There's always silver lining

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine." - Anthony J. D'Angelo

Just on the day I was preparing to go to on a trip to Galloway, I received a call from the Royal Bank of Scotland where I was setting up a bank account – they asked me to come in again to the bank with my passport so that they could take photocopies.

This was at 12.30PM, and I had planned to leave for Galloway at 1PM.

So with a good half hour to spare, and with the bank being right across the road, I did. I walked into the bank with my luggage full of clothes and outdoor gear, my coat, my camera and equipment, and everything that I had prepared to bring with me on my trip, intending to take go the bank and leave for Galloway straightaway.

I went in thinking that making photocopies wouldn’t take more than five minutes, maximum. Oh how wrong I was. Not only was I in the queue for 20 minutes, but the lady who attended to me took a good 15 minutes just to take photocopies.

I’m used to Singaporean-style efficiency, where everything is fast fast fast. Moving to Scotland where things are a bit more relaxed, I got nervous as the time passed.

As the time passed, I thought, okay fine if I don’t catch this bus I can always get the next one. I thought this because in Singapore, buses arrive nearly every five minutes.

I got to the bus stop and realized that the next bus didn’t arrive for another hour.

And when I saw the next bus, the driver told me that despite having the same service number this bus didn’t travel the same route and didn’t go as far as Dumfries, so I would have to catch the bus that departed the following hour.

By now, I was two hours behind schedule, panicky, and more than a little bit frightened because my first ever solo trip was going horribly wrong all because I had missed my first bus by five minutes.

I finally got on the MacEwan bus service 101 at 3.25PM, and being so late, I was by now wondering if I should have just turned back and whether the whole trip was a bad, bad idea. To make things worse, about halfway through the journey, it started raining.

And then I saw my first Scottish rainbow.



My first thought was that it was beautiful, and somehow also unlike any rainbows I'd seen before. The picture doesn't do it any justice - the colours on this rainbow were vibrant - the reds and indigoes and violets were clear, you could see it was clearly there, not like a weak rainbow only vaguely visible through a cloudy sky.

And then I realised something. If I'd caught the bus on time like I was supposed to, it wouldn't have rained halfway on my journey there, and that rainbow wouldn't have come out.

When the rainbow came out, it finally hit me - I had done it. I was taking my first solo trip, ever. Alone. Unaccompanied. To a place I had wanted to go to for months. I had reached a milestone in my life, and it was like that moment had always been waiting for me and all I had to do was reach for it.

I finally got to Dumfries around 6.30PM, and by nothing more than sheer chance, the bus I was supposed to transfer to pulled up right across the road just two minutes after I'd got off my first bus. Thankful and utterly grateful that the transfer was so quick, I got on, paid the driver, and relaxed for 52 minutes.

52 minutes later in the town of Castle Douglas, I realised that my second bus transfer wasn't going to come until the following morning.

I went to the nearest shop I could find that was still open (a takeaway shop called Don Marco's), and somehow, miraculously, thanks to the good graces of the owners of the shop managed to call a taxi to take me to where I was supposed to be staying for the night.

The people were lovely, helpful, and I even managed to grab my dinner while I was there (haddock and chips). The taxi driver was cheerful, chatty, and told me all about this part of Scotland while I was in the car. He told me stories about his life and what it was like living out in south-west Scotland, and in turn I told him about what it was like being here coming from Singapore.

He told me things I would never have been able to get out of a guidebook.

Although it wasn't at all what I had planned, I got to meet a whole bunch of interesting people. I saw a beautiful rainbow. Despite how much trouble it was, keeping a positive attitude and being determined to make it through, I found out that I am tougher and stronger than I thought I was capable of being.

Getting to Galloway has been quite an experience. It was harrowing, and because I'd missed my buses, more expensive than I thought it would be.

It's not something I'd ever do again - next time, I'm making sure I get my buses on time.

But was it worth it?

Definitely.