I have often wondered how thin the veneer of fellow- feeling ,even ( or sometimes especially) around Christmas is. Well, thanks to a balls-up at the air traffic control center, I had a mixed picture of it; up close and personal.

Amazing how NATS kept highlighting the speed with which they fixed the “glitch” and yet the knock on effect kept spreading, the repercussions being felt by thousands. One family, with young children, and already travelling for 26 hours, were hoping their flight to Montreal would get to take off; another young man going to miss his sisters wedding back in Germany. And so on and so on………..  All remarkably calm and accepting that no-one actually set out to piss us all off.  And certainly I did not witness anyone take their frustrations out on the airline staff; all doing their best to help their customers and work their way through the huge queues.

I had plenty of time to observe those around me and came to a conclusion! The folk that got grumpy and felt hard done by, behaving like the worst kind of diva, will, most probably, behave the very same way in any and every other aspect of their daily life; and so will those that laughed and joked, offered their seats or a helping hand to their fellow sufferers.

You cannot blame circumstance on your bad temper. It is ALWAYS a choice.

Frustration, helplessness; yes. I felt that, and so did most of those I could see , but I had some great conversations, met some lovely people and had some really terrific laughs! I chose that path.  Hmmmm……..here endeth the nice me…………..

My flight was cancelled. Okay, no problem. Long schlep to collect my checked luggage and then verrrrryyy long queue for a taxi to a very expensive hotel for the night. Okay, still no problem.

Woken by the phone belonging to the pillick in the next room who had gone out but left his bloody phone behind, and it rang, and rang and rang! Getting a bit cross at this point!

Then some silly bitches( pished as farts), attending a Christmas party in the expensive hotel, decided to declare their love for one another outside my room door for what seemed like hours and at the top of the voices. Oh happy days!

And just to top it all, the DJ( not sure if they are still called that, but I did manage to find a few new names for him)played Wham’s “Last Christmas” and the entire works of the late, great Michael Jackson until the wee small hours of the morning, with one of the speakers about 10 feet from my room door.

The night manager explained to me the next morning that I was lucky to get that room as they close these down when a party is on!! They only opened these four rooms when they heard about the problems at Heathrow.(to help out and not cash in I’m sure)

Ah, bless………..Now that’s the Christmas spirit for you!!!!!!!!!!