For my sister

After a very funny conversation with the Dame recently, today I thought that I would relate a tale from my past.

I was not much more than 10 years old and accompanied by my two older sisters headed to London ( Victoria) to get to Gatwick to fly out to Africa on a splendid adventure.

Initially the 3 of us were due to fly to Moscow for  a week, but due to eldest sister Kiki working in the secret service ( OK it was the Police) she was unable to get the necessary paperwork to go, so  there we were hurtling down the M1 on a National Express coach.
And then it broke down at Scratchwood, not the services you understand, far enough away that in the middle of February, we were on the side of the motorway  at approx. 5.00am!

By the time a replacement coach came ( and remember this is before the days of mobile phones and the bus driver had to leg it to the services to make a call from a phone box, remember those????) we knew that we were not going to make out 9am flight to Africa.

When we arrived at Victoria, Kiki made pleading phone calls to the airport to see what could be done.

We arrived at Gatwick unbelievably only a matter of 10 mins after the plane had left.

Staff tried to see if they could help us, we were all dead on our feet and not sure where we were, what day it was, and more to the point what was going to happen.

we were sent to get something to eat and drink whilst they worked on our plight.

When we returned to the desk, we were told that we had been booked on to a flight from Luton airport to our destination and would leave at tea time. If we hopped to it could be on the next 'Green Line' bus  to Luton, taking in the scenery of various counties on the way.

Too tired to do much else, we, got on the bus and headed to Luton.

Never in those days would you have heard travellers heave a sigh of relief when they saw the departure lounge of this airport, but  we did.

So we settled down to wait for the teatime flight, and waited, and waited and waited.

We were sent to get some dinner as the flight was delayed until 10pm.

we  thought we had best  ring the parents.

'Oh goodness' declared Her Serence Highness,

'Why the devil are you phoning from Africa?'


Yes indeed, we should have been  settled in our hotel, had a dip in the pool, had lunch and dinner and at this time be dolling ourselves up to go to the hotel disco!

Kiki told her the story in a nutshell and  then we went back to waiting to board.

It was raining as we headed out onto the runway to board the plane.

We took off into a thunderstorm and believe me I never want to see lightning that close to me ever again.

We landed  slightly shaken but safe and were taken to the hotel in the early  hours.

Having been given our key ( tiny key on a solid brass keyring the size of a saucer, and I can still hear the sound of said keyrings being dropped on marble floors now!).

We headed off to our room, Kiki in charge, marching off to the room, she opened the door and walked in ........................................................only to find a naked man on the bed.

Ah it turned out that we were in the wrong room, worryingly though the key opened it!

We found our room (easy mistake, we were in A5 and had just gone into room 5)????!!!!!

However there were only 2 beds when there should have been 3.

Step up Didi, she took off to the reception and  10 minutes later was carrying another bed in with the help of a porter. I tell  you I swore that she would give up her banking job when we got home and take a job with Pickfords!

Surely now we could relax and enjoy our holiday.

Bed, sleep and then waking up to sunshine and warmth pouring through the patio doors.

We got ready and decided to head out for a walk to get our bearings................................................and couldn't open the door!!!!!

The key that had opened the wrong door and then the right door last night would not open the door at all this morning.

Didi steps up again and climbs over the balcony,, this was not as dangerous as it sounds as we were on the ground floor!

she takes the key and opens the door from the other side, let us out and we never looked back.

This country became a yearly sometimes bi-yearly haunt and is still very dear to us all, although now it is not safe to travel there.


 I'm  sorry to say that I  never even  mentioned the near 3rd degree burns from water heating elements ( remember those before the 'invention' of travel kettles and hospitality trays??) and enamel mugs....................... ah well I'll save that for another day.

have a good one!