When the wind blows ...

A strangely unbalanced sort of day. I was out before breakfast to do my weekly shopping, spending an absurd amount in my efforts to make up for missed days. I became absurdly irritated in Morrison's. When all this began I read that couples were not to shop together - single people unless they needed a carer, that was the rule. At the time, I wasn't doing my own shopping, and merely noted that there were so many rules I couldn't fathom that I'd not bother thinking about them. Today, I realised why there was that early ban. A man and his wife - and I put the man first advisedly - were blocking the aisle ahead of me, just beside the baked beans. They appeared to be visitors - the man, who was making a lot of noise, had a strong northern English accent, and they were having the kind of discussion you have in a foreign supermarket while deciding just how much food you're going to need for your week, or your dinner. Sort of sightseeing in a supermarket... I actually had to ask Loud Man to move, indicating that I needed to reach the shelf in front of him. And he called me "love". Bad idea.

I'll not go on. Well yes - I'll add that Mr and Mrs supermarket tourists were in every single aisle from then on, going in the opposite direction from me. Every b*%%$& aisle. And he never stopped talking. Not for a moment.

The rest of the morning was so dreich, and I was so unmotivated, that the day seemed doomed. I did some Italian, I captioned my set of Flickr photos of the Waverley trip last week. We bickered. 

But then the sun came out. By now it was blowing quite a wind from the SW, but we went out down the coast, chasing the blue sky, and walked along the shore road. That's where my blip came from - this lovely autumnal exuberance beside the road seems to me the epitome of seaside vegetation in these parts. We were wind-blown and tired out by the time we'd battled our way back to the car. I knew I had a zoom meeting to go to, and that dinner would have to be early.

So we were eating said dinner when texts started coming in with the news that PS Waverley, on the very same trip that I described a week ago, had crashed into Brodick pier. Photos followed, on news sites, on Facebook. Some people had fallen on deck with the impact. The bows appear to be buckled. Hours after the announcement that this brief season was to be extended, we knew the summer was over. I know several people who were booked to sail on Waverley this weekend, including both halves of my family, on different days. 

And then I had a zoom vestry meeting. After that, I was so tired that I missed most of the Ten O'Clock News. ( I had qualms about where the capital letters went there!) And I'm still sad about the Waverley. So much a part of my life, and of this river. 

Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care ...