Holiday hassle

Of course, our return home wasn't as smooth as we might have wished. Thirty minutes in a queue at Norwich Airport while two ground staff attempted to check in a large number of people got the day off to a bad start. The pilot tried to apologize for this, stating that a lot of people were off sick today, but that didn't really cut it. The big problem was that many of the passengers hadn't prebooked their hold luggage and so were being charged SIX POUNDS for each suitcase. And so of course the ground staff had to "process the payment" at the check-in desk, which added extra time to an already slow check-in system. In addition, Flybe delayed its flight to Glasgow, but clearly didn't bother then segregating the queue to check in the remaining passengers for the (then) on-time flight to Amsterdam first. That would have been too simple, apparently. As a result, we sat on the plane waiting for the one last passenger and his/her luggage to turn up. And then, Privium had the temerity to not be working yet again -- we pay major ducats for this service each year, and it only appears to be in action about 50% of the time at the moment. Sigh.

And when we finally got into our somewhat chilly flat, we discovered that our power had managed to turn itself off at some point during our fortnight's absence -- probably on December 21. We're not sure why: After all, we weren't using the dreaded dishwasher/kettle combo when away. Regardless, the food in the freezer needs to be binned -- probably not a bad idea, given its age -- and I'm not sure my sourdough starter will recover (sniff). Oh well, could have been worse: the flat is positively icy and thus doesn't stink as much as it should. For our guests this weekend, it should be fine by New Year's Eve.