Cancelled VS603

^) ^) ^) y) y) y)

[Darren Wheeler]

Yay!! May the travel gods smile on you in the new year.

To hell with school. All Tizer will miss out on is telling everyone about her trip to SA. Hardly doing advanced calculus and plotting world domination is she?

More importantly, we all have a TR to look forward to.

Yay!! May the travel gods smile on you in the new year.

To hell with school. All Tizer will miss out on is telling everyone about her trip to SA. Hardly doing advanced calculus and plotting world domination is she?

More importantly, we all have a TR to look forward to.

Good result... can build on the excitement over Xmas week!!!
The nh's were sad to hear the news, however we now anticipate an extended TR, hey you may even get that guide to mull over before you go...

[honey lamb]

Excellent news!

As for missing school, things like seeing animals in their normal habitat as a result of a game drive or seeing the penguins on Robben Island or the dassies on top of Table Mountain is an education in itself. What about having her photo taken at the Cape of Good Hope? While it will mean little to her now, in years to come in History and Geography that photo will be important. And there's so much more. She will be being educated - not in the formal way but in information that will stand to her in later years

[mitchja]

Fantastic news y) y)

[Neil]

Yey, we will still get a TR y) y) (oh and glad you get to still go away too!)

Glad you rebooked, it'll be great. Looking forward to your reports and hope all the family have a very fun filled Christmas!

Great news about the rebooking. y)

Glad that everything managed to resolve itself in the end. oo)

Hope that Tizer is now not too disappointed and is looking forward to an extended Christmas holiday.

I hope the school is understanding, I know that when we took miniDA out from school for our holiday, We went through hoops to cut through the paperwork. Yet, when we asked his teacher is there any schoolwork we can take with us so he didn't miss out, he said let miniDA enjoy his holiday.

Can't wait for the TRs! ):

Result y)

As to the education, it's not as if you'd intended to take Tizer out of school during term time in the first place.

Brilliant news that you got rebooked.

Paul - quite so. We went out of our way to book the trip within school hols. It just so happens that things haven't panned out quite as any of us hoped or expected.

Excellent news!

As for missing school, things like seeing animals in their normal habitat as a result of a game drive or seeing the penguins on Robben Island or the dassies on top of Table Mountain is an education in itself. What about having her photo taken at the Cape of Good Hope? While it will mean little to her now, in years to come in History and Geography that photo will be important. And there's so much more. She will be being educated - not in the formal way but in information that will stand to her in later years

Mrs V just read this and has declared you her favourite person of the moment, HL. She clearly needed something to help assuage her guilt. Me? Well, you've long been my favourite person...

The nh's were sad to hear the news, however we now anticipate an extended TR, hey you may even get that guide to mull over before you go...

Extended? I was rather hoping to spend the majority of the flight asleep. Or, possibly, at the bar. Chances of guide handover considerably improved - will PM you anon...

Ladies and gents - thanks for your kind words of concern and support. It's been a funny old day, but we've muddled through a packed itinerary:

1. Purchased over-priced Christmas tree (small blue spruce. Spiky);
2. Trailed around a frigid Sainsbury's - bought pistachios, dates and a general seasonal miscellany of gourmet 'delights';
3. Re-booked CPT flights for the New Year thanks to a very helpful lady at VS central;
4. Spoke with a couple of equally helpful hotel reservation types in South Africa to shift (and, in fact, extend) our bookings.

Yes, we're going to have to return Tizer to school after the Christmas hols a little later than we ought, but circumstances being what they are we decided to adopt the Northern Henry approach (no offence, Mike) and say to hell with it - along with a very, very apologetic email to school.

So only 13 more days of freezing my arse off. Could be worse.

Yes it could be worse, try just being told by your company that they wont be able to pay your December salary until at least end of Jan, oh and I have three children who are realy looking forward to the first christmas with their Dad in over 5 years!!Oh and if we chuck in the fact that the chistmas will be my first without my father (he passed away this year) I would love your problems!! Sorry to hear about your canx flight btw.

I'm sorry to hear of your woes, Mr Sky. Here's hoping you can make the best of this Christmas, and that things improve for you next year.

[Scrooge]

Great news Dr V, one thing is for sure, with all these issues, it should make for a great TR oo)

The prospects of a more entertaining TR weren't forefront in my mind when we heard our flight had been cancelled, but hindsight being what it is, things (so far at least) seem to have worked out for the best.

Have a good Christmas, Dave...

[Scrooge]

I must take part of the credit though, as we all know the availability of G's is bad enough at the best of times, with the last few days they have become pretty much non existent.

So I figured I needed to do something to make the revenue dept. gods happy.

