The Very Nearly Holiday

A few months ago, we booked a long weekend in Prague. R  had informed me in one of his bathroom mirror messages that he sometimes leaves before going to work - usually it just says something like 'Good morning, Sweetie' or 'Have a lovely day!'. This time it read 'We're going to Prague!'. We planned to fly out on the Friday and return late on Monday night. I bought a guide book and planned our itinerary, getting quite excited as I did so. Prague is somewhere I had always wanted to visit and it looked both fascinating and beautiful.

The plan was to fly Easyjet from Gatwick. R had tried to book British Airways from Heathrow, which would have been much nearer, but their site was having problems, so Gatwick it was.

A few days before departure, one of my teeth started niggling slightly. It wasn't bad and I had a check-up booked soon, so thought that I'd wait and mention it to the dentist then. On the Friday morning, it suddenly decided to flare up. I rang the dentist to see if they could give me an emergency appointment, but they could only fit me in after we were due to set off for the airport. I packed more analgesics and crossed my fingers.We arranged with our neighbours for them to water the greenhouse whilst we were away, and off we went.

We arrived at Gatwick with plenty of time to spare, checked in our bag and waited for our gate to be announced.............. and waited.............. and waited. We had something to eat. Well, R did,  my mouth was too sore. The board informed us that our flight had been delayed, so we settled down on one of Gatwick's weird sofas - designed more for looks than function - and waited some more. Again, it was delayed. 

Finally, a gate was announced and we all headed to it. Upon arrival, they immediately announced that the flight had been cancelled and to head to another gate. We duly followed the instructions, wondering if we were to be put on a different flight, only to be told to collect our previously loaded baggage and to return through arrivals. We chuntered slightly at this, not only because it seemed weird to have to queue up to show our passports again, when we had not actually left the country. Needless to say, quite a few of the machines weren't working and the arrivals process took a long time. 

By this point, the humour of the situation had kicked in and R and I were quite jolly. We had the advantage that we didn't have disappointed children to cope with, so that helped. As too did the fact that I could now, hopefully, get my tooth sorted a day earlier, although I was kicking myself for the missed appointment that morning. I felt for the poor lad working for Easyjet who had been told to stand near baggage reclaim and field questions. Some passengers were, understandably, very annoyed and took it out on him.

Apparently, the fault lay with air traffic control who had left someone with very little experience in charge; a fact which doesn't entirely fill you with confidence! Luckily, our holiday had been, unusually for us, a package deal where both the flight and hotel were booked through Easyjet. Consequently, we just rang the number on the piece of paper we were handed and cancelled the whole shebang. Apparently, they could have tried to get us on a flight the following day but, as we were only going for the weekend, it didn't seem worth it. That, and my mouth was really beginning to ache at this point.

We arrived home late on Friday, I popped some more painkillers and we went to bed. All in all, it had been a real belter of a day!

Despite the fact that the toothache would have marred the holiday, I still woke up on Saturday disappointed that we weren't in Prague. The neighbours were bemused to see our car in the drive and, I suppose, it makes a funny anecdote.

So, I'm spending the weekend living on soup, porridge and smoothies, hoping to get another emergency dental appointment first thing tomorrow. Once my tooth is fixed, we'll think about what to do holiday-wise. I hope to make it to Prague at some point, after all, I have the guide book and planned itinerary at the ready! :O)

Toodle pip for now. x