Well this has been different!
Nice lie in after the football & a very late night. Super chilled today.
It’s a hot one, and is due to get hotter over the next few days, so we’re bearing that in mind.
Usual setup – breakfast on the balcony, ayram, juice, bread, cheese, hindi fume meats, tomato’s, coffee. My usuals! Jane on her own usual of eating Tesco honey hoops dry, like a bar snack. Weirdo.
My shop delivery was due at some point, as was the arrival of “The Lads”. One happened. One didn’t.
So, we stayed down at the ‘Garsi Bar’ & had a ridiculously laid-back day. I’m not sure I’ve ever spent so much time applying factor 50 and then stretching out on a sunbed! It worked though. As I write this nonsense, I’m not cooked or sore & that’s a good thing, right?
Yer man leaned over the railings & let us know he was here to deliver the heavy goods (35kg-ish?) so I nipped up & we got the deliver in the house, and I then took them up and got them in fridges (some in the poolside bar fridge, of course).
All going well! Super chilled, still! We’d had confirmation that Charlie had indeed got up in time for our friend to take them to the airport, confirmed slightly later when he messaged his mum to ask how to weigh the bags in at the bag drop. I’m not taking the mick, it’s a case of ‘if you don’t know, you don’t know’ & I’m glad he’s asking when needed.
We stayed poolside later than we have done so far, given that their original arrival time was about 1am, and just zoned out. Well, I say that. I didn’t. Instead I put together a Spotify playlist of all of the acts that I’ve seen and am likely to see (chronologically of course) in the next months. Big up to my Fan Services desk colleagues again! You can take the man from Fan Services Desk, but you can’t take the Fan Sevices Desk from the man!
We then got a message saying flight delayed by 45 mins. Oh well. Another late night on the cards.
At 6pm local time (we’re 2h ahead), we then got a lot of inbound messages. Flight delayed? No, “Flight Cancelled”.
Jane & I set up a crisis management desk on the balcony, I ran extension leads, charger cables, Jane got a notepad & pens. We set up a response team WhatsApp group.
First we contained the situation & carried about an assessment of facts, defining the scale of the issue.
Then we notified the parties involved with tailored and concise factual information. We investigated potential solutions, given EasyJet comms were dog poo levels of usefulness & identified mitigating actions. Noz cancelled the pickup from Dalaman for us & was on standby to rearrange, despite just leaving a Badminton court!
We then shut down comms whilst we focused on resolutions. These included booking 4 people on flights to Dalaman as a matter of urgency. At one point, we had nearly £3k’s worth of flights booked across numerous operators.
After now securing options, we then cancelled the least attractive based on flight arrival & departure time, cost & logistics (East Mids was out). They have flights for tomorrow, early afternoon from John Lennons old airport. EasyJet again though, so who knows!
Comms back up, we provided updates and actions as required & Noz sorted not only the transfer from
Dalaman to here, but also the taxi from C/Hulme to the airport tomorrow.
As we moved into evaluation mode, we took care of the other important matters, having postponed our trip to Sandinos restaurant. We ordered in pizza. Job done. Well done, everybody involved apart from EasyJet.
I think we handled that as any good Incident Response Team (IRTs) would. We made a good team. It was like being behind the Fan Services Desk at an Eagles concert between GA doors going green & Main Act on! A buzz!
I over-ordered. So I sent the lads a picture of what they could have been eating. Sure that made them feel better!
In all seriousness though, that was their first experience of travelling as unaccompanied adults. They dealt with it really well, but are hugely disappointed to have missed a day of their hols. I feel for them.
So here we are! Still just Jane & I. Let’s see what tomorrow brings, eh?
Much love & take care!
x