What an Expedience!

Sad news befell this household yesterday, with the death of my Dad's sister after a long illness. My Dad originates from Italy and all of his family remain there. When the news came that his sister had been admitted to hospital, he decided to go over to visit before it was too late. Having been too late for his mum and his late sister's husband, he really wanted to get there in time. Unfortunately, she was ever so poorly and died yesterday and the earliest he could fly was today. A complete bummer.

I'd already decided to take today off work so I could take him to the airport. This meant that I was up late last night when my sister phoned after hearing the news; she wanted to accompany Dad on his trip and could I Expedia her there and arrange a return on Monday?

Well, what a kerfuffle.

You do a flight search and the appropriate outbound flight appears amongst the selection. So you clicky away: no, I don't want a hotel; no, I don't need a hire car; yes I agree to the terms and conditions; yes, I want to proceed to book. Oh, I have to add my sister as a traveller: clickity-click, tappety-tap. Clicky..... "Sorry, one of your flights is not available, please try another." What the fuck? Which flight isn't available? Tell me which flight isn't available!!!

Start again, try coming back later on Monday... Clickity, tappety, clicky. No, no hotel; no, don't need insurance; no, DON'T WANT A FUCKING CAR. JUST PROCEED TO BOOK!!!! YES, I just fucking clicked that I agree to everything you fucking want the last time!!!! Which traveller? Dr Fucking Who the fucking time-travelling Time Lord, who do you think the traveller is? The same one as before, that's who! "Sorry, one your flights is not available, please try another."

Eventually I had ten itineraries that wouldn't book. The air was blue. I was very, very stressed and extremely tired. I tried a final time and managed to get her some weird trip that means she spends Sunday night in Frankfurt airport, but at least she managed to get out there with Dad today and he's not on his own.

Airport lounges from Hell
Took 'em to the airport this morning. Lufthansa are EXTREMELY efficient; excellent service. In all honesty, the Expedia thing was excellent; who'd have thought that you could be booking a plane ticket 12 hours before flying just a few years ago?

Anyway, back to the airport. £2.10 for half an hour's parking (that's the time it takes to park); and an exponential upwardly-sliding scale thereafter. Nice. For some reason, and bugger only knows why, I decided to join them in something to eat there and thought Burger King would be a safe option. A cheesy whopper, spicy bean burger and some chips came to £8. EIGHT POUNDS STIRLING? The burger was grey, and cold. It was covered in mayo (disgusting) and iceberg lettuce (readers of previous posts will know of my dislike of this shit). I was tempted to go and give my commendation to the chef, saying, "That was absolutely delicious! was that a ciabatta with wild venison? You know, one of Nigella's? Or did you go for River Cafe?" Might as well have been for the bloody price, the robbing bastards.

Then when we were seeing them through to the departure lounge, after hugs and kisses, I said the strangest of things - even for me. Bearing in mind his sister died yesterday and he's going over there to see his other rellies and hopefully be there for the funeral, it's all going to be very distressing given some other ongoing family issues. As he turned away, I said to him, "Have fun!"

Answers on a postcard please.