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ajdesq
A Force-of-Nature *  
F-O-N Champion 2003
Member #: 6 Posts 214
Registered: 24-7-2002 Member Is Offline Mood: Living to kitesurf :-)
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| posted on 26-8-2003 at 16:52 |
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You've gotta laugh....
It serves me right for writing "Baggage Handlers Rock" etc all over my kit.
To answer Mex Bandit's Question, YES, the Gorge was worth it. Details coming soon. In the meantime, you can have a chuckle at an
excerpt from my latest travelogue to accompany the flight back from Seattle. I hasten to add it was my mate's air miles and not my
measly means that got me the nice seat:
"Finally Wednesday arrived, time to go home,but the pain of leaving was eased slightly by the thought of 'turning left' to my flatbed
seat for the overnight flight home. I made sure of course that I looked a TOTAL surf bum as I checked-in with my heaps of kit &
baggage, causing consternation at the BA check-in. A worried-looking manager whispered into the ear of my check-in clerk as he looked
at the boards & sails occupying the whole of the the Club World check-in area, and all I heard in reply was "Oh no it's alright, Mr
Ditton IS flying Club class". Fnar, that told you, smarty-pants!
I was slightly peturbed at leaving the oversized windsurf kit next to the BA office in a public area, but it was all correctly tagged,
I had the receipts for it, so it was out of my hands now. Once again I availed myself of everything that was free in the Club lounge
before trooping onto the plane. My neighbour, a charming self-made man called Bobby, was sharing a pleasant chat with me. However, I
remarked that my prescence in this part of the plane was a one-off, and in two weeks time I shall be travelling to Greece 'standby' on
a charter flight, which I believe must be about as low as you can go. My experience of flying standby to Cape Town already demonstrated
that this was a level BELOW freight. Bobby smiled politely, returned to his newspaper, and never spoke to me again till we landed at
Heathrow.
The flight was smooth enough, and as we flew over London I looked eagerly out of the window. It was a cloudy day, but at one point
there was a small hole in the clouds, and I jest not when I tell you that all I could see through this break was the London Eye and
Waterloo International, complete with the yellow fronts of Eurostars all lined up and ready to go. Fate or what? (note for f-o-n fans:
I work for Eurostar, when I turn up that is).
After touchdown and collecting my case, I loitered suspiciously for a while by the Oversize Baggage collection point. A fellow
passenger joined me, and turned out he's an ace spanish windsurfer called Ascanio, about to burst onto the 'world class' competition
scene. He'd just spent 3 months at the Gorge, was returning home to Ibiza before heading off to Morrocco, then hopefully Maui. He too
was sick of travelling alone and invited me along. I've now committed the rest of my time off, but I really wish we could have met a
year sooner. Life's like that, isn't it?
Ascanio's sails all turned up (in his sponsored Da Kine bag, but I wasn't jealous) and didn't have to wait for any boards - he's
supplied with them at his destinations by RRD (ditto). We exchange email addresses, and off he rushed to catch his bus to Gatwick.
Meanwhile I was sure my kit would emerge at any minute. Of course it would. Surely it would.
It didn't.
British Airways, bless 'em, had LOST my windsurfing kit. Two 3-metre long items containing all my new purchases in Leucate, worth a
couple of grand to replace. Lost. And no-one seemed very interested in going to look for them. Neither could they tell me if they'd
even left Seattle! My mind wandered back to where they had left my stuff - had someone nicked it?
Tired, jetlagged, and frazzelled, I was in a bit of a state by the time I eventually found a helpful member of staff. The kind lady
explained that if my kit had been forgotten, or there wasn't room enough for it in the Hold, then it was NOT common practice to alert
the arrival airport to put the passenger's mind at ease. They just put the bags on the next plane. At this point it was 05h00 in
Seattle and the next flight was due in 24 hours, so we merely completed the necessary paperwork and I raced through customs to the
sanity-saving welcome of my parents who were patiently waiting outside. Dad had even put roof bars on his new car especially for
carrying the kit that hadn't shown up.
Later that afternoon, all my kit was still lost and unaccounted for. I was not a happy bunny. But by 9p.m. that night it had been
found! Hurrah! Now of course, they had to get it to Ashford.
By 6p.m. the next day (Friday) there was still no sign. Lots of phone calls and queuing on the phone later, I was assured it'd be with
me by 8. Sure enough, a little white van arrived and delivered my sails but Where were my boards? "Dunno mate" said the driver, and off
he sped. FORTY MINUTES call-queuing for BA, and after I was cut off the second time I was just about ready to commit murder. Don't
forget I was also jetlagged...
BA told me the couriers had my boards. The couriers told me BA had my boards. The Oh-So-Helpful call-centre girl for the couriers said
that if I were to apply logic, then why would they deliver just one item if they had 2 to deliver? I replied that if you apply logic,
how on earth can you loose 2 items that are nearly 3 metres long? She called her control, and lo and behold the boards were at
Gatwick, but they didn't have a vehicle big enough to deliver them to Ashford. "So how did you get them from Heathrow to Gatwick?" I
asked. The Call-Girl decided they must have made a special flight. Of course they did.
As you may gather, by this point I'd really had enough. I was going to spend the weekend in the caravan in Surrey anyway, a mere 12
miles from Gatwick. I duly collected the boards myself on Saturday afternoon, and I'm pleased to report that nothing is damaged. "
There's more to life than KITESURFING!
Let me know when you find it.
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justal
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| posted on 26-8-2003 at 20:17 |
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Sounds like its been a weekend full of people loosing kit and finding it again...
First there was you and your 'lost luggage', then Dazzamuffin snapped the leash on his kite-board whilst kite-surfing from the Golf
Course Car Park, Borth. He then found his board a few hours later on the sands of the Estuary at Ynyslas. The I left my board on the
beach all day yesterday (Bank Holiday Monday) and didn't notice until I went o go out kite-surfing again in the evening and wondered
where my board was. It was still there on the sands just below the high tide mark where I had left it!!
You're right, you have gotta laugh!!
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