Menoddmessy; A Visitation

As touted in earlier posts, I had a visitor. Some of you will be familiar with Joni's name in relation to her providing some musical suggestions for the Wednesday posts here. A few of you will be even more familiar with her as a 'pen friend'. 

Joni does not blog herself, but was introduced to reading blogs when one lady and her Airedale's adventures were pointed out to her... then followed her nose from there. Mainly instigated by her love of dogs (and her own Airedales, Molly, then Amy), she found herself enjoying a variety of blogs and, from what I can gather, uses them in the same manner one might use magazines. 

Anyway, Joni decided to strike up email conversations with a few that she particularly enjoyed - and that included Gail, as well as me. 

Joni hails from Alberta in Canada and has always enjoyed travel. Indeed, it turns out she has been to Scotland more than once, so this was not entirely new territory for her. However, she was making an extra special effort to come all the way north from what was essentially a Paris/London trip in order to visit me, and things were not quite straightforward...

First, there was a terrible fire in a building adjacent to the Glasgow Central Rail Station, which resulted in the closure of the main part of the station. Thus, Joni had to follow guidance and made the trip via Edinburgh. She was to spend the 12th in Glasgow, and we had made plans for me to drive to Pollokshaws Park, where the Burrell Collection is housed, and then come back to The Hutch... without either of us fully registering other factors. Neither of us being at all superstitious, we might in future pay a great deal of attention to the presence of any Friday being the thirteenth...

First, I awoke that morning only to realise I was not feeling at all fit enough to drive the best part of two hours into what I knew would be crazy traffic due to the rail closures. As we exchanged morning greetings via text, Joni was not all that surprised and very supportive of my need to preserve energy, so we looked at how she was going to get here - the short end of that story being that the 901 Clyde Flyer bus was the only option. She managed to go and visit the Burrell in the morning, but not without having her own tribulations, as it seems the whole of Glasgow was in complete turmoil due to the station fire. The knock-on effect of no trains, road closures, bus re-routings... Bless her for determination! Once she let me know she was on the bus later in the day, I got myself together and took The Grey over on the ferry to Gourock to collect her. Absolute mayhem, even at this end. So manic was the traffic, in fact, there were two ferry boats running - pretty much unprecedented for this quiet wee corner of the Bonny Land!

Anyway, Joni safely gathered up, we headed back in slightly less, but still surprisingly heavy traffic and even managed to bag a parking spot within a hundred yards of the flat. It turned out there was some dance competition going on at the Queens Hall - but we couldn't find any information about that at all. 

Once into the Hutch, deep breaths were taken, and a proper hello hug and cuppa tea helped to settle somewhat frayed edges of we two ladies of a certain age!

The weather was another factor. March is being very unkind. There had been a fall of snow on the hilltops and even at street level first thing on Friday, but that didn't lie. Sleet was the main issue, and a biting wind.

That said, when there was a break on Saturday, we grabbed the opportunity for a walk down to the promenade and up to the castle gardens. Joni's photo of me (tiny red bobble hat in the centre of the image) might mislead the unfamiliar eye! 

The cloud came and went, and there were a couple of spits, but we even managed a couple of sit-downs by the waterside and had lots of fun hellos with passing doggies and their peeps.

Can you believe I didn't photograph any of them?!! I was just concentrating on the conversation and enjoying the moment. (You'll see a photo of Joni on Saturday...)

We were out for a little over an hour and couldn't have timed it better, for just as we were taking off our coats back in the flat, back came the wind and rain. Although there were spells of sunshine during the rest of that afternoon, they were brief as the foul stuff came in like the waves on the shore. 

I had been planning to take Joni a ride over to Helensburgh on the Sunday, to visit The Hill House (Charles Rennie-Mckintosh design); however, all that worry about travel rearrangements had my visitor concerned - and me, if I'm honest. If she had stayed until Monday as originally planned, it would have been fine. However, a notice had been sent that the station would still not be open for their travel, so there was more mucking around to be done. I was not altogether surprised, then, when Joni said on Sunday morning that she might leave that afternoon instead. We both pored over the ferry/bus timetables to work out what would suit. Even that wasn't as straightforward as it usually is, because our foot ferry service is so shy of weather that is anything other than mirrors and spotlights. I made the decision to drive over in the same manner as I'd collected Joni. This proved fortuitous because the weather was absolutely foul by mid-arvo. Truly awful. 

Sigh... great big warm hugs at the bus stop, and then it was farewell! 

I cannot properly express my gratitude to Joni for making the endeavour of this trip. It didn't pan out as I had quite hoped in that so much came at us from all sides to cut down explorations. That said, we chattered away like old friends and were very comfortable together. Thus, while the physical part of this meet-up turned into something of a damp squib, the connection of two minds after so long over distance was truly wonderful.

But come on, spring, where the dickens are you????!!!!!