the Madrid airplane curse

I think there's a curse on flights to and from Madrid.

First, our friend Ayesha missed her flight to Madrid because of Ryanair's extreme ****ishness (my Gran reads this blog, hence the asterisks). She did finally make it out last weekend, when an excellent time was had by all, but at extra expense and much irritation.

Secondly our flat mate, Alex, managed to leave his passport behind and hence missed his flight to Mexico. The poor guy has been working so hard recently and really deserved a holiday (plus it's where his parents live).

Then, most guttingly, two friends of ours who we'd been really looking forward to seeing, Anna and Amy, where denied entry to their flight because Amy's passport was a bit tatty. So? She was clearly not a terrorist and clearly not an illegal immigrant; the Spanish wouldn't have cared, it's just the English who are so anally rententive when it comes to paperwork. Congratulations Mr-Bristol-airport-jobsworth, you've just ruined two people's holiday. We were really gutted as we had been looking forward to seeing them, so we can't imagine how gutted they feel as they'd been planning their holiday for ages.

So, if you are travelling to or from Madrid, for goodness sake make sure you have your passport and that it's in reasonable condition. And don't fly Ryan Air!