Ceilidh calloff
(Anna and Dave scraping snow off the car: Taynuilt, UK)
What began as a gentle excursion into western Scotland for a friend’s party tonight (Saturday) turned into a bit of a white out. For weeks there has been a ceilidh planned in order to properly celebrate a Gold Medal win for my Gaelic singer friend, Joy. Now, to explain, a ceilidh is basically a highland dance gathering with traditional Scottish music and much energetic gadding about. Most of the dances involve either partners or sets of dancers and they are pretty organised affairs – a wrong turn could see the entire dance fall apart. There are a wealth of songs and dances with exciting names like ‘The Gay Gordon’, ‘The six hand reel’ and ‘Strip the Willow’. This type of ‘knees up’ would also involve a wee swalley, many a bevy and perhaps a dram* or two.
Back to my story; I left Glasgow for the village of Taynuilt by train last night (Friday) with a friend so that we might make best use of the weekend away. Earlier today the skies were azure blue and cloudless, allowing a party of us to climb a local mountainous beauty spot in the glorious, but chilly sunshine. As for the return journey, I needed to be back in Glasgow in the morning (Sunday), ready to join my family at the local pantomime that starts at 1pm, so in the absence of any form of public transport before that hour, I had organised to catch a lift with another ceilidh attendee. Unfortunately bad weather further south caused her to cancel, leaving me no choice but to catch the only train leaving Taynuilt before the panto commences; 18:30 today (Saturday), before the ceilidh even begins! I am greatly disappointed by the whole affair, but worse is to come.
After gathering all my belongings from my friend Anna’s house, she and Dave offered to take me to the railway station in the car. We opened the door to this view – heavy snowfall of a couple of inches that hadn’t been there an hour before. As you can see, they rushed to clear the snow from the windows, but by the time we reached the station, they were all already filling up with snow again. Thankfully I made it onto the train and I am travelling on it at present. Shortly after it departed, I received a barrage of messages; despite all the organisation and forward planning, this party has fallen foul of the weather in a major way. The entire gathering has been cancelled at the very last minute, mere minutes after I left Taynuilt; a massive blow to everyone who has stayed tonight, not to mention Joy herself. All in all, it has been a rather tumultuous couple of days, what with my phone fiasco and now further weather related chaos. I am just hoping that all my compatriots behind me will make it back home safely before Monday morning, and that I will arrive home safely tonight.
*All the words in italics are Scottish words for a drink, of whisky in particular.
