Anger, frustration, despair...

...tears. 
Yesterday was one almighty disaster. A day we hope to forget about soon. We should have been in Oman today. A country that is very special to us and one that we haven't been back to since we left in 2010. We booked our trip to Oman a year ago and have been so excited, especially as it's been so cold here this winter. The kids have poured over our Oman photo books and put in their requests to visit their first home, Shatti pancake beach, the lazy river at the Shangri-La and so on. We'd arranged numerous things including a meal with 12 of our friends who still live there at one of our favourite restaurants. Babysitters had also been arranged for the kids. We were all so very much looking forward to it.
However it wasn't to be. 
We knew that Olivia only had five months on her passport but we'd checked online and even had an email from the Omani ambassador in Brussels to say that it would be fine. At the airport, though, they wouldn't issue a boarding pass for our daughter as they said she had to have six months left on her passport. We kicked up a fuss and demanded to speak to a manager. She brought her rule book and refused to issue the boarding pass. We showed her the email from the Omani ambassador and still she refused as she wanted an official bit of paper with a stamp on. If we could get that she would let us board the flight. We phoned the ambassador (we have both taught some of his children and they know our connection to Oman), but the problem was that it was Saturday and the embassy was closed so he wouldn't have been able to get us the required document, and there would have been no time either. 
Online it states that you 'should' have six months left on your passport, not 'have' six months left on your passport. She still refused. We had return tickets. She still refused. Turns out she was worried that the airline would be fined if they let us on the plane and then we couldn't get a visa in Oman, and then she would lose her job. To be fair she was just doing her job but there was absolutely no leeway. We even offered to pay the fine if that was the case. She still refused. 
By this point we had been trying everything we could and the kids were getting more and more upset, as were we. It was heartbreaking seeing the kids so upset and in the end we had no choice but to remove them from the airport and go home. Once home we had a good cry but reminded ourselves that everything was okay as we were still altogether and healthy. Things could have been worse.
Once we'd calmed down my husband and I set about contacting our friends, insurance etc and, more importantly, looking for something to rescue the holiday as our kids deserved so much more. We knew we had to get away so we asked the kids what they'd like to do:
Dexter: "Disneyland in Paris!"
Me: "Oh darling, that's too expensive considering that we don't know how much money we may have lost on our flights. Is there anywhere else?
Dexter: "Lapland?"
At this point we had to laugh! Our kids are so travel spoilt!

So, getting back to the above blip; we needed to get out of the house today for some fresh air and to clear our heads. We went for a lovely walk in the forest, and discovered that if we take a football with us the kids will walk and dribble for miles. We stopped to take penalties between two tress which were an ideal goal, we played a game of throwing, kicking and catching which had an elaborate points scheme (made up by hubby), and Dex discovered that he could break sticks on his head! We even managed to have a little laugh about our failed trip to Oman as our friends (who we were going to stay with) texted saying that it was currently raining in Oman. It only rains, on average, four days of the year so we'd have been super unlucky to have experienced that!