Debbie and the paranormal

Something else came up during our long conversation over dinner in Balmaha, the night of Day 2. But it didn't really fit in either of my previous accounts of that dinner, neither here nor here.

I already mentioned that I introduced the concept of reincarnation as a metaphor to explain something about how our relationship felt to me. But this also led to a fascinating digression as Debbie started to tell me some stories. As a girl, she had studied Russian in high school. (This was before she traveled to work in the Soviet Union, and long before she married her first husband, who was Russian.) Anyway, while she was learning Russian she would have dreams of herself as a nanny in a Russian household. Then she would wake up with words she hadn't studied yet; and when she took them in to her teacher, sure enough they were correct Russian words meaning just what they had meant in the dream.

Then we talked about other times she had had some kind of extra-sensory knowledge. Once, long after she had stopped any communication with her first boyfriend, she woke up in the middle of the night knowing she just had to call him. So she did, and he told her his father had just had a heart attack. 

More recently, sometime back in 2016 when she and I were communicating only very little, she wrote me an email saying that she thought I had a new girlfriend. (This was of course Marie.) Actually, I told her this story because she didn't remember it. But when I reminded her, she said she was very glad I had Marie in my life.

Just a couple of little notes that I wanted to make sure to tell you about, and they didn't fit in either of the other posts.

          

Hosea and Debbie go to Scotland

So, … how did the relationship fare, between us, while we were together in Scotland for two weeks? The short answer is, I think it was fine. On the one hand, we didn't fight. In the other direction, we didn't fuck. We kissed occasionally, but always with closed mouths. All the guidelines that I promised Marie we would observe, we observed.

But if you want the full flavor of the trip, … maybe I need to talk just a little longer to describe it.

Doing nothing

NOTE: I'm writing this on June 1, but I'm posting it on May 1, just after the West Highland Way narratives. These are some notes that I originally jotted during one of the long delays in my travel as described here.

In my post about flying to Scotland, at one point I talk about getting to the airport and "do[ing] Airport things." What are "Airport things?" What is the experience of air travel?

Day 14: Flying home

And so the trip wound to an end. We got up at 5:30, checked out, met our taxi, and were at the airport before 7:00. Debbie's flight took off at 9:20. Mine was a lot later. I tried calling the airline to see if they could move me to an earlier flight, but the up-charge would have been over a thousand dollars. No, thanks.

Day 13: Sightseeing and one last pub

Another day that probably doesn't require too much detail. Once again, we breakfasted at Café Wander. Then we walked over to visit the Tenement House, an apartment that has been preserved pretty well exactly from the early 1910's. So it provides an excellent snapshot of middle class life in Glasgow a hundred years ago. While we were there, one of the guides asked gently if she detected "North American accents" from us. As we talked with her, we learned that she had been born in Kentucky and grew up in Ohio; but as a young woman she had fallen in love with a Scot and followed him back to Scotland. That was 50 years ago, and so, … well, … here she was. We told her a little bit about ourselves and our trip. It was pleasant.

Day 12: Sightseeing and theater

I think I can keep this part brief. We had breakfast at the delightful Café Wander; then we walked over to tour St. Mungo's Cathedral and the Museum of Religious Experience. After lunch, I went back to our hotel for a nap, while Debbie went in search of a fabric store. She didn't find what she wanted and got back late, which was a bit of an issue because we had theater tickets for that night. But we also had a lot of food leftover that we had packed for the hike and then not eaten. So we had a picnic in our room, and then walked the four blocks to the Theatre Royal where we saw "The Beekeeper of Aleppo."

 

      

Day 11: Back to Glasgow

For once, we didn't have to get up early. Our train left at something like 11:45, and it was less than a half an hour's walk from our hotel to the station. So we ambled downstairs for breakfast, then ambled back upstairs to pack. At this point I happily put my boots back in my suitcase: they were part of the reason my feet had hurt so often on this hike, but I wouldn't be needing them any more.