Wow, has it really been that long since I’ve posted? (Looks guiltily from side to side, while rapidly thinking up a plausible excuse) I’ve been super busy, honest! Work has been mental and so when I get in it’s all I can do to have a shower and eat some cereal for dinner before sloping off to bed, sometimes I love my life!
But that’s no excuse for not posting here, but now I actually have something to tell you (she says with an air of triumph (and just a hint of smugness)!), it is only two more days til my summer holiday, two whole weeks in Florida, soaking up all the tacky, gaudy, glitteriness Disney World has to offer, but me being me, even a simple thing as a holiday that has been booked for FOURTEEN months was not without drama.
I’m sure most of you will have either read or heard about the XL Leisure Group going into administration, and guess who we booked our holiday with………that’s right, who else would Lanny, the unluckiest person in the world have booked her holiday with? So much panic ensued on Friday morning as my mum had to send the children to school while trying to keep a straight face and not let on to them that there was anything wrong, all while trying to explain while daddy wasn’t at work, and had been locked in the office on the telephone since 7.30am, desperately trying to et hold of someone, anyone to help and see if there was anything we could do to salvage our holiday.
Meanwhile N and I drove to work in blissful ignorance, we had both heard the news, but as the report said it was XL Leisure and we knew the holiday had been booked with Travel City, we just assumed that we’d be ok. That was until we got the phone call from my mum to tell us. I even went as far to tell her to “sod off” as I thought she was either joking or had just been mistaken, but no such luck. We both continued the drive to work in complete silence, both of us too shocked to say anything,
Now I realize that some of you might be thinking, “steady on there Lanny, you’re being a little dramatic, it’s only a holiday, no-one died” Well ordinarily I’d have agreed with you, but we’d been looking forward to this for over a year, and it’s been a bit grim in the LannyLee household this year, as it usually is the first year, or two just after you’ve bought a new house, money’s a bit tight and it’s been stressful to say the least, so this holiday was keeping us going.
Meanwhile my step-father had been trying to call Travel City who we booked the holiday with and they had simply un-plugged their phones, he then tried to call ATOL (thankfully as we’d booked a package we were protected, so if worst came to worst at least we’d get our money back) and they were very sympathetic, but due to the sheer volume of calls they were getting all they could offer was to send out forms to let us submit a claim for a refund.
Frantic phone calls back and forth, between, N and I and my mum and I all trying to come up with a bright idea what we could do to get a new holiday. This next bit’s a bit complicated, so I apologise in advance. N works with a girl, whose sister works for Monarch. So this girl’s sister called her to say they’d all just been in a big meeting and they and several other travel agencies were under instructions to get all the people who had booked holidays with XL Leisure, new holidays, now this was at about 9am, and it wasn’t due to be made public for a bit, so we had a tiny window of opportunity, I call my mum straight away and told her to get into a travel agency quick and get a new holiday, as ATOL were covering the cost under the insurance policy
So, my stepfather, the superhero that he is ran around like a lunatic and managed to book us another holiday with Virgin, they were the first one’s on the travel agency at 10am, and while they were sat finalizing the details of our new holiday dozens more people came in to do the same, see it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
So we have a brand spanking new holiday to the Bahama Bay Resort Woo-hoo!!!!!
I feel genuinely sorry for all the people who have lost their holidays and haven’t been able to find alternatives, but I’m just thankful that we’ve been able to sort ourselves out. I don’t think I could have faced the kids after them having been told, fours days before their holiday, that it was cancelled.
Wow, that was a little more long winded than I intended, never mind, moving on.
In my last post I mentioned some crap about the fuck-wit known as MG, well I can safely report that I have told him ion no un-certain terms that he can piss off, and not to bother me again. N and I aren’t perfect, but I’m putting the problems we’ve been having down to the stress and strain of living with his parents for a year prior to buying a house and moving in, coupled with the money issues of buying and paying for a house and therefore being skint for the last year, but hopefully things will lighten up in the new year as we’ve got some stuff we’ve been paying off that’s due to finish, so there’ll be a bit more cash flying around and we might even be bale to afford a night out now and then!
I promise to up-load tonnes of pictures from the holiday, we bought a new memory card and so our total picture capability if approx 18,000 pictures, I think it’ll be enough……hopefully.
See you all soon, when I back all sun-tanned, well maybe a bit pinker.
LannyLee.
