One of the flight attendants offered me a chocolate biscuit….
Yesterday, Liz and I boarded a small LoganAir flight from Glasgow to Orkney.
It’s always a pleasant flight and we often get a chance to talk with the cabin crew……. (Who are always excellent).
The flight went smoothly and was ‘nearly’ on time at departure and arrival. I find that these small planes often have to wait a little longer to get out onto the runway because their bigger cousins have more passengers and pay more for the various takeoff time slots.
Anyway, I digress!
As I settled into my flight chair and started to talk to Liz about……..?……… well nothing really ( I’m good at filling quiet time with silly noise)…. One of the flight attendants offered me a chocolate biscuit.
I took three.
A chap across the isle from me made a comment and smiled. I didn’t understand a word that he had said, so I asked him to repeat himself. He smiled again and said… well he said ‘something’.
I looked at Liz and she looked back at me, equally puzzled.
He spoke again, a little slower this time, and I was able to make out that he had just visited his dentist in Edinburgh.
On his breath I could smell whiskey.
He then started to tell us how his day had gone…… well, two days really.
He had boarded a flight in Kirkwall in order to visit his dentist in the centre of Edinburgh. A strange thing to do, but apparently the dentist was a family friend. All went well and he headed back to the airport by tram, the same afternoon.
When he got to the airport he saw that his flight had been cancelled and that there would not be another one until the following day.
Frustrated he approached the airlines ‘help’ desk. They apologised and booked him into the Hilton in Edinburgh for the night, with meal tickets and the promise of additional compensation…. Approx £260 he was told.
He boarded the train again and headed back into Edinburgh.
Enjoying his night away from island life, he had breakfast at the hotel and set off once again for the airport.
Nothing is ever straight forward in life and upon arrival, he was met by another cancellation.
His dental appointment was rapidly becoming a bit of an issue.
Once again they sent him back into the city, this time with more lunch vouchers and the promise of more compensation.
Ticked off, he visited the ‘Scotch Centre’ and used his time constructively….drinking whiskey.
As he said, it was to soften the residual pain in his mouth, left by the dentist.
Eventually he returned to Edinburgh airport and was told that the only way he was going to get back to Orkney was to fly to Glasgow and pick up a connection there.
Complying with this advice, he boarded a plane in Edinburgh and flew to Glasgow…… a flight that carried only airplane staff and him. It lasted about four minutes.
A short while later he was boarding another plane to Kirkwall on Orkney, telling me his tale.
It was an interesting tale, spoken in a lovely soft Orcadian accent… and slightly slurred by alcohol.
The smile stayed on his face throughout the telling, and I asked him why he was so cheerful.
He said that he’d just had an unplanned mini ‘city break’ gifted to him by the airline and that he was so grateful to them, he’d make the trip to see his dentist again…….. on the off chance that fate might repeat itself!
There is a moral to this story.
Your travel plans may not be fulfilled in the way you’d hoped, but enjoy the trip anyway. Unexpected joy may still be found.