Bonus Edition

So as you're all aware, we weren't able to fly back to enjoy Pie Night and company of family. We thought maybe the delay was a small blessing and would buy us a couple of additional sunny days in Bangkok. I don't however think either of us, or indeed yourselves, thought we'd be 'trapped' in Bangkok for another 3 weeks... in fact, we were more than a little startled at the news that Qantas couldn't accommodate us before then.

Looking on the bright side, we get an additional holiday and some serious wind down time, as really we've both finished 'travelling', we're now in holiday mode and plan to make the most of it, doing as little as possible and trying not to make things too costly. Luckily, Rik and his Dad have come to our aid, and tonight we're going to take the sleeper bus down to Phuket, where hopefully we can track Pete's house down and make use of the spare room we've so kindly been offered. Thanks guys!

We'll stay put for as long as possible, and franly hold zero hope of getting an earlier flight home, I just can't see how logistically, even with additional planes, that thinks will move fast enough to see us dumped on an earlier flight. Surely the bottleneck will be the airport parking, air traffic and will mean only a small increase in throughput for those in the queue?

I will say this though, the UK Embassy, were apparently zero help. Basiclly if you're short of cash, or in a spot of bother, you need to call your friends and family for assistance or your travel insurance, zero aid is forthcoming. When you consider how many taxes we pay in the UK, you'd think maybe, just maybe a tin of SPAM or similar would be the least you'd expect. Next up, travel insurance, well we called Go Backpackers/eTravel and basically got told that despite buying a more premium level of insurance from them, that they too will not be putting their hands in their pockets, you see, Section H, point 2b says "if the CAA [Civil Aviation Authority] intervene temporarily, or permanently" then we're not covered, even under the Catastrophe cover we have. Useless jobsworth clowns. Finally, Qantas have said they too cannot offer anything, and that our best bet is keeping hold of receipts and sending them to their CS department in Australia, which amounts in my eyes to - go bark up another tree.

Stranded if therefore fairly poignant, or at least we would be if we had children, pets, a mortgage and other obligations. Luckily, aside from money and Miranda's job [who are naturally understanding], we have no such hard wired commitments, or limitations. That said, I'm sure there's people who aren't so fortunate and are right now having to take loans, or worse to pay for medication or deal with other such issues. Hopefully, this will prove to be a valuable lesson in disaster relief, because frankly, from where I'm sitting it has been handled with sheer incompetence with confusion king-of-the-hill.

Anyway, just thought I'd put a little post up to let you know we're OK, and in very good spirits over the whole issue. All being well we'll see thee on May 8th for conclusion and pie, lots of piiiiiiieeeee.