Simon is the latest member of the family to join the 50s plus club. So to celebrate the occasion we’ve all decided to go away for a week’s break. His birthday was actually last week but the boys cannot take time off school. So for the first time in a long while we’ve booked a holiday during the school half term week. Apart from Mahesh everyone else managed to get time off work. There are four families in the group and Lakshmi has lots of babysitters to look after her.
There were a few frights as the day approached. Members of the group kept falling ill one by one. But they’ve managed to shake it off just in time. We’ve got a new problem today. Storm Brian is on the way and the forecast is that flights may get cancelled. Even if we manage to make it there is still a possibility that the storm might wreak havoc on our houses and we wouldn’t know the extend of the damage till we get back. Anyway no point in worrying about things that are not under our control. Patrick, our neighbour, has got the house keys and he will let us know if there is any obvious problems with mine.
Kavitha was in charge of finding a holiday suitable for all of us, one which everyone agreed to, reasonably priced, somewhere which didn’t take up a lot of travelling time and most importantly warmer than the British Isles at this time of the year. We settled for Santorini, one of the Greek islands.
A few hitches occur as we check in. Well there is 12 of us and so it is not going to be smooth sailing. After checking in we look for restaurants to get a bite to eat before boarding. The restaurants are all full and none can accommodate us all together and so we split up. The five of us including Lakshmi go to Yo Sushi, Lakshmi’s favourite restaurant. The way she gulps down the dish, I wonder if she was Japanese in her past life. A glass of much needed wine at this point and I’m tipsy already.
I lost the last book I was reading on my flight to India recently. I was actually enjoying it and I tried lost and found at the airport on the way back, but nobody had handed it in. To be honest I couldn’t remember the title. The only thing I remember is that it was written by an Indian and nominated for the Man Booker prize. I tried looking for it in WHSmith with no luck. Instead I end up buying a psychology book and another fiction. When I see the bill I realise that I must be really drunk to buy these books. I do not need any self help books at the moment. I have friends who do the same job every day. No point in paying extra for it. Anyway the damage is done. It’s time to board.
The flight time is just over three hours and the time zone is two hours ahead. The pilot has just announced that the take off is delayed due to the windy conditions and so by the time we get there it will be really late.
