… the record for fastest mail order delivery, that is. On Wednesday I was going up to Thurso to see George Gunn about his next collection and to plunder his extensive library of Scottish literature. When we are going away for even a short time we always try to clear the decks of Paypal orders through our website and similar orders – since there are no staff to do the work if we don’t, and we hate to keep people waiting. Anyway, an order came in as I was about to leave and I spotted that it was to an address literally just on the Thurso road I was about to drive. So the lady got her book a few hours after ordering it, with a tip of my delivery boy’s cap. ”That was quick!”
Thurso was its usual larger-than-life self – I got to hear about Norse traditions in poetry over a pint, see their brand new museum – complete with some of George’s poetry on the walls - then go to a bursting-at-the-seams Scotia Review writer’s group, then, well it all fades into a near-Orcadian bit of a blur after that. This morning I woke up in George’s spare room and coaxed myself back to reality with a read of Macdiarmid’s A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle. It started to get a bit too reflexive at that stage, leaving me staring out of the kitchen window at Dunnet Head. Which tends to put things in their place soon enough. More sense tomorrow.
David
