back to index

Note to oneself:
Minden means: "every..."!

The trip TO London was a breeze - no delay at all! I had been shitting myself all week fearing there might be bad weather and I would get into London too late for the gig, whilst Stephen had been shitting himself fearing that my flight BACK to Budapest could be delayed - so what does that tell us?

I left from Budapest city centre at noon on Wednesday paying through the nose for a very talkative taxi. The flight was perfectly on time, and after the landing at 17:55 I raced through passport control to make the 18:05 Gatwick Express! Quite an achievement!

I arrived at Camden bang-on at 7:00 PM and joined the queue. It was freezing, and Susan hadn't even brought a coat for her 6-hour-long wait!! We got into the venue with a slight delay and stood through the 3 support acts. (Amanda wasn't amongst them; she had flown to Los Angeles for the Grammies early.) It was filling up reasonably by the time George came on - apparently Amy Winehouse, that tosser from that unknown punk band who was on Big Brother for 5 minutes, and the Prince of Brunei were in the audience. (Amy Winehouse wasn't even born in 1986?! Unbelievable!!)

The show had to be seen to be believed - George was doing a rather "speedy" (ahem) YouTube-style performance. ("What's it with the hands?!") His voice was great though, and the choice of songs eclectic - I'm not sure which impression anybody would have gotten who don't spend half their life on YouTube, but according to the Evening Standard the show went down a treat (4 out of 5 stars!). I wonder who had to sleep with whom to get such a favourable review??
We fans however were all quite miffed for obvious reasons... It was almost nerve-wrecking to watch. I was worried he might fall off the stage or something. I wasn't the only one.

After the show we stood in the cold some more until he finally emerged and escaped into a cab - there were proper paparazzi again, glued to the car windows. It was like a bloody zoo! I stayed well away from the car as I didn't want to contribute to the scurrility of the situation by pressing my nose against the windows as well! Susan managed to get "a kiss" though, and Less started screaming and fighting off a photographer! Bless!!
We finally went to the hostel to pick up stuff and get sorted for TrannyShack. Klaus, Jenn, Kristine and her friend, Lees, Susan and I took the last tube to Leicester Square. TrannyShack was the usual fayre with sparse audience and weird performers. Unbelievably, Stuey and John had made it to the gig and pottered around in the Shack as well. I successfully evaded John's presence, and I'm sure I wasn't missed. When we arrived, the band was there as well. Kevan seems to know me by now, because he always says hello, and John was his typically adorable self!!
At 3 AM I left and made my way to Victoria. I missed one of the Greenline buses because I was too slow, and another one because I couldn't find the bus stop! It had started to snow, and the bus I finally caught was late on top of it because of the "dangerous" roads. Don't get me started! Let's just accept that vehicles in Britain as a rule must never be equipped for any weather more demanding than a mild summer's day.

I still made it in time for the check-in and they processed us quickly - just to have everybody wait "airside" for an "indefinite" time. It became clear that none of the Luton planes would be departing before the "strong snow flow (?)" had ended, which did not happen. My flight was cancelled and nobody at EasyJet did anything to help - "Please go home and re-book via the internet" - mhm... home's a long way!!
They assured me that no flights at all would be leaving from Luton that day. I contemplated my options and decided to go into Luton (cheapest train fare), find an internet café, check alternatives, and then crash at a B&B.
Of course the trains were all delayed as well, so I even had to wait for 50 minutes for my 3-minutes connection to Luton town! Together with a fellow passenger who had come up with the same plan, I finally made my way through the slippery snow into Luton's internet café.
The Luton flights on Friday were all booked out, so I re-booked to a still available Gatwick flight instead. unfortunately it left at 13:00 and I would only arrive late in the afternoon on Friday, which didn't really make much sense in terms of "holidays" as we had to fly back to Manchester the next morning anyway!
Just when I was about to book a Gatwick airport hotel, Stephen texted that he'd booked me on a BA flight from Heathrow in the afternoon! So I took a taxi back to Luton airport, bought a National Express ticket to Heathrow and eventually boarded - a much delayed - airport-connection bus.
(Later I found out that it is impossible to cancel an EasyJet flight over the internet, so there might have still been places on those afternoon planes from Luton because of people who didn't bother to show up - plus I couldn't get rid of my Friday flight - I'm sure somebody would have been happy to take my place!!)

At Heathrow airport some flights were going, so I was hoping that the Budapest flight in the late afternoon would be as well. I still had to wait until 20:15 before that flight eventually left - I think any further delay would have killed me! LOL My idea of taking a shower was cruelly crushed due to "maintenance work", but I washed my hair in the normal bathroom anyway.

I arrived back in Budapest around midnight (with almost a day's delay, and about 40 hours without sleep), took a taxi back to the hotel (with a delightful driver who spoke impeccable German), and was finally reunited with Stephen who hadn't even left the room for 24 hours, panicking all the time that I might not return at all. I think he should divorce me!
 

Susan

Lees

Klaus

Sven and Susan

The incredibly lovely Susan and the incredibly lovely Lloyd

Mhmm... It's called Ritzi >Crackers, I am told... ;-)

back to index

Sign Guestbook
View Guestbook