cancelled

Current work: Gelati book revisions (last readthrough)
Listening to: Dire Straits, Love Over Gold
Reading: next on TBR

So much for my quiet day to work yesterday. Interruptions, plus I ended up spending a lot of time waiting round for a phone call (it’s hard to concentrate on creating something when you have one eye ont he clock), then was given literally ten minutes to decide whether to cancel our trip to Egypt or pay for it. (Well, hey. I wait for five hours for you to come back to me with the options, and you give me ten minutes?)

Bearing in mind that the Foreign Office says do not travel to Luxor unless essential, there’s a curfew 3pm to 8am (so even if it was safe to go we wouldn’t have much time to explore, wouldn’t be able to eat out in the evenings, and wouldn’t be able to do half the excursions I had in mind), and frankly even if the president decides to stand down there will be factions and counter-factions and unrest for months… It’s not going to happen, is it? If we wait until the day before we go and the tour operator cancels it, we will not have to pay a penny – but it also means we won’t be able to go away when we planned (and I really need some time away from all the pressure). If we cancel now, we lose our deposit, but can at least book somewhere of our choice.

We have managed to wheedle an extra week to make the decision, but we’re pretty sure now it’s going to be cancel now and book a trip elsewhere. We did borrow the travel agent’s copy of the tour operator’s brochure, but as there’s nowhere that’s even close to our wish list then a straight transfer isn’t an option. I guess we’re awkward because we like breaks where we can explore rather than ones where you do nothing but lie on a beach all day and have hotel entertainment in the evening.

So at the moment everything is up in the air and everyone in the house is staking a claim to number two on their wish list. Son is voting for Russia to see the supervolcano (dear son, bomb in Moscow airport last week, no chance); daughter is voting for India or Mexico (protests from son and DH); DH is voting for New York (if we’re going to the US, it’d need to be for two weeks to make the jet lag worth it, and I would place a counter-bid for New England); and my bid for Trondheim was scuppered because there aren’t any package tours (which means it would be hugely expensive and blow our budget).

So tonight is more debate. And I must not spend today on the internet looking up hotels in Rome (which is on everyone’s wish list). To work.

Well. After blood test – that’s my annual thyroid level check – and explaining just why my blood pressure is sky-high right now, and guitar lesson. To work...