It’s a while since I have been in Glasgow. And I realise I should go more often – it’s like Belfast with bits of Donegal attached.
The traffic was terrible – which allowed time for a proper conversation with the taxi driver on the all-too-short journey from Queen Street Station to the BBC at Pacific Quay. That led to a slightly bizarre recording for the Sunday programme in which Sally Magnusson and I had a discussion on faith and politics with an extremely voluble Spanish nun – a strong advocate of Catalan independence. Sister Theresa believes that clergy should marry, that the Catholic church should address same sex relationships ….. I think I have probably met the Pope more recently than she has. BBC Scotland on Sunday morning
And then I ended up in the queue for the Ryanair flight to City of Derry airport – a neat Ryanair way of getting round the Derry/Londonderry/Stroke City dilemmas. Naturally everybody was joining in everybody else’s conversations. And they all came from Gweedore and Bunbeg in West Donegal.
The flight was fine. At about 2000 feet on the approach, the person sitting next to me took a phone call – which caused the plane to fly sideways for a bit. Then we did the classic Ryanair hard landing. This is normally about banging it down onto the the runway so that you can turn off at the first exit and save a little time. This was slightly different because the runway at City of Derry is very short. So it was more like one of my great heroes – Biggles. Biggles would bring the Camel in to land at the end of the dawn patrol – a blip of the throttle and a kick of the left rudder bar, over the hedge and onto the grass of the runway. Welcome to City of Derry where the time is ….
Ryanair almost certainly made the person having a phone call pay well for the privilege.
Sadly I hear they are pulling out of “City of Derry” next year.
One of your best Bishop David. Gave Steve and me a good chortle over Saturday morning wake up coffee.