Wednesday 13 January 2010

Bugger Bogner



It's not that I think that everyone on the dole or benefits is a scrounger, it's just that I've always felt that some of them should try harder. Pull their socks up. Buck up. I'm not here to work myself into an early grave just to pay for their colour TV licence.

Our return to the UK was delayed by Easyjet's decision to cancel the flight long after we had checked in at Geneva Airport and thought we were about to step ovet the threshold...but it was not to be. The boy was sent to retrieve our skis in one direction, whilst I stood in a queue in another direction. I wasn't sure what I was queuing for, but I'd be told to queue there, along with several thousand others. The boy retrieved the skis whilst I managed to keep my place in the queue and find the rest of our luggage as well. Mostly it was good humoured, although I'm sure that the lad who collapsed and was given a saline drip by the paramedics won't remeber it as the happiest moment of his life. We got to the front of the line after a couple of hours and were given an accomodation voucher, food vouchers and local transport vouchers. Unquestioning, we took them all and headed off for two unexpected days with the Swiss. If I'd bucked up, pulled my socks up, tried a little harder, we could probably have found another flight with another airline. But why should we...it was very comfortable staying in a 4 star hotel at Easyjet's expense.

We enjoyed every last minute of it.

We did culture - a jaunt around Old Geneva and a climb up the twin towers of St Pierre Cathedral. We did entertainment - a friend treated us to an evening of Guiness and Chinese food. We did educational - a visit to the Red Cross Musuem and The United Nations. The boy particularly treasures his UN visitors pass...we particularly savoured being in the Chamber where last year President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Israel should be wiped off the map. Our (Japanese) guide suggested he had said 'something he shouldn't'. It felt that we were in a VERY IMPORTANT PLACE...history was all around us....