The Art of Patience

The flight back from Morocco, after a desert expedition, was the icing on the cake.  Not only had we battled through sand storms, we had even had rain in the Sahara, we then had to contend with the inefficiency of Royal Air Meroc - it was a comedy of errors, without the laughter.

It took 1 3/4 hours to check in 35 people onto the plane, having been up at 3.30am this was rather frustrating.  I knew that the plane was over booked so rocking the boat, or plane, would not help us at all.  Some of us would have probably been bumped off the plane, so causing a stir was not the best option.  Being patient was.  So I stood at the check-in desk for nearly 2 hours assisting with the paperwork for the 35 of us.  Smiling helps, although at times this may have turned into a grimace, but eventually we all got on the plane.  I was the last to board and did not even have my bag scanned as the plane was revving up on the runway.  Three of teh team had been allocated the same seat, but they got upgraded.  We took off with all on-board.  Hurdle number one dealt with.

Hurdle number 2 came in the form of...guess what?  The inefficiency of Royal Air Meroc.  This time we had issues getting on board our connecting flight in Casablanca, e-tickets needed to be shown and we nearly left two behind as they had not got their tickets.  Why we had to show tickets when we had already been checked through, and we were in transit, was beyond me, but we all kept smiling and being polite.  Patience still being an art.  And then at the end of the runway it was announced that we had to turn back as we were missing a passenger.  Now this was confusing as there was no room for anyone else, all the seats were taken.  It turned out that we were not missing anyone, just that Danielle had not been registered correctly at the boarding gate and when they read her name out it, it was 'Meester Daniel'.

An hour and a half later we were airborne and so arrived late at Heathrow.   The rest of the team missed connecting flights to Belfast and I got stuck in diversions on the M4.

I would not choose this day to be my Ground Hog Day.