Italy eventually...

Well I should have been in Italy now for six days now but due to a slight fuck up getting to the airport it has only been four!

Me being me I was running everything a bit tight timewise with getting to the airport and the like - normally it is possible to get away with this but this time the exception to the rule was invoked. Left Sheffield just after six as planned and made good progress down the M1 to the A14 turnoff with no problems but as soon as I made that turnoff my troubles began...  At the time I thought the delay was down to the widespread idiocy that prevails everywhere on the roads of the UK but it soon became apparent that something a bit more serious than the usual display of incompetence was going on. So there I was stuck somewhere on the A14 watching the small amount of time that I had allowed for delays get eroded away and to make this miserable experience all the more stressful I had chosen that morning to give up smoking again and it was also raining - it was not a happy time in the van.

Eventually I got to the airport carpark at 9.30am - five minutes after the gate closed for the flight I was supposed to be on. Cue an awful lot of swearing and a short while later a relapse on the cigarettes front. With nothing else to be done I got on the bus to the airport to arrange an alternative flight for the following day though as it turned out it was Thursday before I could fly. Nothing to do but book the flight, go visit the folks in Suffolk and prepare to go through it all again in two days time....