I was invited to a big Burns dinner in Luxembourg where I was proposing the Immortal Memory and presenting my piece de resistance as the legendary Tam o’ Shanter. It went very well, thank you, but with a shadow hanging over the occasion.
My good friend, David Young, who died suddenly in Largs in November, had lined me up for a return visit to the World Heritage city of Luxembourg. Since I first delivered the Burns memory in the ‘Grand Duchy’ 20 years ago we had joked about me completing a hat-trick of appearances. He and wife Sadie were to have been present.
David Young (Image: Contributed) The Youngs lived in their Luxembourg home for half of the year, making almost monthly visits to their apartment in Largs. Last year David, who had been a chief accountant at the European Parliament, had chaired the 40th anniversary Burns dinner which attracts ex-pats of all denominations.
Last week the gathering at the Parc Belair Hotel proposed a toast to David who (jokingly) referred to this column as Drew’s Drivel. (Editor’s note: Maybe it wasn’t a joke). As a spiritualist I knew he was there. I saw him egging me on.
The weekend was eventful. As I recited the Shanter lines, “The wind blew as twad blawn its last, the rattling showers rose on the blast” little did I know that Storm Eowyn was blowing over a large tree in our garden, demolishing a stone dyke wall and landing on the roof of the adjacent Barrfields Park tin shed.
Drew Cochrane (Image: Contributed) In fact, the TV in our hotel room only had one English channel, BBC World News, and when I switched it on the very first image was of Largs. Being battered in the storm.
Luckily, we had flown from Glasgow 24 hours before the horrendous weather stopped flights and my only hassle was trying to get Tam’s horse, Meg – no, not a real one, madam – on to four planes.
Apparently, they don’t get many sizeable hobby horses through customs, security and on overhead lockers. Much x-raying and scanning of Meg’s head was carried out. In case it was a mule and not a horse?
There have been no direct flights from Scotland to Luxembourg since Covid, so you have to go from Glasgow via London Heathrow. The BA journey home was hit by delays which saw us racing from security to departure gate with me hanging on to coat, bag, and horse while trying desperately to stop my troosers falling down as I’d taken my belt off and didn’t have time to put it back on. Aye, Tam nearly had his drawers doon by his ankles!
“Do thy speedy utmost Meg, and make the keystane… of the aeroplane.”
Incidentally, Luxembourg is one of Europe’s richest countries, bordered by France, Germany and Belgium. It is a Duchy because it has a monarch known as the Grand Duke. This year, Prince Guillaume is to take over from his father, Duke Henri.
It has free public transport which is just as well as we, unintentionally, had a mystery tour, managing to get lost on a bus. The country of 700,000 has more cars per capita than any other Euro city so they reckon that every free bus journey is a vehicle less on the roads.
Little old wine drinker me found to my cost that a medium glass of vino costs £12 but you could buy a bottle in a supermarket for only three euros. Eating out is quite expensive but I did get the joke when our hosts took us to a restaurant which featured Fillet de Cheval. Horse steak. Meg wouldn’t approve.
Postscript: How did I know that David Young was with me in Luxembourg? We were dropped off at the hotel and the registration in front was DY78. His initials and age. And when we landed in Glasgow and turned on the car radio the song was Killiecrankie. His favourite which he used to sing.
Thought for the Week: You come from dust and you will return to dust. That’s why I don’t dust; it could be someone I know.
I note that Glasgow is following the lead of Largs and Edinburgh in instructing traffic wardens to dish out £100 fines on drivers who have one or two wheels on a pavement.
Excuse my cynicism – as if – but this new purge on motorists is not because local authorities are welded to the law, the recent Road Traffic legislation that penalises pavement infringement. It is simply because it is a cash cow for the councils.
Why else would wardens be patrolling local streets in the night to pounce upon parked vehicles? Last week it was Douglas Street which is a pretty wide road to be fair. But the wardens, whom we all thought were to concentrate on illegal parking in the town centre, are being sent more often to the top of the town in areas like Alexander Avenue, Bellesdale and Kyle View etc to slap fines on drivers who, in most cases, are creating space on narrow roads for buses and emergency vehicles.
I’m pretty sure there’s a council bureaucrat sitting in his pyjamas in his living room setting targets of income every week, rubbing his hands at the tens of thousands for the council kitty.
I note on local social media the virtuous, possibly a lot of non motorists, reciting the law but if North Ayrshire was to be so diligent in spending the money on fixing the potholes I might agree with them.
(PS: Writing this from the safety of my driveway).