This isn't where I'm supposed to be.

It's 10:20pm. I'm writing this sitting on a stool in the dining room while I roast coffee for the morning. This isn't where I'm supposed to be. I'm supposed to be asleep in a hotel bed in Amsterdam. Except I got bumped from my afternoon flight because it was oversubscribed. Apparently airlines can legally sell more tickets for a flight than the number of seats on the plane—on the assumption that one or two people won't turn up and the airline can occasionally keep the extra fare. Seems like a screwy rule to me. Doesn't benefit the customer. And no way could you do this at the theatre or a sporting event. But apparently it's okay for flights. The mind boggles.


And when they oversell a flight? Well it's first come, first served. And it so happened that I was last in line today. Online check-in didn't work for me. And my satnav took me to a carpark 16 miles from the airport, adding 30 mins to my journey time. So I was persona non grata when I got to the check-in desk. I have instead a £220 voucher that may or may not get converted into money. And a Kafka-esque situation with my parking where I can no longer use or cancel my pre-booked slot because I've apparently already used it (after spending a whole 30 mins in the car park). Nor can I book a new session because it overlaps with my existing one (which I can no longer use. So I must now jump through hoops with NCP's customer service team while I'm away. Again, with no gurantees that it won't triple my parking fee.


It's times like this where you realise modern hyper-efficient systems are only efficient up to a point. And are completely broken after that point. Hard snap.


So, instead of waking up tomorrow feeling refreshed, I will arrive for a 3-day team summit frazzled on 3 hours sleep (if that), spending all my spare moments running admin gauntlets with customer service teams from abroad. Silly.


Still, I felt no anger and have taken it all with good grace. Had a lovely morning at a trampoline party with the boys. And the day was going so well until—just like these modern systems we rely on—it wasn't. 


So here I sit roasting coffee to make sure things aren't quite so painful when reality bites at 2am. And, coffee roasted, I really must now go to bed (and hope that my alarm works!)

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