Busy Winter

Location : Reading, England.

I imagined that it was going to be a quiet winter, or so I thought. Within a couple of days, I suddenly realised there were a lot of things happening soon in these last months of 2007...

1. Today, I am being sent by my employer to Madrid in Spain to try and resolve a problem. I'll be there for almost the whole week.

2. On the 23rd of November, there will be an organised trip by the surf club at the Reading university to somewhere in Cornwall.

3. I will be away surfing at the Canary Islands off the west coast of the African continent, 1st to 9th December.

4. Kings of Leon coming to perform in London on the 12th of December!

5. Company annual Christmas dinner & acitivity on the 19th of December.

6. Boxing day sales on the 26th of December in London.
   

Gosh, time is slipping away from my hands in the shortest of moments!

Based on the last 2 times I flew to Spain, it never goes smooth for me. In August last year, I was going to attend a friend's wedding in Madrid but there was a terrorist threat on the day I flew and my flight was delayed by 5 or 6 hours.

When I went surfing 5 weeks ago in Spain, I almost missed my flight. About half an hour from reaching Stansted airport, there was a huge traffic jam on the motorway because the authorities had shut it down due to a burning vehicle. My mates and I had only an hour till our flight departure and we were stuck, immobilised on a closed motorway. Traffic was at a standstill - people were coming out of their cars, standing on the motorway and talking on their mobile phones! Oh yeeaaaahhh....I was desperate. Nevertheless, we managed to park at the designated car park in Stansted, made it to the check-in counter about half an hour before departure, rushed through the crazy security measures at the airport. Right after we took off our shoes and crossed the security barrier, my mates and I were running across Stansted airport barefoot!!! By the time we reached our departure gate, we were all puffing and huffing like Darth Vader gasping for breath. Then we looked up and...the gate was bloomin' closed!!! Of course, our hearts sank...but on checking they'd decided to change the flight's departure gate in the last minute so off we went again. We finally made it to our departure gate about 3 minutes before it was closed. What a dramatic start to the holiday, eh?

So I'm wondering what today's trip to Madrid has in store for me...

Posted by Ripcord at October 28, 2007 10:26 AM