The ferry arrived in Aberdeen at 7am and I took a shower and long time to disembark. I felt I needed to be still for a while before I could take any more moving. We wandered round a quiet, closed Sunday morning city, with the debris of the gale from the night before clearly visible. There were upturned dustbins and roof-tiles missing. One old building had lost it's stone turret.
We had breakfast at a Spoons, which was the only place open, then made our way down to the train station. There was a train at 9.45am. I gave Mel a hug and got on board.
But the universe was still not done with us.
I sat on the train for an hour, but it was going nowhere. The violence of the wind the night before had blown a tree down onto the line. Somewhere near Edinburgh, a shed had appeared on the tracks from who knew where. A chainsaw was not going to be adequate to chop up the tree and lifting equipment was needed to remove it. And then there was another tree a little further down... The delay kept getting longer and longer.
I got off and walked to Mel's place. If the universe wanted to extend my 'holiday' by another 24 hours, there was nothing I could do about it. We watched Dr Who together and squeezed into Mel's tiny room for another uncomfortable night.
2025-02-07