The nightmare journey.

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In my last post I wrote that Pat and I would be spending our first Christmas for thirty-two years without the girls. That seemed bad, but worse was to come: until yesterday afternoon I thought there was a very good chance of spending my first Christmas for sixty-seven years utterly alone. To explain:

Pat flew to England from Rimini last Tuesday. The journey was hazardous because the roads were covered with snow and ice, and, because we’re about to change the car and our snow tyres had worn out last winter, she was driving with ordinary treads. Despite this she got to the airport in time to catch her plane at 1.30. Unfortunately the plane from Stansted was half an hour late by which time it had begun to snow at Rimini. The pilot circled the airport until the runway was snow-ploughed. Whilst it was circling the plane was struck by lightning. Although it landed safely it couldn’t be used until it had been thoroughly checked which meant that Ryan Air had to send another plane from Rome. Meanwhile the snow continued to fall putting the runways out of action. Eventually the passengers were bused to Forli and from there eventually reached Stansted at 23.30 rather than 14.50 - almost nine hours late.

She was due to come home yesterday. I spent Saturday glued to the BAA web-site which reported the vast majority of flights from Stansted cancelled. At the same time the Met Office was forecasting more heavy snow. So I was virtually reconciled to spending Christmas trapped in Montefalcone - the car, of course was at the airport - sans turkey and sans Pat. But yesterday the gods smiled: Heathrow was virtually closed but nearly all the flights from Stansted took off. The plane got to Rimini on time; Pat managed to avoid crashing the car despite the snow and ice and lack of snow tyres and arrived home a nervous wreck but in one piece.

This morning I had an email from Jayne and Norman saying that the foul weather had prevented their getting to Stansted. So if Pat hadn’t made it I think I might well have died from loneliness.