What is is about hexagonal ice that makes Brits say, "Oh f**k!" Tuesday morning - 3 a.m. I am having one of my last cigarettes in my parents' back yard - observing with sagacious fortitude that I shall soon be a vertical 35,000 feet away from this! Why am I going? I don't really know! I don't REALLY want this to be happening. What should be happening is that I am going to Manchester airport to meet Hanna. Instead I, or maybe the UK, have 'let her down' and I still, after three and a half years of marriage, have not managed to satisfy the requirements in order for her to board that 'plane in Cebu. I am pondering this with bleary eyes and heavy heart when next door's cat pops up at the garden wall and 'asks' me why I am so pensive. I have no answer save that I must go to my wife - who has been waiting with lacrimous eyes for more than eight long months. I have let her down! Why? There are currently 15,000 teaching vacancies in the UK and Ireland. I have more qualifications than one can shake the proverbial stick at!! (Never use a preposition to end a sentence with!!!) And yet, all I can get is a job in Paris where the salary is not even enough to pay the bills (I mean, COME ON - TEN QUID for a toasted sandwich and a half of beer!!!!) I am a Francophile - j'aime le pays - mais, il existe un gros probleme ici!!! I can also get a job in London - PLEASE!!!! I spent 16 years down there - it is bloody expensive also - and it holds bitter memories of my ex - trading me in for a newer model and taking my kids away from me!! A PAIN which will NEVER go away!!! A time that can NEVER return - a point in my life where, already suffering from depression, very nearly brought me to the edge - had it done so, I would not be penning this now! 'Sir, your case is 25 kilos - that will be an extra £235!!!' I imagined myself going back to Stalybridge and losing my flight and my wife. 'I can't afford £235' 'Sir, you will therefore have to lose some of this weight.' IThis is not the start I want as I put in the bin chocolates, Christmas cakes, DVDs and other various goodies I have bought to take to Hanna!!!! Other items I stupidly put in my hand luggage - Marmite, mustard, salad cream. I go through security and the said Marmite, mustard and salad cream are confiscated!!!! I have three flights and 20 hours in front of me - I have lost almost all my Christmas gifts for Hanna and my friends - I am not happy!!!! To be continued.............. Al.:england:
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....
Oh really so sorry to hear this Alan. When Ana came to the UK from Korea last Christmas I told her 20 kilo only, absolutely no more and she turned up at the airport in Seoul with 40 kilo of luggage she calls me and tells me they want 600 quid, which I did not have, in the end I was able to pay, I think, 24,000 KLM air miles and they let her on, I would have preferred not to lose those miles though. Preparing my bags is something I am very careful about but I can imagine your anguish at being in that position, I've had to ditch stuff before too but not in such extreme circumstances as you. I'm sure if you had not had so much on your mind you would have been much better prepared.
I am sorry, I didn't help the matter, with my silly and selfish requests. somehow, I hope I will be able to make it up to Hanna.
Sorry to hear that Alan, and I also am sorry for lugging you down with more... Though if Dom is heading over soon I think you should ask him to bring some Mustard and what not
LOL - PLEASE!! Apologies are absolutely not necessary! It was I who overstuffed my case - and thus totally my fault! Besides, chocolates make you put on weight! Now, had I been the Afghan Vice President, maybe things would have been different!! Al.:england:
