Sitting in Molly’s Malone’s , Aberdeen last evening. Came up from Edinburgh on the train the day before yesterday. Couldn’t book a seat. Not sure if it was because A Big Golf Tournament was being played in St Andrews.
I had a hard time picking up my train ticket on Saturday. Scotrail has not been immune from the troubles afflicting Sydney airport and Heathrow. Too many people laid off over the last couple of years and not enough people working now. I bought a ticket online, but unlike the other tickets I’ve bought online, I was not given the option of an electronic ticket. I was told I would have to get the paper ticket from a machine in the ticket office.
I arrived early at Edinburgh Waverley Station, which was lucky for me because some of the people standing in line because the machines had not delivered their tickets were in danger of missing their trains by the time they got to front of the line to tell a human about their problem.
In my case the problem was I had paid by PayPal. They had informed me that I was to bring in the credit card I had used to buy ticket, but I had bought it on PayPal and PayPal is not a credit card company!
Eventually I got to the front of the queue and found the correct platform number, though the guy who gave me my ticket told me a different number.
However, finally having alighted on the correct platform, I made sure I was within coee of the front of the queue to enter the train, short of tripping the ninety-year-old with the walking stick, who was also after finding himself a good perch.
The English blokes opposite offered me a glass of their wine, but I had my own, so I accepted a plastic cup. I, too, had brought a half bottle of liquid refreshment in my luggage, and decided I may as well celebrate having bagged a seat for the next two and a half hours.
On the bus in Edinburgh. A few drops only so far. And today and tomorrow supposed to produce catastrophic heat, though not here in Aberdeen.
On the train to Aberdeen, Julie sat next to me. She comes from Aberdeen, but has been living and working in Texas for the last 20 years. She is back for a holiday to see friends and family.
Julie said she was getting over drinking too much the night before, so I had my half bottle to myself Then I heard the reason the train was so full: The British Open is playing in St. Andrews, apparently the “birthplace of golf”.
And here is what I found out about that Big Golf Tournament: it’s called the PGA Tour, and it’s news here, although in Maggie’s Malone’s Aberdeen, they were showing a football match between two Australian women’s teams on two of their 8 big screens. I realise now that the PGA Tour must also have been big news in Oz because the winner is an Aussie.
Can you imagine the cacophony that was all around me from EIGHT big screens with their commentary, a soundtrack of pop music, and the chanting and singing from LOTS of people getting slowly (or fastly) into the spirit.
Well, it's the morning after now, and I'm getting ready to go pick up my rental car. I'm off to the Shetlands tomorrow and today, I think I'll visit a castle in the vicinity: Dunnotar Castle. It was recommended to me by Julie. There's also a bird watching nature reserve that I might visit, too.
There are a lot of friendly people on your travels. Everyone is enjoying themselves.
ReplyDeleteI do like your photo of the lamb.
It's a happy photo.
The Scots seem to be very friendly. I find myself talking to everyone; that's probably because I have no-one else to talk to. Well, I don't feel lonely. It's like I don't remember how it was to have people to talk to.
ReplyDeleteI'm not chatting to lots of people here, tonight, on "The Hrossey", though. (I'm finally on my way to The Shetlands on the ferry. It's 7:00 pm on 19/07/2022 now, and we'll arrive in Lerwick at about 8:00 am on 20/07/2022.) I booked too late to get a cabin, but I ¡scored! a pod, which is like an airline seat with more space. I can't see myself sleeping tonight unless I get a bottle of wine.
On the ferry, there's too many people and too many of them are obnoxious, and I'm not even talking about the screaming babies. You know, people who have their phone calls on speaker phone so everyone has to hear both boring sides of a boring conversation; or people who come and sit next to you so they can light up a cigarette.
Thanks God there's no smoking on inside on board!
Anyway, I guess I sound cranky because I am a bit. It's always hard to come into close contact with people you'd never have anything to do with, if you had to choice, and to be stuck with them in the middle of the ocean. Didn't seem to deter the Dolly Sisters from their cruising obsession, though. Or that of someone else who comes to mind.