31st of December 2009. I was supposed to fly at 6:30am from Porto to London to then drive 3 hours back to Wales. There was plenty of time for me to get to the New Year's Eve gig at a Club in the Valleys. I arrived at the airport at 4 o'clock in the morning. Not much later we could see in the departing panel that our flight would be delayed and more details would be given at 11.
It didn't look good. I decided to spend some of my time trying o fix something that is clearly wrong, in Porto airport the flights start at 6 but the information desk only opens at 7. So, if you fly in the early morning from Porto you better not hve questions as there isn't a place to ask them. :) As my flight was delayed I decided to go there when it opened and ask for the complaints book...after explaining why I wanted to complain (won't go in more details here) the book was given to me, I was happy that I manage to see it. As the person there was very helpful and didn't put any problems into giving it to me I decided to leave an informal Complaint in one of te airport suggestion/complaint leaflets and letting him know that when I go back to Portugal I will write a formal complaint if nothing is done until then.
With all this some orthe time had gone and it was time to start worrying about getting to my gig on time. At around 10am a 5 euro voucher was given each passenger for food and the explanation that the previous day the airplain was hit by lightning when landing into Porto and a part needed to be replaced. The part had arrived from UK and the technicians where trying to fix it. Tests where beeing die and at 12 further information would be given to us. Things were not looking good and the flight could get cancelled.
At around 11:45 there were signs that we would probably be flying soon and right after that we start boarding. It looks like they got us another plane and so we manage to get to London. My worry than was the trafic but everything went well. I manage to get home and change, load the car with my gear and be at the venue just a bit latter than arranged but in time to play. It was a long and difficult day and thy was a bit reflected on my performance but we managed it.
After all that I got home to sleep and i did it very well. :) The first day of 2010 was spent in Simon's (Supernatural guitar player) house with some of his and Chris' (keyboard player) family. It was a good start to a great year.
