I hadn’t intended to go home to the UK for Christmas. I wasn’t going to pay the trumped-up Ryanair fare, which at most other time of the year would be half the cost.
So imagine my surprise, when in mid-December, I came across a flight from Murcia to Stansted for 9.99e, which equates to about £7.49 in old money.
I booked it immediately, telling myself if I couldn’t find Buddy a holiday home, or a comparably priced flight back to Spain then I hadn’t broken the bank.
Homeward Bound!
In the end, the whole trip came in at under £50.00 so as an older person once said ‘mustn’t grumble’.
Buddy went off to the seaside for his own holiday and wooped it up with Woopy. He gave me the guilt trip treatment when I got back to Spain but this was more to do with him having to LEAVE Woopy and Uncle Dave, not because I’d left him in the first place!
My dream team!
Of course, there were lots of priceless moments being back at home with my daughters and four Grandchildren, far too many to mention, and so lovely to see my much-missed friends, Sam, Roz, Sophie, and Jen.
Prosecco People!
And of course, I’ll never forget meeting the very new, very precious Archie Barrow for the first time!
But I did have a priceless moment of a different kind at Murcia airport when my fellow Brits thought it acceptable to place their suitcases in a line to preserve their place at the boarding gate queue and then return to their various seats in the departure lounge.
What made this quite surprising was the right on cue public announcement ‘Please do not leave your bags unattended’…… but still the bags kept on queuing, their owners following everyone else’s example, like dim-witted sheep.
Bags forming an orderly queue!
I watched the first person resolutely plonk their bag down on the ‘Priority Queue’ side of the Ryanair directive, thinking quietly to myself, ‘oh man, you sure do want your money’s worth out of your Priority Boarding fee’.
But they just kept on coming, even the ‘other’ queuers got in on the act.
THE ‘I DON’T BELIEVE IT’ GLANCE
Normal people, arguably like me, were by this time shaking their heads and exchanging ‘ I don’t believe it’ type glances as more and more bags were left totally unattended.
Although it wouldn’t be PC to admit it, maybe ‘they’ were thinking such things as,…. blimey his skin is a bit dark or is he just rocking a fabulous suntan, …..hopefully, that is only an innocent suitcase and not a religious grudge he’s just parked there?
But of course, being British, everybody just chuckled at this blatant disregard of baggage procedures and the security men just ignored it, as the safety announcements continued.
Soon there was a double row of probably 60 unattended bags and cases forming an orderly line, with no shoving from the back. All being strategically placed to ensure their owners got a seat and space in the overhead locker on the plane. That’ll be the seat they’d paid for, and received confirmation oh AND a boarding pass!
Still better to be safe than sorry I guess. ?
Some of you will be thinking to yourselves ….so what? None of this is particularly offensive behaviour, and I’d kind of agree. But REALLY, trust me as more and more people left their bags, more and more other people were laughing at them. So I cannot be the only one who thought this was first class, Muppetry, and if, IF, you ever consider doing this yourself, I cannot be friends with you and please do not ever read my blog again……
Fast forward back to Stansted for the return trip to Spain, when, in the depths of the departure lounge, at gate 59, struggling with 2 bags that must have weighed over 10kg, and which I could hardly carry, AND, another slung over my shoulder, I blatantly contravened every single one of the Ryanair weights and measures rules.
But the lone security man waved me through and gave me a very cheery ‘have a good trip….Rosemary’!
Read more about my Spanish adventure here http://www.hellosixty.com/the-essex-girls-spanish-car-boot-sale/
The most adorable Archie Barrow
