecker suggests 'Twaddle' for 'Tweeddale' Could be spot on  ¶ 10:00 AM