Cheap flights

Cheap flights. Flight: 10 euros. Unplanned night in hotel at Stansted: £140. Well, to be fair it wasn't Ryanair's fault, it was the French air traffic controllers.

After yesterday's blipmeet, I was about the first up, not counting SooB, CarbBoy, and TallGirl -- and I didn't surface till 10 o'clock. Sadly it was pouring with rain, so we didn't get an opportunity for a walk -- we just hung out and chatted till Mr B served up a delicious curry for lunch (hang onto him, SooB, he's a keeper!).

As the weather was so bad I set off in plenty of time and had a smooth journey to Carcassonne airport. Time for a coffee, and then the dread announcement that the plane was late and they had no idea when it would arrive. A nearby passenger was better informed: consulting the flight tracker app on his phone, he told us the plane was still on the ground in Stansted.

Long story short, the flight took off three hours late and didn't land till 10 pm. S had already been on his way to Stansted to pick me up and was almost there by the time I managed to get hold of him. Otherwise I would have told him to head straight to Nottingham, followed my inclination to switch to the following day's flight, and gone home for a good night's sleep. Still, S was able to get a room at the Radisson, which is next to the terminal, so I was swiftly off the plane and in the hotel with a glass of wine. No dinner ... my generous 5 euro Ryanair meal voucher had been spent on a muffin and a cup of coffee, about all that was left in the overburdened cafe in Carcassonne by the time an entire planeload of people had been through it.