I've been up to my eyeballs in stress over this whole passport thing, and although the world has moved on to the next crisis as usual - how's Heath Ledger's shock death yesterday? - I am struggling to think about much else, which is obviously evident in my posting. Also in my sleeping patterns - I'm on about 5 hours a night at the mo, and the sleep I am getting is far from restful. Contrary to my determined positivity last week, this week I am nervous and fidgety. I'm supposed to fly in two days, and the realisation that everything is not sorted enough yet for me to do so is making me jumpy. Unfortunately, I now cannot stop myself from picturing the worst case scenario in my head. I decided last night that I would make a concerted effort today to post about something other than CT and my passport, but before I do, I must relate the latest travel disaster. I haven't told ANYONE about this, for two reasons: a) everyone has enough on their plates with regards to the panic my passport situation brought on and b) I'm was hoping that by not mentioning it, it wouldn't be real. Yes I know, it doesn't help to behave like an ostrich, but I don't know if my heart can take any more.
The travel agent got Shoes' name wrong when booking the ticket. Instead of writing Shoes (Surname), she wrote (Surname) Shoes. Since his surname can also be a first name, she must have believed it to be correct. So basically, from what I understand, if we had to go to the airport today with the booking as it stands, they would not let him on the plane because his passport has a different name to what they have in their system. I can hardly believe this nightmare is happening. I am currently in frantic negotiations with the travel agency to put it right, and now they are mumbling about costs involved to change the name... as if we have not been bled dry already with this whole nightmare. Right now though, I just need Shoes to be able to get on that plane, and I'd pay anything. They're not stupid, they know this.
I can't tell Shoes. I just can't make this any worse for him than it already has been. I feel like everything is my fault, even though I know this is not true and it is silly to blame myself. But the thing is, all this drama centres around me, and when you're the axl and everyone else is the spokes turning around you, you can't help but feel responsible. It has to be ok though, that's what I keep telling myself. The travel agent said they would make sure he gets on the plane. I am hanging onto that for dear life, seriously, if this is a cliff and I am dangling by my fingernails, there is no fucking way I'm falling off.
Ok, so moving on to other things. Because I feel I might lose the plot if I don't talk about something else.
On Saturday night, we all went to Ruby Blue to celebrate Scarf's 21st birthday - it's actually in 2 weeks, but she'll (we'll?) be in CT, so this was her London party. It was a great night all in all, and although Scarf got pretty drunk, she held it together well considering, and there was no major drama at the end, as there so often is with us. I spent the first half of the evening chatting with Phillygirl and Nix. Philly is over in London for 2 weeks on business, and she agreed to meet me at Ruby's as my potential departure for CT seriously limited our opportunity to hook up. I haven't seen either of them since school, so it was a fascinating night catching up on what they've been doing for the past 10 years. Ok, I do know a lot of what Philly has been doing, since we stay up to date with each other's lives through our blogs. Our conversation was quite funny, as I'd introduce her to Shoes by saying: And this is (Shoes' real name) aka Shoes; and she'd say to me: .... and that was when I hooked up with (The Lying Pilot's real name), aka The Lying Pilot. At one point I introduced her to a couple of people by real names only, and she was like, no, what are their blog names!?!?!
Was great to see that they're both doing well, even though our paths have taken quite different courses over the years. Philly mentioned in her blog that it made her sit back and take stock of her life up til now, and compare herself with Nix and I. I have to admit I was doing exactly the same thing. You can't help but wonder what your life would be like now if you chose someone else's path instead of your own. Each of them have certain experiences I envy, and wish I was in the same position. But then again, I have things they don't have too, and I know how much I appreciate them. I think we all came to the same conclusion - we are all mostly happy on the paths that we've taken, but it's definitely healthy to scrutinise oneself every now and then. Would have loved more time to meet up with Philly again, but circumstances hopefully won't allow for it... I know how that sounds, but it does make sense!
The travel agent got Shoes' name wrong when booking the ticket. Instead of writing Shoes (Surname), she wrote (Surname) Shoes. Since his surname can also be a first name, she must have believed it to be correct. So basically, from what I understand, if we had to go to the airport today with the booking as it stands, they would not let him on the plane because his passport has a different name to what they have in their system. I can hardly believe this nightmare is happening. I am currently in frantic negotiations with the travel agency to put it right, and now they are mumbling about costs involved to change the name... as if we have not been bled dry already with this whole nightmare. Right now though, I just need Shoes to be able to get on that plane, and I'd pay anything. They're not stupid, they know this.
I can't tell Shoes. I just can't make this any worse for him than it already has been. I feel like everything is my fault, even though I know this is not true and it is silly to blame myself. But the thing is, all this drama centres around me, and when you're the axl and everyone else is the spokes turning around you, you can't help but feel responsible. It has to be ok though, that's what I keep telling myself. The travel agent said they would make sure he gets on the plane. I am hanging onto that for dear life, seriously, if this is a cliff and I am dangling by my fingernails, there is no fucking way I'm falling off.
Ok, so moving on to other things. Because I feel I might lose the plot if I don't talk about something else.
On Saturday night, we all went to Ruby Blue to celebrate Scarf's 21st birthday - it's actually in 2 weeks, but she'll (we'll?) be in CT, so this was her London party. It was a great night all in all, and although Scarf got pretty drunk, she held it together well considering, and there was no major drama at the end, as there so often is with us. I spent the first half of the evening chatting with Phillygirl and Nix. Philly is over in London for 2 weeks on business, and she agreed to meet me at Ruby's as my potential departure for CT seriously limited our opportunity to hook up. I haven't seen either of them since school, so it was a fascinating night catching up on what they've been doing for the past 10 years. Ok, I do know a lot of what Philly has been doing, since we stay up to date with each other's lives through our blogs. Our conversation was quite funny, as I'd introduce her to Shoes by saying: And this is (Shoes' real name) aka Shoes; and she'd say to me: .... and that was when I hooked up with (The Lying Pilot's real name), aka The Lying Pilot. At one point I introduced her to a couple of people by real names only, and she was like, no, what are their blog names!?!?!
Was great to see that they're both doing well, even though our paths have taken quite different courses over the years. Philly mentioned in her blog that it made her sit back and take stock of her life up til now, and compare herself with Nix and I. I have to admit I was doing exactly the same thing. You can't help but wonder what your life would be like now if you chose someone else's path instead of your own. Each of them have certain experiences I envy, and wish I was in the same position. But then again, I have things they don't have too, and I know how much I appreciate them. I think we all came to the same conclusion - we are all mostly happy on the paths that we've taken, but it's definitely healthy to scrutinise oneself every now and then. Would have loved more time to meet up with Philly again, but circumstances hopefully won't allow for it... I know how that sounds, but it does make sense!
2 comments:
You weren't kidding when you said you have bad luck on holiday.... xx
Good lord!
Poor woman, I hope it all works out for you soon!
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