I have had a day off blogging to steady my nerves while I gathered my faculties to resume the tale of how we collected our brand new multihull powerboat from Powercats Ltd, of Redruth Cornwall and how we towed our £37,000+ new boat across Europe on a trailer attached to the back of a Suzuki SX4 4X4.
Last time I had got to the point where we had just got through Italy and we were getting to Ancona.
Now the plan was to catch the Superfast Ferry XI from Ancona to Patras via Igoumenitsa.
We knew what time the ferry was leaving and our travel agent had not got us return tickets including our boat on the trailer as the system had trouble giving return tickets which had no trailer on the outward journey and a trailer and boat on the inward journey. So we had ordinary return tickets and she had told us to 'just pop into the office and get them upgraded and pay the extra and it wouldn't be a problem.'
This is where the difference between me and hubby gets highlighted. I wanted him to phone ahead or contact the Superfast guys well in advance to get this upgrade at least sorted out in principal - even if we couldn't pay til we got there.
But hubby believed implicitly in the agents pronouncements and insisted it would be fine to leave it to the last minute.
Me and 'last minute' have never been happy company.
To be perfectly open about it, me and 'last minute' hate each others guts. I try and avoid coming into contact with 'last minute' as much as possible, and 'last minute' does its best to ruin my life wherever it gets the opportunity.
This day was no exception.
After a pleasant night spent wide awake in terror in the front of our car 'guarding' my peacefully sleeping menfolk as the entire armed assassin section of the Mafia prowled around us in the motorway carpark, my normally placid personality had taken a slight detour.
Anyone who knows me well will attest to my gentle affability, my ability to ride adversity like a child rides a roller coaster at a fairground - but without the screaming and being sick part.
Easy going is my default characteristic.
But Italy had done things to me. My eyes were wild and bloodshot. My hair was tangled and it was the first time I had ever been able to feel anger actually in the roots of my hair.
All I knew was that until I set foot back on Greek soil everyone around me was going to suffer if they did one single thing to thwart that aim.
What I didn't know was that thwarting was the order of the day and 'last minute' had ordered up plenty of it with a side helping of irritation.
Let's have a soothing image now.
The lovely waters of the Adriatic as seen through our porthole when we finally got onto the ferry.
Back to the narrative.
In the queue for the ferry, lorry drivers and drivers looked admiringly at the large spanking new boat on the back of our trailer. Hubby had gone to enquire about our 'problem free upgrade' safely to be left to the last minute, while teenage son anxiously sat watching me in the same way that army bomb diposal experts regard a particularly tricky incendiary device.
I could tell from the slope of hubby's shoulders as he emerged from the office doors that all was not well. Let's face it, I had known before he even went in there. But would he listen to me? Oh no, hubby loved to flirt with my arch enemy 'last minute'. He would flaunt their salacious relationship with me regularly, and accuse me of over reaction whenever I protested.
But was I right? OF COURSE I WAS BLOOMIN RIGHT!!!!
More tomorrow - I am off for another decaffeinated beverage to calm my post traumatic stress LOL
