Catching Up

The two week sojourn in the Eastern Med is over. We left on Saturday and endured probably the worst flight I have ever experienced. All those people who are constantly slagging off Ryanair have obviously never flown on Excel Airways (a misnomer if ever there was). We asked for extra legroom and were given the two worst seats on the plane - both aisle seats on the very last row, i.e. immediately in front of the toilets. The flight was delayed by a non-existent water leak that took them two hours to diagnose and one hour to tell us what was happening. The cabin crew were the rudest I have ever encountered - sniggering behind their hands after lying to our faces about the situation. Debrah was so incensed I thought she was going to explode - or punch someone - in the end she contented herself with defacing the inflight feedback survey with some very blunt and un-ladylike words about what she felt at that moment.

A five hour delay going out and a two hour delay coming back - I can honestly say I will never take an Excel airways flight again.

I had resigned myself to mising the England v Estonia football match on Saturday afternoon but had texted ahead for Christian to record it, which he kindly did - not sure when my stepson became so reliable and helpful but I'm all for it. Our expected travel schedule was perfect for getting home just in time to watch the England v France Rugby World Cup semi final. I had pictured us walking through the door, putting our bags down, turning on the telly and watching the singing of the national anthems. Didn't quite work out like that though - a two hour delay meant we got home just in time to walk through the door, put our bags down, turn on the telly and watch the post match interviews. Bugger.

Still, we won and typically, not a Frenchman in sight when you need one to rub their faces in it - Gerard from the Makhila bar would have been perfect because I have still not forgiven him for turning off the English anthem when I last watched a game in his bar - downright rude and disrespectful it was.

36 hours after getting off that flight I was back on my reliable Ryanair 'bus' to Carcassonne to find out what has been going on in my absence and to try and come to an agreement with the plasterers that Simon had promised. Simon couldn't make it over so two Poles and one Englishman tried manfully to conduct a negotiation in french which didn't come to a conclusion but will do so hopefully in the next day or so.

It also appears that whilst I have been away the Irish bar has closed down, which is a bit of a shock. I still haven't got to the bottom of why - maybe it was just not profitable (it was empty most of the summer) or maybe the owner, Michel, has gone off to stay at a government establishment (equally likely given his propensity for a touch of GBH). One thing is for sure - nobody shuts a bar with a big screen in the middle of a rugby world cup - well, not before the host nation have been knocked out anyway! I shall have to make some enquiries.