After a fantastic Christmas Day with the family I set off across the Pennines to Manchester Airport. This was with some trepidation as the weather had been so bad but it turned out to be clear of snow, if very cold. In fact it was very scenic as the snow covered moors at the highest point looked lovely. My son Michael was my chauffeur this time and he did a great job 'Driving Miss Daisy' - I am normally a very nervous car passenger.
Once at Manchester I felt that I could relax as I had done my bit getting to the airport and it was now the job of the air company to get me to India and if they failed my insurance would kick in. I had spend quite a bit of the last week worrying about getting to the airport if it should snow heavily again. I was also worrying about my flight being delayed so I missed the beginning of the tour and was stuck in Delhi on my own.
For some reason I thought I was flying with BA and when I got to their desk the people in front of me were promptly told that their flight to New York was cancelled and that they had to join a long queue at another desk in order to rebook. My heart sank! I stepped forward and the clerk looked at my documents and told me I was booked with Virgin not BA. What a twit! How could I have not known that. I think I looked at booking with BA but changed to Virgin at the last minute. Anyway the rest was plain sailing. I was moved back an earlier connecting flight to Heathrow as so many flights were delayed by snow in Europe. I arrived at Heathrow in plenty of time for my Delhi flight. The shops in Terminal 3 were fantastic. It was like being in Knightsbridge. I had a tasty light supper in Yo Sushi and then killed the time strolling around, knowing that I was going to spend a long time sitting on the plane.
The plane was ready to leave at 22.00 and would have taken off on time except for one missing passenger! It took ages to find his bags and get them off. This is such a frequent occurrence. Where do people get to! I sat next to an Indian family of three women. Aunty and two daughters. They came from London and were going to Delhi to visit family and buy saris. The older daughter was getting married and wanted a special wedding sari. Small world - the younger daughter is a second year medical student at Leeds University and I said I thought I would see her at reception, where I work in Health Sciences, in the near future.
The flight was fine except I started to feel unwell. Luckily I did not bother with the meal on the plane and tried to sleep. My gut started churning more and more and in the end I had to go to the toilet with and attack of diarrhoea. I felt very faint and wobbly but luckily after that I slept a bit and by the time we landed I was OK.
