The Gatwick Drone Debacle: Part 3

Quick recap; someone decided to ruin a couple hundred thousand people’s day with a drone, including mine and consequently I was forced to break the most important travel travel rule of all “Trust no one with your luggage” but actually it turned out fine! I was then bused up to Birmingham Airport whose staff apparently number in the single digits, and then was placed on a flight to Toronto.

I don’t usually sleep well on planes, but after fifteen hours of being awake and mildly stressed I was ready for a nap. Alas, it was not to be, not on this plane, not on this flight …

First of all, let me just say, that I understand people were stressed on this flight. I was too! I also understand that parenting is hard. Really, really hard.

It would seem to me though, that this day could easily be chalked up to be a ‘special day’ for a parent and child. If the kid gets a bit of extra screen time, an unhealthy meal, or don’t get enough sleep today because they were on a plane and it’s hard to sleep on planes, so be it. A special day every once in a while won’t hurt.

I don’t think I heard a single child on that flight. What I heard, over and above the noise of the cabin and of my movie, were the stressed out parents intent on making mountains out of molehills, and some of the things I heard coming out of the parents mouth were rather dastardly.

By the time the flight was over I was felt like I had injected lead into my veins. The very air around me felt heavy, and the glaring lights stung at my already bleary eyes. Honestly I must have looked somewhat like a zombie. I certainly felt like one as I shambled my way over to the airport booking desk.

With my mind in a haze the next logical step was to continue my journey. I didn’t realise that the hour and availability of flights would impede that. I was shocked, at the time, to find that the booking agents had gone home for the night. Why wouldn’t they put someone here twenty-four-seven? How am I going to catch the next flight? What if the next one is at three am?

I called my parents to let them know I wouldn’t be home that evening. They said they had known when they heard the news that morning; I had apparently been lucky to get out of England at all for all the cancellations that had occurred.

Not totally aware of what I was doing, or where I was going, I made my way over to where I thought a hotel might be. Thankfully I had enough presence of mind to read the signs and ask the woman at the desk if she’d had any rooms available, all the while praying she’d say yes. She did, but all throughout the booking process I felt like I wanted to cry. Not the adult, “I’m sad and I need to express my emotions in a healthy manner” cry, but the child version, the “I feel very small, everything feels very overwhelming, and I am in desperate need of a nap” type cry. Especially when my card got declined.

I must have looked it too, because the woman quickly explained that the machine was a bit finicky and to try again. She chatted with me to take my mind off of it. When I told her I’d come from Gatwick, she gave me the same look one gives a teenager who’s just fallen off his skateboard and onto the railing he was trying to grind down.

Finally my card was accepted and she informed me that the booking desks would be open at five o’clock. As I made my way to the room I began formulating a plan, and given the state I was in I’m surprised that it was actually a really good one.

I managed to lay out my clothes for the next morning, have a shower, get myself into fresh pyjamas, and then repack everything necessary, and, knowing that it was barely a five minute walk to the booking desk and that I wanted as much sleep as possible, I set my alarm for five the next morning all before going to bed.

With the exception of roughly an hour nap I had been awake for almost 24 hours at that point. I don’t know how nurses do it. Whatever they’re paid is not nearly enough, and I was just sitting around waiting most of that time, never mind making important medical decisions!

I was asleep within seconds.

It was probably around that time that the email came in.

To be continued …