By the time you read this...

I've decided that I've finally had enough and I'm going to tackle Thomas's bedroom. He says he's going to help me, but he's currently procrastinating with Plasticine, so I'll believe it when I see it. (Obviously, you're all too polite to mention that I'm procrastinating with Blogger, and I thank you for that!)

The reward (bribe) for getting his room cleared up is, of course, to get more of his stuff out of storage to clutter up the place again. Hmm... reminds me of a song - "Round. Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel...".

To digress for a moment, 'The Windmills of Your Mind' is, as we all know, the Oscar-winning song from the 1968 version of The Thomas Crown Affair (thanks, imdb.com), but why is it that it always makes me think of Richard Harris? Anyone? I'm sure that the Jose Feliciano version was featured in another film...

Anyhoo... I'm going in. Just as soon as I've had a cup of tea...

Oh, and another thing...

My toaster's broken.

Spoke too soon...

So last night I made sure everything was ready for my madly early, though very late departure to Geneva.

I had a text from my friend to say that the taxi was booked to take us to the airport at 4.15am. His house is about 20 minutes' drive, so allowing half an hour (just in case of... something) to get there, plus waking up, getting up, ablutions, re-packing everything that's become unpacked over the last 2 days and any other unforeseen eventualities, I set my alarm for 3am. Finding it impossible to go to bed too early, I decided that 9pm was about right. I checked on ba.com just before turning in and there was my flight. Estimated departure time 0630. Lovely. All but two of the Geneva flights had left on Saturday. Most delayed, but the last one only by 4 minutes, so everything looked like it was getting back to something like normality. So I went to bed.

Twenty minutes later, my phone rang - the flight's been cancelled. Nooooo! I got up and checked the internet (not that I didn't believe him, you understand, but I needed to see for myself in case he'd looked at Genoa instead of Geneva, or yesterday instead of tomorrow - it can happen!), and by then all of Sunday's flights to Geneva had been cancelled, along with all other European flights out of Terminal 4. I was cross. He was cross. Fortunately, he's much better at being cross than I am (i.e. no sulking or whining or moaning or other childishness), so he phoned up to check if anything could be done - they could get us on another flight at 3pm on Monday, which would get us there just in time to come home again - and got our money refunded.

So, I'm not out of pocket, and I didn't have to spend the weekend sitting on an airport floor. And that's as much 'looking on the bright side' I can do just now...

Now I have a 'bonus' day off, with absolutely no plans whatsoever. What should I do with it? I will eat Toblerones and fondue, Swiss cheese and rosti. I will go to Swiss Cottage and buy a watch. I will speak French (badly) and drive on the wrong side of the road. What would you do?

Transparent luggage only

I was in the news this week. I was one of the thousands of passengers hoping to fly out of London Heathrow on Thursday. I was due to visit friends in Geneva for a long weekend. Now it looks like our long weekend will be a day and a half - we're booked on a very early flight on Sunday - never mind. Could've been worse. So much worse.

British Airways have dealt with it all really well under the circumstances. The people we've spoken to at the call centres have been as helpful as they could be, the calls have been answered without too much waiting time, and the poor chap at the airport who had to tell people that their flight was cancelled was doing a fantastic job. He was actually a mechanic so this wasn't what he normally did (BA obviously just pulled everyone in that they possibly could to talk to the crowds of people at the terminal and try to get them information when they had it).

So I was most disappointed at having to come home to the usual domestic chaos that I thought I'd left behind for a few days. But I'm determined not to use this little bit of holiday to do housework - heck, no! On Thursday afternoon I went to Ikea. That always cheers me up. Well, it didn't really, but I bought a lovely cup and saucer/plate thing that I've had my eye on for ages and they now do it in blue so I could buy it at last!

Then yesterday, we went for a lovely lunch and a walk by the river at Henley-on-Thames. What a very nice place that is. We gazed jealously at amazing houses and watched the boats go through the lock. A bit further down the river we walked past a small enclave of very nice houses, one of which had a little railway running through it, with points and signs and everything. Even a miniature building that was pretending to be St Moritz railway station (so we did get a glimpse of Switzerland after all!).

Today I think I'll take Thomas to the Chertsey Show if he has no other plans. He's been staying at my Mum's, as per the original plan, in case I needed to drop everything and dash to the airport (thanks, Mum!).

So, that's my news. Not great that I couldn't get to Geneva when I wanted, but not so bad because: I wasn't missing anything important - no doubt there have been many people unable to attend weddings, funerals and other events that really do matter; I live 20 minutes from the airport and I wasn't stuck there for hours or 'stranded'; my washing's done, my bag's packed and everything I need is in one place; I still got to do nice things and I visited a place I've never been to before; and of course, nobody's blown up a plane this week!

If you've been caught up in the chaos, I hope it hasn't been too bad for you either. Think of me at 3am tomorrow when I have to get up and head off for my early flight. (No, really. Set your alarm and think of me!)

Tick Tock!

I'm at work for 9 hours and only ever seem to get 7 hours sleep, so what happens to the 8 hours that are left in the day. EIGHT HOURS!!! Surely I don't spend all of it in Tesco?