Disaster December
Well what an absolute rubbish month…
We CLOSED the phone lines on the 1st December until the 9th December as this is our quietest week in the year and needed a well deserved break from the VW Transporter World we live in 24 hours a day. Anyway we are packed ready to go to Florida, drive all the way to South London (Gatwick) and then the lorry’s had jack-knifed on the M23 due to the snow, then there was an accident and the police decided to close one of the slip roads!!! So there are 2 lines of traffic going to Dover and 2 lines of traffic for Gatwick or South London trying to drive in 2 lines of traffic in the snow…. chaos! We finally arrive at the hotel at 11:30pm taking us 9 ½ hours to get from Swansea in South Wales to Gatwick (which should take about 3 ½ hours)!
Why did you turn back I hear you say??? Well I would have if I could but the next junction was the one we needed to turn off and after spending the last 4 ½ hours in 1st gear in the snow I just wanted to get us all to the hotel to sleep and go to the toilet!!!
When we arrived at the hotel the airport update was showing that all flights were still leaving so we went to bed and woke at 5:30am to see that another 4” of snow had fallen so we assumed flights were not leaving any time soon, after ringing Gatwick Airport – which the phone lines had crashed and not being able to get hold of a certain ‘Rockstar’ airline we were advised to travel to Gatwick in fear of not being able to check in (as some Watchdog viewers may know that by not attempting to check in they can make it very difficult to claim your money back for your holiday) so when we arrive at the airport obviously they tell us that all flights have been cancelled and that Gatwick have CLOSED the airport so we start to think about how we are going to get home – I don’t think I mentioned that due to the amount of time we spent in traffic that I have used my £45 worth of Diesel – which should have been plenty had been drunk by sitting in the traffic and as no fuel tankers were able to get to the South of London the Taxi Driver told us there were no Diesel anywhere so if they can’t be find any…. So we had to get a Train home costing an extra £120 (which started off with the train company attempting to quote us £270 to which Ade used his language and charm (to anyone who know him this will not be a surprise) an got us a much better price??? Cashing in on the millions of stranded passengers at Gatwick – there were people still there sleeping on the floor it was like watching a scene from Love Actually – one dude even had a blow-up mattress so he has either been through this before or is just a control freak who has something prepared for every eventuality?
We arrived back in Swansea and Mat with his lovely LWB T4 came to the rescue and picked us up from Swansea Train Station and took us home! Ah…
So sorry guys that you couldn’t talk to us on the phone but we were a little busy but we did say you could still order securely online!!!
We re-booked for the 9th December as our little bundle of joy Hannah is 5 going on 15 was absolutely GUTTED so we could not cancel, as it would break her heart so we had to close the phone lines down AGAIN so that we could finally go on holiday and take the pitiful look off Hannah’s face L and it did J
Coming Home
Coming Home
However when we landed in Gatwick at 9:00am the runways were a little snowy and by the time we got back to Swansea the snow was at least 4” deep and then the courier informed us that they had a few delays due to customers living in the sticks and of course Scotland as usual!
We returned back full of the joys of Florida to be greeted by Ice, Snow & Wind!
Then the couriers decided they weren’t collecting at all, the staff all had to go home EARLY with pay!!!
Then after days of that it was Christmas so we were off again then in again then off again etc.… Thankfully it is 2011 and we have finally resumed business as usual.
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