Chuffin' Hell It's Cold! - UK Trip, February 2015 part 4

.....The flight to Newcastle departed on time, courtesy of an Air France City Hopper, but weirdly badged up with KLM motifs. Garuda aren't currently allowed to fly into the UK, something to do with their safety record or something, but the flight was uneventful except for two things.

Firstly the seating is 2-aisle-2 on these small planes and my partner was a Cuban woman who spoke with a Teeside accent owing to the years spent living in Middlesborough. The one hour flight flew by (sorry) and this was due to a most interesting chat I had with my fellow passenger. I've never visited Cuba but am fascinated by the current politics that have seen greater co-operation with the USA, but also with the cigars (they are no longer rolled on the thighs of virgins), the food (Cuban sandwiches are evidently an American idea of Cuba rather than specifically Cuban themselves) and the music (Rumba is her personal favourite). It was a great conversation and before I knew it we were dropping into Newcastle.

Now if you remember that New Ice Age that I mentioned in part three, well this was the literally chilling sight that greeted me from the window seat...

My Auntie Julie and Uncle Mick; Dad's Siter and her husband, had kindly agreed to collect me and drop me at The Scotch Corner Hotel, further down the A1. The plan was that Dad would be left with a mate watching some football while Mum and her friend Pat, on the ruse of doing shopping, would collect me from Scotch Corner and bring me the short distance back to Leyburn.

Arriving back home, I followed the women into the lounge and I'm not entirely sure if Dad was happy to see me or not! I do know that it's the last time I'll give hime a surprise like that as I thought at one point the poor old bugger was going to have a heart attack! He quickly regained his composure and Chris and Pat wandered back home leaving me to catch up with Mum and Dad.

The last few days since I've been here have been quality time. We've shared some laughs and shed some tears, drunk some wine and generally relaxed as a family. Dad's not looking good and there has been a visible increase in the support of medical people. It's all relevant to dad's illness though and as I've said before we've had plenty of time to prepare. Yet I can't help feeling selfish and angry that he's so visibly being gradually taken away.

Dad on the other hand puts a brave face on things and maintains an awesome sense of humour and it's typical of him that his primary concern is that he thinks he's upsetting me by going to bed early.

Chuffin' Hell It's Cold! - UK Trip February 2015 part 1

I was thinking about my parents the other day. Things with Dad's cancer are deteriorating and Mum is Dad's nurse, which obviously isn't easy even with the help they get from the amazing Herriot Homecare girls, the wonderful sitters who allow Mum a few hours respite each week, Macmillan nurses, and the doctor. Additionally, I haven't seen my parents since October last year and whilst Skype is great, it doesn't make up for seeing someone in the flesh. So I spoke with Uchiel and we decided that a trip back to the UK was a good idea.

Next step was resolving work issues and I asked Katherine how many holiday days I had left. If I was living in the UK I guess I could travel to Leyburn on a Friday after work, spend the weekend and then maybe even travel back home on a Monday morning. But living 8,000 miles away needs a tad more planning.

It turned out that I had three days left to take before the end of my contract in June so, with the use of the Saturdays at either end as my 'Saturdays off' and Nina very kindly allowing me to take a couple of days unpaid, I went ahead and booked the flight.

Last October, Uchiel and I flew with Lufthansa and they managed to lose one of our cases for four days. Because of this, I was reluctant to use them again as I planned on bringing some perishables back so I booked with KLM, one of the better prices on skyscanner.co.id. As it happened, two days after booking the flight I received a telephone call from Lufthansa with a most generous offer of 250 Euros as compensation for the situation with the lost luggage. In light of them doing that, it certainly made up for the experience and I would now happily book with them again. (I know that sounds a bit nonchalant, but in my opinion the offer more than made up for a) the loss of the bag and b) the three months of waiting for some resolution to my complaint!).

Anyway, I was now booked with KLM meaning I would travel with their flying partner and Indonesian national airline, Garuda, from Jakarta to Amsterdam, and then on to Newcastle. The return leg would include an extra stop in Singapore and all this for 15 million Rupeah. The original price on Skyscanner was 13.2 million but I waited a few hours before booking and the price went up and then there were the "administration costs" for the company Skyscanner forwarded me to. (it's also interesting to note that the flight actually cost 6 million, the other 9 million was tax and admin costs!)

The Soekarna-Hatta to Schipol leg of the journey would take twelve and a half hours with an extra ninety minutes to get to Newcastle. Added to a layover in Amsterdam of three hours this was still going to be the fastest I had ever done a trip to the UK. The reality was a one hour delay in reaching Amsterdam but a thirty minute reduction in the time to Newcastle due to a very nice tailwind meaning I shaved half an hour off of an already quicker trip. Result!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Uchiel gave me a lift to the airport where I needed to check in at about 10pm. We left with enough time to navigate the complicated entry to the airport, caused by works to create a new MRT terminal, and to get something to eat together. Having parked, we made our way to the new Bakmi GM restaurant in Terminal 2's arrivals section, pushed my case into a redundant space next to a table for two, and off I went to the counter to order the food. I'd only been stood there two or three minutes when this Indonesian guy wearing a Songkok started having a go at me for bringing my case into the restaurant. I'd previously noticed this guy when we arrived as he was loudly complaining to a waitress about something equally inconsequential so I new he wasn't anything to do with the running of the place. I was also quite taken aback by his attitude, as it's really unusual for outbursts of anger, especially over something trivial.

I admit I wasn't in the best of moods as travelling to the aiport is a grating experience. From the amount of traffic on the road to get there, the unnecessarily complicated entry to the airport that I mentioned earlier and the attempts to park the car which are always stunted by the inability to drive of a significant percentage of the population, I was just looking forward to a relaxing bowl of fried rice with my wife, not having to put up with this git.

For a few monents I stood there in two minds. I'd already verbally established, in a defiant manner, that I wasn't moving my case a) just because he'd told me to and b) at least not before ordering our food, but it was his final demand that I was to just make sure that I "do it!" that left me with the indecision. Part of me wanted to just leave the queue, gently take him by the throat and nut him. Another part of me wanted to continue the debate, regardless of the gawking onlookers. Thirdly was the choice to allow others to accept that this guy was some sort of FPI-following, Westerner-hating imbecile and just ignore him. I really was livid at this point and I quickly left the queue, went back and collected Uchiel and the case,and explained to waitress on the way out that due to the behaviour of said gentlemen, they wouldn't be receiving any of our money. She was so apologetic and the sneaky grin on his fifty year old face that he made no attempt to hide nearly caused me to lose complete control.

Five minutes later, sat with some chicken and fries in the nearby A&W, I'd had the chance to calm down and we got to discussing normal stuff. But in the back of my mind I couldn't get over the guy's behaviour and that it is also the first time in six years that I've experienced it....