On not running! Travellers’ complaints!

 I’ve been away visiting our son in Buckinghamshire. It’s lovely going away but it plays havoc with your normal daily routine. 

As a rule I snooze my alarm on the first ring and try to get up on the second and run round the village. On Monday I didn’t run because I was awaiting the arrival of the smallest grandson. The schools were starting the half term holiday. His sister was going on a playdate with a classmate. Nowadays children don’t just go to play at a friend’s house; they have a playdate. Their mother wanted to get some work done in preparation for the second half of the term, especially as we were going to be away in Buckinghamshire from Wednesday to Saturday, so she wanted to park him with me. In the end the small boy decided he wanted a pyjama morning, staying in his pyjamas and playing games on his tablet and promising not to disturb mummy. I found out midmorning!

On Tuesday I got up early but didn’t run. Instead I went into Manchester to get my hair done.

On Wednesday I got up early but didn’t run as I was expecting the imminent arrival of daughter and the two small people to set off on a long drive. The plan was to set off after rush hour but still quite early. I prepared a picnic lunch. I got myself organised. Time ticked away. Finally, towards the end of the morning, we set off. Had I known, I could have gone for a morning run. 

Thursday and Friday we visited museums and castles and suchlike activities.

And finally, yesterday, we walked down a local park, where the children played on various pieces of climbing equipment 

and I went for a walk round the soggy perimeter of the park, admiring the Adams Bench (not named for our family!) and the view of distant hills. 

Then we all went back to my son’s house, had a fine lunch, and loaded the car to head for home.

So this morning I set off to run my usual route round the village. A few hundred yards up the road I tripped over something in the path, or maybe just fell over my own feet, and finished up with bruised knees, a bruised chin and a bitten lip. I went home to shower and examine my injuries - not life-threatening!

Something is opposed to my running!

So it goes!

I saw a post about what are supposedly “actual complaints” received by Thomas Cook Vacations from dissatisfied customers. Here are a few:

"On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food."

"We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish."

 "The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room."

"It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home. This seems unfair."

"When we were in Spain, there were too many Spanish people there. The receptionist spoke Spanish, the food was Spanish. No one told us that there would be so many foreigners."

Now, I might suspect that someone invented these but for the fact that about 10 or 15 years ago we flew home from Santiago de Compostela airport and came across something that would fit is nicely with the above. The airport was pretty empty when we arrived but soon filled up with a large group who turned out to be the “Crosby Cross-Denominational Pilgrimage Society”. I got into conversation with one of them who declared that the hotel they stayed in was lovely apart from “the language problem”. “There was a suggestion box”, she told me, “so I filled in a form and wrote in large letters SPEAK ENGLISH!”

So it goes.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!