In The Mid Bleak Winter Part 2...

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So you might be wondering what happened to the open air concert that the choral group I’m in, was due to take part. You would only know this if you read my first post posted on November 26th. Fear not though as this post will fully explain the joys of Winter when it hits particular parts of the west coast. Well our advertised slot for singing outdoors didn’t happen. It didn’t happen because the Health & Safety regulation team from our local council deemed it unsafe to take part in any outdoor festival due to the high winds and rough weather that would have pulled the marquis tent down. All that practising for nothing, but actually not nothing since we are due to give a concert tomorrow evening INSIDE a venue. The Bleak Mid Winter in Dunoon, Argyll also means a heavy disruption to ferry services that just cannot cope in rough weather. Well, when I say ferry services I mean just ONE service in particular that has been the brunt of annoyance ever since Argyll Ferries came to be. The roughest part of the River Clyde and the Caledonian MacBrayne owner goes cheap to buy in pleasure style catamarans to deal with the roughest crossing. In the distance on the other side of the bay you’ll find ever faithful “Western Ferries,” who have a calmer route and are thus seldom cancelled despite their older roll on-roll off style boats. I went to Glasgow today on the basis that I needed to buy some Christmas presents. I left Dunoon at 1240pm, the ferry takes 20 minutes to get to Gourock where the train station and the fast train usually only takes another 40 minutes to get to Glasgow. The fast train wasn’t so fast when it passed Glasgow airport due to heavy flooding and the rough and wild wind could be heard rattling around the train carriage. Still we got there and I managed to run around Glasgow to do most of my shopping. The return journey took a lot longer, not helped by the train driver who was apparently stuck in traffic and left our train waiting for half an hour to depart from Glasgow Central. As the train filled with passengers and some left because they were unsure of what destination the train was going to (a secondary joy that ScotRail forever takes the pleasure of for the Glasgow to Gourock journey) we eventually left Glasgow at 6pm. It arrived in Gourock at 720pm and Argyll Ferry had cancelled their crossing. This meant waiting for a bus replacement service that would take us over to Dunoon on the other rival ferry company, Western Ferries. All told I got home at 8pm. I have barely had time to unpack since I have to practice for tomorrow’s concert. The wind is howling outside, the windows are being battered with rain yet again and I’m just thankful that for the moment we haven’t had snow! Oh and it is freezing cold. Thanks for reading. (c)Nar2/Crystalvisions