Travel Trials

A phoned me last night after he landed in NY enroute to Detroit for a riveting automotive industry conference. Everything was tickety-boo and he assures me that I will have plenty of time for the transfer in Amsterdam when I take the same flight next Saturday.

However...

It's all gone pear-shaped since then. His and his colleague C's luggage has gone missing, leaving him in Detroit with no toiletries, spare clothes or books to read and a computer that is resolutely refusing to boot up, so he can't even console himself with his favourite on-line pasttime, reading air crash websites (yes, he is morbidly obsessed). Add to this a fire alarm at 4am - after walking down 19 flights of stairs, he's told that it's a false alarm and he can go back to bed. Of course, that would work if the jet lag hadn't kicked in and left him wide awake. Ho hum.

He's just rung now to tell me that, having taken a trip back to the airport after lunch, everyone's "pretty certain" that their luggage is "most likely" already in Detroit. However, C's now lost his mobile phone...

And these men are the future of the British chemical industry... God love 'em.