Day Zero (still) – Going somewhere?

The recap

Now, where were we? …Oh yes, we were going nowhere!

Our flight had just taken off and we had been dumped, left behind, stranded at the airport!

The only small glimmer of hope was a telephone number given to us by our ‘hand-holding friends’. A concession for their less-than-helpful chat earlier.

…honestly, I think they gave it to us so we’d walk away!

The number was for the local passport office. Armed with this and a cup of tea we went to make a call!

The golden number

Suddenly, we were hopeful again …not all was lost!

Call us naïve… But, we were utterly convinced a lovely person would answer the phone immediately, listen to our problems and issue Fi with a shiny new passport so that we could hop on a re-booked flight that very afternoon or the next morning!

(There are times when neither Fi nor I should be allowed out into the reality of the cruel world because we’ll only discover it is not as rose-coloured as we’d hope)

Just like this time …because we didn’t get through to anyone on the phone …worse still, the recorded message directed us to the passport office website to book an appointment for 2 weeks’ time.

…Useless!

Then the website said, “For an urgent appointment, call this number”…

…the same number!

Well, that was #@$%£$%, I mean, ‘very unfortunate’ …let’s just say this day was really testing our Zen!

(BTW: If anyone from the Passport Office reads this, I could do a very good BA/UX rate to sort out their online customer journeys – Believe me, you need it!)

The dash to Glasgow

We were getting nowhere, so despite the website saying “DON’T TURN UP WITHOUT AN APPOINTMENT”

…that’s exactly what we did!

Pete collected us from Edinburgh Airport, and we drove to Glasgow in the pouring rain!

In the car, we began to formulate a cunning plan, should we be successful in getting a new passport (more of that later). For the next hour, we watched the waterlogged landscape roll by but our hopes were not dampened …because finally, it felt good to be doing something.

When we got close to the office, Pete dropped us off and waited in the car as we went to queue.

As we approached the front of the queue (we’d been outside in the rain for some time, so were a bit bedraggled, only adding to our pitifulness!) we were immediately asked if we had an appointment…

“Oh, S&%!” we thought …we had to confess we did not!

The hero of the day

The security guard greeted us with the words “well, you’ll need to phone this number”, as he handed us a leaflet …with the exact same number we had been calling earlier!

This is when Fi lost it…

…well, when I say ‘lost it’, Fi isn’t really prone to tantrums or melodramatics so it could be that no one noticed Fi lose it …but trust me she did …no, really, she did!!

For one thing, she started to cry, mumbling through her tears “it won’t work”…

It was then the security guard ever so calmly put his hand on her shoulder and said “it will for me!”

(During all of this, Pete waited in the car for us …which it turns out was perfect, because on this one occasion, the ‘two defenceless women act’ worked out really well, particularly as it wasn’t an act!)

Whether it was Fi’s charm or her tears, something clicked! …and the security guard was putty in her hands!

He went above and beyond to be helpful, securing us an appointment for the next hour, pointing out a place to wait and have yet more tea, and sorting out getting the correct photo. I got the impression Fi may even have jumped the queue that day!

Before long we were leaving with a promise of a new passport in a couple of hours. Fi was delighted, and having asked for permission first, gave the security guard a big hug as we left!

A cunning plan

So now onto our cunning plan…

We had to let Pete get back home. Much as we loved being chauffeured around, like a couple of luvvies, on our mobile phones, we couldn’t keep hold of Pete all day.

After all, it was now mid-afternoon.

(Was it really only mid-afternoon?! God, it felt like we’d already lived a whole week of hell and still the day wasn’t over! …Hmmm, could something still go wrong?)

While Fi busied herself on the phone with our ever-unhelpful hand-holding travel agent friends, I was busy booking a hotel in Glasgow for the night.

We managed to get a reasonably priced room at the Hampton, and thanks to Fi’s endeavours, by the time we reached our hotel for the night we also had new flights booked on the 9:30am from Glasgow to Lanzarote.

…flying on FRIDAY-THE-13TH! …what could possibly go wrong?!

By now, we were starting to rack up the wins and things were looking up!

(Even if we couldn’t actually look up because of the pouring rain lashing down from the heavens!)

The only unknowns for the next day’s travel plans were:

1. We hadn’t been able to secure a transfer from the airport to the hotel
2. We couldn’t choose our seats on the flight – there were only single seats left, and
3. The small question of ‘had our hotel booking been cancelled?’!

Allegedly, none of these could be checked or resolved by – yes you guessed it – our ever-unhelpful hand-holding useless non-friends!

But we were happier, as it looked like we would be going away after all (even if we might have to sleep on the beach!)

Any other problems we’d sort out at the airport tomorrow or when we arrived. But for now, we were staying in a nice hotel and the staff were lovely.

That said, we weren’t quite ready for a celebratory drink yet, as we still had to collect that pesky passport and wouldn’t be 100% happy until it was in our hands.

Michelin Women

So, after saying cheerio to Pete – again! – we paced around our room killing time, drinking yet more tea (we were practically drowning in tea!), before heading back to pick up the new all-important passport.

(We dare not sit back on our enticingly comfy beds for fear of falling asleep and missing our time slot. By this time we’d been running around like crazy things for about 10 hours and I can’t remember having lunch. We’d simply been running on adrenalin; it’s not exactly what you’d call your typical relaxing holiday!!)

It was also Glasgow, and that meant it was raining, not just raining but the rain was bouncing off the pavements.

And it was cold, and we had clothes for a summer holiday!

So after rummaging in our suitcases and adding layer after layer of clothing, we ventured out to the passport office

…looking like female versions of the Michelin Man

…and yet only marginally warmer than we had been!

“I did it for the smile”

We did entertain the idea of walking to the passport office – well, for about 20 seconds – before calling a cab!

On arrival at the passport office, the oh-so-precious, beautifully crafted, and sparkly new passport was ready for us to collect!

(If there hadn’t been a screen across the reception, Fi might have jumped up and hugged the receptionist!)

We collected the damned thing, treating it like the Crown Jewels but not before ensuring everything was in order, especially the start and end dates!

As we left, we told the security guard how grateful we were. His parting last bit of kindness was to get reception to order us a cab! What a lovely man!

On parting, he simply said to us he just wanted to see Fi smile!

His act of kindness was simply amazing and meant the holiday was back on and we could now go away.

…YAY!

Two-centre holiday

Back at the hotel, we were finally able to relax …and this meant only one thing, it was gin time!

With a few hours before dinner, we enjoyed a couple of extra-large G&Ts in the hotel bar and this is where our holiday really started…

…perhaps not sunning ourselves by a pool

…but sitting in a bar in Glasgow, enjoying a couple of gins while the rain bounced off the pavement outside.

The night was finished off nicely with a great meal at the ‘Butterfly & Pig’, a little restaurant across the road from the hotel. Comfort food, great burgers, wine and more gin!

Concluding with a toast to our ‘two-centre holiday’, a strange new pairing of Glasgow and Lanzarote

…I wonder if it’ll catch on?!?

There was, however, still one hurdle …as I mentioned earlier, we were flying on Friday the 13th!

This blog post is dedicated to the lovely security guard at the Glasgow Passport Office. Without his amazing kindness, we might never have got this far!