Travel

Once upon a time, I flew back from Lausanne in Switzerland to London. Although the skies were clear, there had been heavy thunderstorms earlier in the day so the plane was forced to hold above Heathrow. We flew around and around in circles for so long that we eventually had to divert to Bournemouth to refuel. This impromptu diversion confused the trio of Swiss people sitting behind me who thought London was ‘quite small’ and ‘very green’ and why ‘is no-one getting off’ after we had landed and sat around for 15 minutes on the runway at this small, provincial airport. ...

A couple of years ago, I was staying at a posh hotel in Oslo. I returned to my room after a hard day’s work, looking forward to a very expensive glass of beer. I swiped my card and entered room 216. To my surprise, I found a strange man in there. He was emerging from the bathroom but thankfully, he was fully clothed and alone. My immediate reaction was to rapidly withdraw, apologising profusely. ‘Oh I am awfully sorry. I appear to have the wrong room’. As the layout and decor of the hotel was identical on each floor, I just assumed that I had mistakenly entered room 316 (instead of 216). ...