I couldn’t reach SD’s house in Stirling in time for our book group meeting so made a separate arrangement to meet LM in Greenock.

While I streamed the gathering in SD’s garden to my phone, I negotiated the ticket barrier and fierce railway station staff to catch a train west.

This ‘train’ was, in fact, a small boat. It carried a mix of passengers, including school children and a couple of people on stretchers, across the choppy sea to an island in the distance.

LM was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps meeting at book group in Stirling would have been an easier option for us both?