Misadventure Memoirs

What are the odds? I heard my name called as Col and I stood in the queue to board our flight to Doha and there was Lucy’s great friend from school days, Sarah, with her husband and two kids just a few peeps in front of us! It was only the previous weekend that we had (separately) attended Lucy’s 40th birthday party which we all agreed was fabulous. So now, we oohed and aahed about the amazing coincidence of us all being on the same flight as we waited patiently with our fellow Zone 1 passengers, me imagining that we had been selected for preferential boarding (and of course Sarah and her family had also, as they were travelling with children)…dead wrong! The six of us schlepped all the way to the actual bowels of the plane and took up our respective seats in rows 42 & 43! 

However, there are certain advantages to travelling with people you know around you. Col and I were able to retrieve and return dropped kids items from under their seats, I got the intel on the primo on board snacks (as voted by the kids) and had two bags of chocolate popcorn duly delivered to my seat, and I didn’t hesitate to stand up on my seat and step over Alan, balancing briefly on his aisle armrest before vaulting to the floor at 2am when my bladder threatened to burst! ( I could never have done that with a total stranger in the aisle seat!!)

All in all, we had an uneventful and comfortable flight. I was thrilled with the performance of my Temu special…a foot hammock that one hangs over the meal tray arms and then closes it to hold the contraption firmly in place. This simple gadget is a life changing total winner! The ultimate cheap scab travel accessory! My foot hammock, together with my new memory foam, wrap-around, Velcro secured neck pillow truly transformed the long haul flight experience for me! (Sarah tried out our spare foot hammock – Col wasn’t having a bar of the fanciful gadget – and she swears it’s a game changer as well!) We parted company with the Duffys in Doha as they transferred on to a flight to London and the two of us flew through to Barcelona.

It’s always such a ball-breaker when you get to your hotel after 20+ hours of flying and transit not to be able to check in to your room until 2pm! We were dusty and tired, just longing for a shower and to be horizontal for a couple of hours before our tour group’s welcome drinks at 6pm when, (I believe it was me that hatched) the sheer genius plan of adjourning to the rooftop pool for a swim, adjacent loungers for a relaxing lie down, and the nearby bar for a mojito or two whiled away the intervening hours. Scorchin’ scheme!