Do you ever get fed up with all the palaver that goes with flying?
While a flight still obviously remains the quickest way for me to pop to Scotland I sometimes get scunnert (or is it scunnered?) with having to drive to Heathrow, get there two hours before the flight, do all the queueing at security etc etc.
When you do it as much as I do it gets a bit annoying. A flight which takes an hour and a half can end up taking most of the day and I often think, why don’t I just “let the train take the strain” as the advert used to say.
So when Gordon had booked for himself and me to go to a Deacon Blue and Danny Wilson concert in Dundee the other day, I was really excited but when he told me we had to get up at 4am to get an early flight, I just couldn’t face it.
I told Gordon to go ahead if he wanted to spend the day in Scotland but I’d get up a lot later, catch a train and see him there.
I have been missing out on so much sleep, a bit of a lie in was bliss.
But here is the catch! If I thought flying was a palaver, had I just conveniently forgotten how wrong train journeys can actually go?
From a broken-down train, to a missing driver, an order for everyone to get off and a total change of route we eventually arrived.
Long distance
I was meant to meet Gordon in Dundee at 5pm but instead I just made it to the gig for the encore at about 10pm!
For a while, please remind me not to go anywhere near a long-distance train journey.
It was chaotic. People were upset, people were angry, people were getting stupidly drunk the longer we spent on those trains.
It seems like train travel in the UK is becoming more and more expensive and more and more of a joke.
In much of the rest of Europe, train travel is extraordinarily punctual, it’s cheaper and it’s just a more pleasant experience.
I’m back on a flight today and I’ve learned my lesson, no more complaining about what is a very easy way to travel.
Yvie picks up the P&J
Unless of course you go on easyJet which as you know I try to avoid! But that’s another story.
And the gig? Even though I only heard the last few songs, what a special night it was.
And of course the next morning we FLEW home! I even managed to actually buy a copy of Saturday’s P&J and have a good old read of your life magazine in the lounge. Altogether a much more pleasant journey.
So today as I said, I’m back on a plane and I’m off to do something totally out of my comfort zone.
I’m appearing on BBC Scotland’s Debate Night which if you haven’t seen it, is Scotland’s version of Question Time, a political discussion show, but with questions more relevant to Scotland.
What on earth possessed me to say “yes”? I’m sitting here wondering if I’ve lost the plot.
Waiting on another flight
Loose Women would be much more my cup of tea, talking about topics which were a little bit more light-hearted and didn’t require a certain knowledge of what is going on in the world of politics, where my opinion would be much more relevant.
But here I am waiting to board the flight to Inverness for an appearance at Elgin town hall to talk about, who knows what and possibly look pretty stupid if I don’t even understand the question.
The request came at a time when I’ve been trying to push myself a bit to say yes to more things I’m perhaps not confident about.
As I approach a rather important birthday this year, I’ve been reflecting on the extremely contrasting attitudes of various friends of a similar age and realise that we only live once and if we don’t push ourselves now to be open to new adventures we perhaps won’t be offered them or will be unable to do them in them coming years.
So this show has presented itself to me at a time in my life when I’m feeling quite philosophical.
Let’s just be thankful it’s one night in Elgin and not two weeks in the Australian jungle.
I might well go back to saying no to everything by tomorrow.
Have a good week,
Yvie x
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