Italian bank (no – whatever you’re imagining isn’t even close),
and you can see that we were well up against it. But, in my
innocent naivety, once this matter had been resolved I
dismissed the whole episode with hardly a second thought.
‘You don’t think it’s some kind of omen, do you?’ asked
Lindy apprehensively. It wasn’t just the children she was
concerned for, remember – there was the fate of her mother to
take into consideration, as well.
‘Don’t be so pessimistic!’ I replied confidently. ‘This was
our one piece of bad luck. Now we can look forward to our
holiday, confident in the knowledge that we’ve already dealt
with our disasters.’
Anyway – back to that first day - after squashing young
Thomas through the only window we’d left open, we retrieved
the house and car keys and were eventually on our way.
There were no other incidents en route to warn of what
was to come – in fact, the flight to Paris was relatively pleasant
(as far as twenty-four hours of medieval torture can be). The
movies on offer were particularly appealing – the only
drawback being that I foolishly forced myself to stay awake in
order to watch them all. As the other passengers dozed and
snored all around me, I was using matchsticks to keep my
eyelids open. Unfortunately, I was so exhausted by the
experience that I couldn’t remember a single detail afterwards.
Months later when we ended up borrowing the DVDs, it was
like seeing them for the first time.
Nevertheless, the issue for me was – and shall always
remain – to make the most of free offers. Especially from
airlines.
When I did finally get to sleep, Enid (who’d drawn the
short straw and was sitting next to me) was kept awake for the
remainder of the journey by my gentle, fairy-like snores. Such
sensitivity to tiny noises did not hold her in good stead
throughout the trip, although it has been suggested that the
experience was perhaps a little worse than I’ve described.
The highlight for Lindy was when the cabin crew
distributed the mini-Magnums. Her face lit up like a startled
rabbit before the headlights, and her smile nearly split her face
in two. Fortunately for me, she’s always been impressed by
the simple things in life.