I collected a varied collection of Steps, Take That, Westlife, Boyzone and East 17 CD's (amazingly available at the local dollar store), wrapped them in a Hull City flag, added a gallon of 91 octane and then stopped, thought that at this time of the year I should think of my fellow mankind I should do the world a good deed, so after saying a quick word to the revenue management gods I threw that match and had a nice little bonfire.

Well what's the worst that could happen, i'm out $10 for the bonfire materials, but it seemed to work, so congratulations again.

And of course, a very Merry Christmas to you and yours.

[honey lamb]

Excellent news!

As for missing school, things like seeing animals in their normal habitat as a result of a game drive or seeing the penguins on Robben Island or the dassies on top of Table Mountain is an education in itself. What about having her photo taken at the Cape of Good Hope? While it will mean little to her now, in years to come in History and Geography that photo will be important. And there's so much more. She will be being educated - not in the formal way but in information that will stand to her in later years

Mrs V just read this and has declared you her favourite person of the moment, HL. She clearly needed something to help assuage her guilt. Me? Well, you've long been my favourite person...

I meant to get back to you earlier than this. Glad to have been of help as far as Mrs V is concerned.

To add to what I have said, I have taken Aer John to South Africa several times (my brother lives there) - the first time when he was about Tizer's age and the last time ten years ago when he was 11. It has never ceased to amaze me how much of it he has retained of the various places we visited. Granted he was much older than Tizer but he was able to write a very detailed report of our trip to Cape Town.

Things to show Tizer in addition to what I had pointed out before:

The "Tablecloth" when the clouds drape themselves over the top of Table Mountain
The seals at the Waterfront.
Tribal dancing at the Waterfront
Robben Island itself which is much more than a prison. Much of it will go over her head but Nelson Mandela's cell should stay in her mind
At the Cape of Good Hope there's a funicular railway to the top although it is walkable.
The proteas, the national flower of South Africa should be in bloom there and the baboons will be seen along the road there.

So there you have it:

Meteorology
Geography
Zoology
Arts
History
Engineering
Botany and more zoology.

The school could not argue with that |:)

Just to add to HL's list of (non- state) educational examples...
There may be some whales still lurking in the area ( We saw some in Camps Bay with calves last Dec)... Fabulous. Eat drink and be merry (the food and wine in this fine country is awesome.
Just enjoy.
DL

Oh I really do sympathise.

Our son and his girlfriend have worked in Nassau for the past two and a half years and were due to leave on the 18th to spend Christmas with us before leaving to start new jobs in Ho Chi Minh City on the 27th. Their BA flight was cancelled, as was the one they booked for the 19th, as were the ones into and out of MCO the 20th.

Eventually, on Wednesday 22nd, and almost £10,000 lighter including over $750 in excess baggage, they made it back via MCO but our precious Christmas was shortened and therefore spoiled considerably.

I hope you manage to get something else organised.

Just catching up on this really bad news Mark, what a bummer. Hope tizer and the rest of the grown ups opened up the fizz (Tizer in Tizer's case) and made the best of a bad situation.

Really glad that it could all be rebooked for New year. As for school sod them, we have also extended Daniels holiday by 1 extra week so he can spend 2 weeks in -25c in Russia. It is good for him you know!

All the best for 2011. A gathering is required.

Truly a sacrificial pyre to be proud of, Dave, and clearly it worked. Just imagine what we could achieve if we burnt Hull to the ground...

Thanks for the further tips and general guilt alleviation, HL/DL. Should we perhaps throw winemaking into the list of extra-curricular activities for Tizer, or would school find that even more inappropriate than bunking off in the first place?

Gilly, I'm sorry to hear your Christmas wasn't all you'd hoped for. Maybe we elevate this whole festive thing to such an extent that we set ourselves up for a fall every year. Glad you got your son home, even if it was for a shorter while than you'd have liked.

And Iain, I believe that another week of -25°c will do Daniel the world of good. Conversely, the forecast for Tuesday in Cape Town in 37°, so Tizer may well be in for a 'pool day'...

[honey lamb]

I did think about adding wine-making to the list under the guise of Chemistry but decided it might reflect more negatively on you than on her. ):

Teacher: So what did you learn from the vineyards, Tizer?

Tizer: Well they put the grapes into presses and then into casks where they ferment into wine, then they give some to Mummy and Daddy who drink from about 20 different bottles and then buy hundreds more. Then we go to the vineyard next door and do the same thing again until the hotel sends the car for us

well wine making covers

geography
biology
chemistry
materials science
domestic science
production methods and organisation
maths

but yes it essentially comes down to

wine making = mummy and daddy's falling down juice