Bloody Ryanair
Why is it so hard for airlines to actually run the flights they say they're going to run. It's one thing moving a flight by half an hour or so, I can cope with that, but for the second time in a couple of months I've been informed a mere 4 weeks before departure that my flight has been moved to a completely different time of day. Fantastic.
After Christmas's 12 hour change, this time it's the trip to Catalonia in February for the Catalan Dragons v Wigan game. I'd booked flights to Girona in Spain going out first thing on Saturday morning and back late on Sunday evening, and a car to get over the border into France. The plan was perfect, I like having the freedom to explore the area rather than just being stuck in one town which I've visited before, and I was really looking forward to it.
Until they moved the flight out there to Saturday lunchtime. Bearing in mind I have to be in Perpignan for a 7pm kick off, arriving at 3pm instead of 9am made a huge dent in my day, and needless to say I wasn't best pleased when I got the email at 8.30 this morning.
Still, my reputation at work for knowing far too much about European flight schedules paid off, and within about half an hour I'd come up with a couple of alternative plans (because the flight change was more than 2 hours I was entitled to a refund, but obviously, having got a better price by booking months in advance I wasn't best pleased about the prospect of potentially having to buy more expensive flights closer to departure).
Options in my head, I set out for a run to ponder them. I wasn't going to let this get in the way of the half marathon plan. The funny thing is though, that running cleared my head so completely that I kept on forgetting that I was meant to be working out what was the best back up plan.
So I got back, no closer to deciding, and then a brainwaive hit. I checked just one more airport and instantly knew I'd found the plan. I'm now flying to Reus which is about 2 hours further into Spain (and about 3 hours from Perpignan), but I don't mind driving as long as there's stuff to stop off and look at on the way. The whole point of hiring a car was to drive round the area, so now I just have a wider choice of areas for my stops on the way up there and back. And miracle of miracles, it was cheap! It was actually cheaper than my original flights, which should make up the extra petrol money and tolls, and make up for the inconvenience of being messed around again.
So I'm now looking through the guide books again to see whether there's anywhere I fancy stopping off at on the way up, as even with a longer drive, I've got enough extra time to do it in to fit a couple of extra stops in compared to the lunchtime flight they moved me to.
I just wish that they wouldn't keep doing this. I plan my flights very carefully, and it really pisses me off when they completely shuffle them round like this.
So, after my flurry of cancelling my flight and applying for a refund, booking another flight and changing my car hire reservation to pick it up at a different airport, there was one more job to do.
Yes. I went to the running shop. And I bought some trainers. It turns out that the ones I already had were pretty much right (a stroke of luck there, more than any assistance when choosing them) and my feet strike the floor fairly evenly in them. But they were indeed past the point at which they should be retired, so I now have some shiny new ones. I didn't feel like a complete idiot running up and down outside the shop in them (OK, I did really), and I tried lots of pairs on. Amazingly they actually had more womens 9s than mens 9s in stock, but I ended up buying one of the mens pairs anyway because they're wider and my feet felt more comfortable in them. And, as a bonus, the ones I chose were one of the cheaper pairs I tried on and well within the budget I'd set myself.
So tomorrow is test run day to see what they're actually like to run further than 20 metres at a time in before turning round and running back to the shop. They feel like they should be fine, but I need to try a longer run in them I think before deciding whether it's love.
Now I just intend to sit on the sofa and watch tv, read, and play around on the internet all night. I actually stayed sober all night last night for a change on a Friday night, and the feeling of waking up completely sober this morning was most strange. I'm not sure whether I'll repeat that tonight though...
After Christmas's 12 hour change, this time it's the trip to Catalonia in February for the Catalan Dragons v Wigan game. I'd booked flights to Girona in Spain going out first thing on Saturday morning and back late on Sunday evening, and a car to get over the border into France. The plan was perfect, I like having the freedom to explore the area rather than just being stuck in one town which I've visited before, and I was really looking forward to it.
Until they moved the flight out there to Saturday lunchtime. Bearing in mind I have to be in Perpignan for a 7pm kick off, arriving at 3pm instead of 9am made a huge dent in my day, and needless to say I wasn't best pleased when I got the email at 8.30 this morning.
Still, my reputation at work for knowing far too much about European flight schedules paid off, and within about half an hour I'd come up with a couple of alternative plans (because the flight change was more than 2 hours I was entitled to a refund, but obviously, having got a better price by booking months in advance I wasn't best pleased about the prospect of potentially having to buy more expensive flights closer to departure).
Options in my head, I set out for a run to ponder them. I wasn't going to let this get in the way of the half marathon plan. The funny thing is though, that running cleared my head so completely that I kept on forgetting that I was meant to be working out what was the best back up plan.
So I got back, no closer to deciding, and then a brainwaive hit. I checked just one more airport and instantly knew I'd found the plan. I'm now flying to Reus which is about 2 hours further into Spain (and about 3 hours from Perpignan), but I don't mind driving as long as there's stuff to stop off and look at on the way. The whole point of hiring a car was to drive round the area, so now I just have a wider choice of areas for my stops on the way up there and back. And miracle of miracles, it was cheap! It was actually cheaper than my original flights, which should make up the extra petrol money and tolls, and make up for the inconvenience of being messed around again.
So I'm now looking through the guide books again to see whether there's anywhere I fancy stopping off at on the way up, as even with a longer drive, I've got enough extra time to do it in to fit a couple of extra stops in compared to the lunchtime flight they moved me to.
I just wish that they wouldn't keep doing this. I plan my flights very carefully, and it really pisses me off when they completely shuffle them round like this.
So, after my flurry of cancelling my flight and applying for a refund, booking another flight and changing my car hire reservation to pick it up at a different airport, there was one more job to do.
Yes. I went to the running shop. And I bought some trainers. It turns out that the ones I already had were pretty much right (a stroke of luck there, more than any assistance when choosing them) and my feet strike the floor fairly evenly in them. But they were indeed past the point at which they should be retired, so I now have some shiny new ones. I didn't feel like a complete idiot running up and down outside the shop in them (OK, I did really), and I tried lots of pairs on. Amazingly they actually had more womens 9s than mens 9s in stock, but I ended up buying one of the mens pairs anyway because they're wider and my feet felt more comfortable in them. And, as a bonus, the ones I chose were one of the cheaper pairs I tried on and well within the budget I'd set myself.
So tomorrow is test run day to see what they're actually like to run further than 20 metres at a time in before turning round and running back to the shop. They feel like they should be fine, but I need to try a longer run in them I think before deciding whether it's love.
Now I just intend to sit on the sofa and watch tv, read, and play around on the internet all night. I actually stayed sober all night last night for a change on a Friday night, and the feeling of waking up completely sober this morning was most strange. I'm not sure whether I'll repeat that tonight though...
posted by YP at 4:38 PM
2 Comments:
I have never been a runner, and since I have the spinal problems probably won't get the chance to be one. It must feel really good once you're finished though.
i don't know how those ryanair f*ckers get away with it! i'm amazed at the horror stories i hear, but still the prices are irresistable at times. especially this time of year when it's so dark and cold, spain etc look extra tempting.
enjoy those new shoes, woohoo!
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