Last year I went on a cruise down the Seine. On the first evening on board, as I was sitting in the boat’s lounge sipping champagne and watching out the window for my lost luggage to be delivered (I had a four-day wait for that, but never mind, Elaine – let it go), a lady approached my table and asked if she could join me. Of course I said yes. By the end of the evening Nancy from Florida & I had become firm friends. Over the next few days, we met two more lovely ladies, the Judys from Massachusetts, and the four of us have stayed in touch ever since (the other three have even met up back home in the States).
You know how people say, “oh, you must come for a visit”, but we never act on that? On the cruise, of course we all said that to one another – it’s what you do at the end of a cruise. As everyone is saying good bye, you hear over and over, “if ever you’re in [insert country/region/city here], you must come for a visit.” Well, I can understand that remote Orkney was not an easy place to visit. But a couple of months ago, Nancy looked a picture I had posted of Uncle Ian’s garden here in Carluke, and thought, ‘why not?’ So she wrote and asked If I had been serious, or was just being polite. And in four hours her plane lands in Glasgow!
I am so excited. Even though I really don’t know her very well at all, she struck me as a very easy-going traveller. I remember she liked wine (yay), fine dining (yay), was very interested in all the places we had been visiting (yay), was very interesting to talk to (yay), and has already been to Edinburgh and doesn’t need to go there again (YAY!!!). She likes all the places I’ve suggested which I’ve been meaning to visit but haven’t yet, and she’s made some unusual suggestions of her own (we’re going on a cruise of the Firth of Forth).
So, house is clean, dog is walked, and I’m off the Glasgow to pick up my new house guest.