Home from Holiday
Posted on August 24, 2012
You may, or may not have noticed my radio silence. Well it’s because I was on holiday! Mr P and I booked a last minute holiday, had last minute holiday cancelled at very last minute thanks to TravelRepublic.co.uk, then re-booked our holiday and off we went! 2 adults, 3 kids, 4 suitcases, 3 car seats and 3 pieces of hand luggage.
Our flight was at ridiculously early o’clock and after a coffee (or three) I felt able to cope with it all. (I am NOT a morning person!) The flight was bearable. I packed enough snacks to put Tesco to shame and brought enough colouring paraphernalia for every person and crew member on the airplane. Louis and Gracie sat with Mr P and Amelie insisted on doing her ‘exercises’ throughout most of the flight (this involved her hopping, skipping, running or jumping down the aisle.) At the risk of sounding 95….I do not know where she gets her energy from?!
Once we arrived, we did the usual…get off the flight….exclaim how hot it is….undress a bit….moan about the passport control queues….rush to the baggage carousels and moan about how long it is taking for our bags to arrive! We had four cases, remember? 2 red ones, 1 pink and 1 silver. The first three, plus the car seats arrived fairly promptly. The last one, the silver one, did not. Gradually, everyone else from our flight got their suitcases and made their way through customs and we were the only ones still waiting. There was one suitcase still on the carousel but no other people around. This suitcase was silver-like mine. It was an antler case-like mine. But here is the crucial point-it wasn’t my case!
Panic set in. I wasn’t at this stage entirely sure I could remember what was in that case. Opening the other cases confirmed my worst thoughts. It was all my clothes. I would love to say I was calm and rational at this point. I mean there are shops abroad. I was however less than calm. We took the suitcase that was like mine, but wasn’t mine and went to the ‘Lost & Found’ desk. The man there was sympathetic but didn’t entirely help matters when upon trying to track down the person who may have taken mine in error, he said ‘his email address doesn’t work, his home number has an extra number in it…I’m not sure if we’ll be able to track him down’.
So we left our contact details, got our hire car and drove to our resort.
Three hours later I get a phonecall from ‘Lost & Found’:
‘Mrs Pelta, we have the gentleman here who took your bag. Would you like to speak to him?’
Er too bloody right I would like to speak to him!!!
To be fair, by then I was so relieved that my bag had been found and he was so apologetic, that all I cared about was getting the case back to me.
We arranged for him to put it into a taxi (we were an hour away from the airport and wrong suitcase guy was staying 30 minutes away in the other direction). The ‘Lost & Found’ lady told me that by handing the case over to wrong suitcase guy, they would no longer accept responsibility. It was a risk I had to take.
This was 1pm. By 3pm the case was still not with me. The poor reception staff and bell boys had to put up with me asking every 5 minutes: ‘is it here yet?’ My worry of surviving a 7 day holiday with one outfit returned.
Wrong suitcase guy had left me his number. I called him. He didn’t answer. I called him again. No answer. I text him. No answer. 20 minutes later he called. He had spoken to the taxi driver who had stopped for lunch (!!!)
At 5pm my case arrived and my holiday began!
And what a holiday it was! Fabulous weather, delicious food and children who were well behaved for at least 50 % of the time (this includes their sleeping hours) 😉
Highlights include Gracie running around the restaurant with her knickers down because she ‘wanted to make people laugh’. Amelie running around the (Olympic size) pool completely naked because she ‘wanted a lollipop’. Amelie & Gracie both falling in love with ‘Fabio’ (yes that’s his real name) the guy who ran the kids’ club and Louis being asked by two Clowns to bring him a pair of men’s trousers to prove that boys are better than girls! (Best not to ask….)
It was a brilliant holiday! We survived the late flight home…despite Amelie’s spectacular tantrum as we were going through security abroad and Gracie’s spectacular tantrum as we were going through passport control here! (Is it wrong that part of me hoped they would be taken away for questioning?)
So we are back. 4 suitcases and all. 1 1/2 suitcases full of washing. Back to reality eh?
However, the reality is that one of my secret projects will be revealed in less than a month and there are some very exciting times ahead!!!
Now once I have tackled the washing, I have a lovely recipe to share with you!
Wish me luck with the washing!
Suzy xxx