Heading out - at last

Friday 11th doesn’t get a photo and wouldn’t merit a mention, except for some pleasant interludes, such as a visit from the couple who won airline tickets to Brazil, hotel and tickets to the World Cup final –the latter conditional on Argentina winning their semi. Now they are no longer on tenterhooks and can concentrate on seeing as much of Rio as possible before returning home on Tuesday. Later, a dear and recently widowed friend, now living in the States, came to lunch. Lovely to see her and we all wish she could stay in Brazil, but it’s not practical for her.

The downside was that we got behind with our travel preparations, left home later than planned and then took 2 ½ hours to get to the airport (a ½ trip at a good time on a good day, but an accident – or several, one fatal, in this case – makes the journey unpredictable). The outcome was predictable, however – we missed our flight.

Today was a rollercoaster of emotions. Embarrassment when the calls started coming in (“ Have your really missed your flight?”). Shock when the airline call centre told us that, contrary to what we were told at the airport last night, we had gone down as No Shows and the whole ticket had been cancelled. Anxiety as we tried frantically to find another flight and issue the tickets. Stomachs knotted, we finally had breakfast at around 12:30 and taking no chances, left for the airport good and early. Once there, surprise and delight – we found that our tickets hadn’t been cancelled, but the observation made against our names hadn’t made it into the system. Then puzzlement – what to do with an extra set of tickets? The airline staff couldn’t have been more helpful and spent ages looking at the possibilities for us. In the end, we decided to reissue them on our return, and travel on the tickets we bought today.

Downstairs in time to watch the World Cup semi finals in the Fifa Fun Fest area. Enter disappointment - Holland 3, Brazil 0. This is where we watched it, together with the KLM crew and loads of other fans rooting for Holland. Didn’t think of taking a photo during the game and by the time I did, most of the people had gone. Yesterday we considered spending the night here, but by the time we got down here after assuaging our sorrow with beer and steaks, most of the couches were occupied. Today I took the opportunity to have a little nap.