Day 098 – Flight Cancellation

Welcome to Day 98!

It was time for another of the family to leave.  My mother had been visiting for a week the family stay has been very pleasant with the only signs of tension showing last night.  Activity today was kept to a minimum and close to home.  This was to reduce my mother’s stress levels.   It saves the whole “time getting away from you” thing.

When we were shopping the other day, my mother had purchased a couple of books, for some reason she had picked up two of the same book, believing they were the different books in a series.  Part of our mission today was to return the duplicate book and pick up the third book in the series. While we were out, the airline company texted that her flight had been cancelled.

Before my mother realised, she had the text, we were able to watch the 1997 movie Kundun.  It was a beautiful movie to watch, slightly distressing.  Couldn’t help wondering if Tibet had had oil reserves or resources if the world would have Tibet to its own devices.  What would have happened if China decided it wanted the Vatican City because it had once governed over the land there?  The whole thing fills me with sadness.  

Even though the text arrived at 10:30am, mother didn’t notice the text message until 2:30pm in the afternoon.  Which was when we were preparing to leave for her flight at 5:20pm.  Due to the late discovery, there were only two flights to which my mother could swap.  Both were after dark and meant a late-night train trip home, meaning she would get home around midnight.  The reason for the 5:20pm flight in the first place was to ensure she was home by about 7:30pm – enough people on the train to prevent anything sinister happening.

After a failed attempt to appeal to the airline for a flight on a sister airline, my mother’s stress levels forced the issue for her to simply take the 7:30pm flight.  Technically, it wasn’t a 7:30pm flight it was a 6:20pm flight delayed to 7:30pm.  The stress and separation anxiety were too much for my mother and she wanted to get to the airport immediately, although she was on a later flight which had been delayed.  Trying to relay the need for the rush was no longer there only frustrated and escalated the tension.  My sister was smart enough not to pursue any arguments, also assuming she would escape the trip to the airport.  Wrong!  I wasn’t doing this alone .  Not sure why I try to persist with a logical argument when my mother got into a tither, it only seemed to aggravate the situation. 

On the way to the airport, my sister did a quick checklist of items my mother might have forgotten in the haste of getting to the airport quickly.  Sure enough, my mother had left her mobile phone behind.  Fortunately, we were only two blocks from home and with a quick detour was able to meet the nephew out the front of the house with the phone and continue on our way.

At the airport, we were so early the bag drop for her flight had not opened yet.  So, we waited until she was checked in.  Another lady at the bag drop informed us this was the first time she had ever travelled on her own and whether I could assist her at the electronic bag drop station.  Two minutes later, both my mum and the lady were racing through security checks to wait for four hours for the plane to depart.  My sister and I waved to our mother through security and went home.

Two hours in, there was a message saying, I had indeed read the website correctly and the flight had indeed been delayed – sheesh, there’s just no telling eh.  At 11:00pm, my mother was home safely.

On a personal level, my Ganglion cyst at the base of my right pointer finger was really sore.  In an attempt to reduce the pain, I put Brauer ArnicaEze on the area which reduced the pain to make it more tolerable, it was all I needed (for now).

Let’s see what the cards have to say!