Come fly with me - but only if you are an adult!

If you are flying on a budget airline with small children YOU NEED TO GET TO THE GATE EARLY OR BOOK SEATS OR BUY PRIORITY BOARDING! This is fairly self-explanatory but I understand that not all of you will have used budget airlines so I will explain.

Budget airlines pretty much ‘do what they say on the tin’ in that they fly you from A to B at a very low ticket price. It is important to be aware that ‘B’ can often be 40 minutes away from where you imagine it to be i.e. “Girona Barcelona” is actually Girona, rather than Barcelona and that “Paris” is almost definitely not Orly or Charles de Gaulle Airports. The basic ticket is dirt cheap so naturally the airline will be keen to make money by selling ‘add-ons’ but if you already have your own travel insurance policy, can travel with hand-luggage, don’t need to pre-book a seat and don’t need confirmation by text message then it is perfectly possible to stick to the original ticket price.

Experienced budget airline travellers are instantly recognisable at airports – they are the ones constantly watching the screens waiting for the ‘gate’ announcement, at which point they will run as fast as possible to be the first in the queue and to seize the chance of picking the good seats. By ‘good’ seats I mean seats next to the person you are travelling with or (even more important) with space in the overhead locker so that your hand luggage is instantly accessible for a quick getaway once the plane lands.

‘Hand luggage’ is always a great bone of contention at the departure gate. Everybody checks the weight & size that is permitted to be carried on board but, it seems that not everybody checks the smaller print which states that “Only one piece of hand luggage can be carried on board”. In effect this means that the last minute essentials you bought from Boots, the latest paperback & magazines you bought from WH Smith’s and, more importantly, your handbag, has to fit into one tiny piece of hand luggage. Even if you manage to cram everything into one bag there is a metal cage right by the desk and they will insist that you place your luggage inside to prove that it conforms to the measurements. (On yesterday’s flight I was carrying a plastic 3d relief map and I have to admit that the Pyrenees have not fully recovered).

I realise all this may sound most peculiar and to those of you who are used to proper boarding passes with allocated seat numbers but, as long as you know the ropes and are expecting ‘no frills’ then it is a very cheap and convenient way to travel. What I cannot understand is what exactly goes through the minds of families who are travelling with young children. During the online booking process it is almost difficult not to request priority boarding or pay to have a seat allocated so why oh why don’t they do it? On yesterday’s flight some of the last people to board were a couple with a toddler and an 8 year old and they seemed quite surprised that they couldn’t find four seats together. In the end they had to put the 8 year old in a window seat next to a middle-aged couple (not us thank goodness!). In fact he turned out to be a charming well-behaved little boy and it seemed that the couple actually enjoyed their conversation with him so all was well – until we started our descent and the poor little chap was overcome by a sudden bout of travel-sickness.... The middle-aged couple were brilliant in the way they reassured him and dealt with the aftermath but they should not have been put in that position in the first place. Parents travelling with young children - YOU NEED TO GET TO THE GATE EARLY OR BUY PRIORITY BOARDING!

(The picture at the top of this blog was taken by me on a “budget” airline flight. It was the first one of the season so it seemed that only me and 4 other people felt the need to leave Perpignan in May). Miracles do happen!

Smoking is bad for ...... pretty much everything!

One of the main reasons we bought our house was because of the fantastic views of the Pyrenees and to Fort Bellegarde on the Spanish Border. Today I can hardly bear to look at it because it is shrouded in smoke due to a horrific fire which has so far killed 4 people (all French) and injured god knows how many.

It started around lunchtime yesterday (Sunday) on the Spanish side of Le Perthus. Le Perthus is a ‘Mecca’ for the locals (and holidaymakers alike) as it straddles the border but for some reason is a ‘duty-free’ town so that is the place to go to stock up on cigarettes, whisky and all manner of other things, and is also open on Sundays. The route through Le Perthus (D900) is the ‘old’ road to Spain but it soon became apparent that the fire was not going to be controlled easily so tourists and residents were quickly evacuated and the road was closed – together with the main A9 Peage motorway. It didn’t help matters that Sunday was a day of exceptionally strong winds and the fire quickly spread towards the coast.

The picture above was taken late afternoon yesterday. Last night I could see the glow of flames on top of the mountains, and also the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles.

This morning there was just the slightest wisp of smoke to be seen and it looked as if everything was finally under control and the wind had dropped – until mid-morning when a new wind from the sea began and the fire took hold again and now appears to be moving over the border towards France again. All day helicopters and 'water' planes have been flying backwards and forwards between Perpignan Airport & the border. As I write this (8.15pm French local time Monday evening) the view of the Pyrenees has completely vanished and I can smell the smoke.

This is the closest I have ever been to a ‘natural disaster’ and I find it pretty scary – not that I am in any danger (hopefully!) but the fact that such an enormous disaster has probably been caused by a discarded cigarette butt. Sadly it will probably be impossible ever to diagnose the cause of this but the ground is so dry here that just the tiniest spark is enough to cause chaos. And this brings me to the main reason I wanted to write this blogpost: it is just over one year since I stopped smoking. I had smoked for all of my adult life, in the car, at home, in the countryside, wherever and whenever I could. As with most smokers I knew it was a stupid habit but after several failed attempts to ‘give up’ I seemed doomed to continue. But finally last year something ‘clicked’ in my head and I realised I wasn’t actually giving anything up, just making a positive decision not to do something so stupid anymore. In fact, I think it was totally to do with buying this house – partly because I realised that the ridiculous amount of money I was spending on cigarettes every week would go a long way towards the renovations the house requires, but mainly because I would be really worried about setting fire to the garden! So, last June I slapped on the patches and here we are, 14 months later, quite anxious about watching the incendie developing in the distance but extremely relieved that I don’t feel the slightest moment of guilt in case I had anything to do with it!