And hopefully the last time.....holiday disaster memory

For the inspiration behind this blog click here.

This is another spine tingling, "touch wood" story that you really hope never happens to you. So for my friend here, she really hopes this is the last time this happens when she's going on holiday. Somehow I doubt she'll ever let it happen again!

Passport horror

“I was going on holiday to Cyprus with my husband a couple of years ago. We set off for the airport in plenty time and got there around the 2 hour check in.

I was standing at the check in desk when I noticed the look on the girl's face behind the counter. She then leant across to a colleague at the next desk. I couldn't hear what was being said but thought how rude it was for her to do that when she had a customer in front of her. Then a little shiver ran down my spine and I just got this feeling when I she began to speak to me.

"I'm sorry I can't check you in, did you know your passport expired 6 months ago?"

Well, you can imagine my horror.

“What!” I said "you've got to be joking, I have other ID, please let me on the plane!"

Of course, she couldn't do that. She said she could check my husband in and I could then join him in Cyprus on a later flight. I asked when the next flight was. It wasn't until the next day! Just as well my husband said he wouldn't go without me!

We raced over to the administration desk.

"Don't worry" the woman there said, “it happens all the time. You need to get yourself to the passport agency in town and request another passport to be issued. You've got plenty of time."

We jumped the queue for the taxis, screaming "emergency!" It's funny, I had a feeling of pure calm on the taxi ride – Harry meanwhile was panicking – "We'll have to cancel, we'll have to cancel. Why didn't you check your passport?".

The thing is, I never check it. I always believed that when I changed my passport to my married name three years before, that it would automatically change to another ten year passport. So in my view I had plenty of time before it expired.

Harry was sweating, his face was getting more flushed as the clock tick tocked away.

We got to the passport office, which fortunately was open (you never know when these places shut early). I explained the hurry and the man behind the counter got us more frustrated because he was so laid back.

"I can't promise anything” he said, “there are a few people in the office getting passports done today. Go and take your photos anyway".

That done, I filled out the forms and paid something like £45 for the application. I had no cheque book and they didn't take switch – I was cleaned out of British money. How would we pay for the taxi back to the airport?.

The airport staff were great actually. The administration desk phoned us twice to check how we were getting on and advised us that they'd keep the check-in desk open for our return. We eventually got the passport and ran to flag down a cab. Then we had to ask him to stop via a cashline machine so we could pay him!. Back at the airport we had twenty minutes before boarding. We'd made it! Photo looked terrible mind you.”