Photo by Martin O'Connell under Creative Commons License: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinoc/535049143/

As I’ve mentioned previously, I bought a share in a Man Utd season ticket this year. That gets me three pairs of tickets for Premier League home games throughout the season. The first of which was last weekend with the game against Blackburn. I’d booked the flights with Aer Lingus back in August with a preference over Ryanair because I believed I’d get better service. Man was I wrong. Now I have to state that I’ve flown with Aer Lingus before without incident and I had a high opinion of them.

So, last Saturday rolls around and myself and Dar arrive in the airport at 8. The trip had been slower due to the snowy conditions and I knew the runway had been closed briefly so expected a delay. We consult the Departures board which shows “09:25 AER LINGUS 204 – CANCELLED”. Nightmare. It was amongst a handful of flights cancelled and we queued up to find out why from the Aer Lingus desk. After about 15 minutes, a staff member was checking the queue for people travelling to Manchester and explained that the 06.30am flight hadn’t left and to head to the check-in desk. We did just that and got through security quickly and headed for the delayed earlier flight. It’s about 09.20am at this point and things are about to go awry.

We arrived down to the gate where a lot of people hanging around. This was to be expected as most of the airlines were running behind time due to the earlier runway closure. The snowploughs were out in force though and aircraft were beginning to move with a few Ryanair flights going out. There was no sign of the Aer Lingus plane we’d be boarding though and there were no announcements. A guy we’d met earlier in the queue for the other flight was querying what was happening with the gate agent so I had a quick word with him. There was no immediate estimate on when we’d be leaving. Bear in mind that this is now about 11.00am and the original flight was due to leave at 06.30am.

I’d spotted a couple of Aer Lingus planes out on the apron that were parked up since we’d arrived at the gate. Why couldn’t they use one of those planes for the Manchester flight? In the meantime, approx 11.15am, a seperate Aer Lingus plane arrived in and parked close to the gate we were waiting at. We got talking to a guy and his son who had been at the airport since 5am. They were hoping we’d be able to take that plane. He went off to check the departures board which said “Delayed 11:45am” and instructed us to stay at the same gate. A couple of minutes later, the screen changed to display an Aer Lingus flight to Heathrow as the next flight leaving. That flight was running approx an hour late but, as you can understand, it riled a lot of people that Aer Lingus would be running a flight ahead of one delayed for almost 5 hours.

Shortly thereafter, we were directed towards another gate at the other end of the terminal. Upon getting there, we saw no Aer Lingus plane and staff who were ill-equipped to start answering questions from a couple of hundred angry people. A *lot* of people who are travelling to Manchester on a home match Saturday morning are going to Old Trafford and such was the case with the majority of people on our planned flight. The guy who was talking to the gate agent earlier was leading the effort to get answers whilst trying to stay calm. He relayed what the gate agent was saying to the crowd, by shouting, as the staff would not use the tannoy system. We were to be loaded onto a bus to take us to the aircraft, the aircraft would then be de-iced and we’d take off asap after that. The time at this point would be 12.30pm approx. They couldn’t offer any guarantee on what time we’d take off. At this point the airport police turned up, followed shortly by a few Gardai. As Ryanair announced the boarding of a Manchester bound flight, the crowd mock cheered. We were then told that Aer Lingus would be offering a full refund for those who wished to avail of it. Whilst that probably seemed like an acceptable alternate, people would be losing out on match tickets which were already paid for. I’d like to point out that a few kids were in floods of tears at this point at the prospect of missing the game.

We eventually boarded a bus to take us to a plane that had been sitting there since 8.30am. A certain amount of people had decided not to travel so a new manifest was required. The plane was then de-iced and we took off at 2.00pm for the short flight over. We eventually made it to the game at 3.25pm at Old Trafford but had missed the first three goals. My problem throughout the whole morning was that we were not told what was happening. Where was the original plane that was scheduled for the 6.30am flight? Whilst the gate staff insisted it wasn’t their fault, whose fault was it? The pilot stated he was scheduled for the 6.30 flight so it wasn’t affected by the threatened pilot’s strike.

It was a lesson in frustration and one which I’ll be very reluctant to risk again with Aer Lingus.

You really get no clue on how fast those things move until you see them up close and personal. I travelled over on the Wednesday with Elly and George for a full week. You may remember Elly from her idea to build my ANZ Stadium replica. We made a trip to Italy’s biggest shopping centre and got all the stuff we’d need. Party gear, a few towels, champagne and things like glue, scissors and such that I’d normally have access to. Here’s what we got:

Have you figured out what the towels are for? Correct, they’re the colours of the Australian flag. The blue towel forms the base with white and red towels cut into bits to make the Union Jack, the Commonwealth Star and the Southern Cross. Glue brought all the bits together nicely. We were in at the track on Thursday for a pit walk and I almost got Mark’s autograph (he just left as we got to him). Here’s Mark going through a lap of the Monza circuit which has seen a few changes this year:

On Friday, we cheered him on through first practice where he placed 9th. Formula 1′s qualifying system has changed in that the hour is split into 3 qualifying phases (click for details). Mark would need to be quick enough through the first two phases to make the third and he was, coming out 11th in the first phase and 6th in the second. Here’s the man himself with my makeshift pit board indicating his time:

It all comes down to the last qualifying phase to decide the positions for the top 10 though and unfortunately Mark didn’t have his quickest of the runs finishing in 10th. We retired back to the hotel after the session (via a beautiful meal, loves me Italian food).

Sunday was race day so I donned my Sydney outfit from Week 2. The Formula 1 race was due to start at 2pm but we knew it’d be busy with people literally camping out overnight on the seats. Since we had general admission tickets, access to the grandstands was out (they’re ridiculously expensive) so we found a nice spot around by Lesmo 1 corner. We’d made the decision to rent a Kangaroo TV thing, which allows you to watch live race coverage on it, so myself and George went off to get that whilst Elly kept our seats. After an hours walk down to the F1 village, we returned and bidded our time until the driver’s parade and anticipated the race start proper. As I mentioned earlier, Mark was starting 10th on the grid so from a position like that it’s easy to get tangled up with someone in the first lap. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened as his car was involved in a crash at the second chicane before he’d even reached our part of the circuit. It was his first retirement of the season.

After the race finished we made our way out onto the circuit and up to where he’d crashed out. Two Italian lads spotted the Aussie flag on my back and were big fans of the New South Wales native (even though their first love is Ferrari) so we took this shot:

Here’s myself, Elly and George at Curva del Serraglio just before we left the circuit:
All in all, a great week away. Hope Mark does a bit better this weekend. We’re coming close to the end of the Awesome Tour of Sydney so watch out for another post on that later today.

Saturday was spent exploring the city and some of the architecture really is stunning. The Botanic Gardens are in need of a bit of attention though (I doubt Peter would have approved). 36 degree heat means you get tired quite quickly so we headed back to the hotel for a nap before heading to Mario and Anna’s place for a BBQ. The food was delicious and we ended the night playing darts (came first and promptly came last in the next game). We had a nice lie-in on Sunday morning before the wedding at 3. Kev entered to the Rocky theme tune (awesome) and Oana looked absolutely stunning. The ceremony itself was Romanian Orthodox (I think) and was different to anything I’d seen before.

After the ceremony we retired indoors (heat was getting the better of us again) and sat down to enjoy the first of 6 courses spread over hours and hours. That was a major difference. In Ireland you sit, eat the courses and then a band/DJ come on. In Romania, they’re all mixed together. It worked really well actually, even if I was full by the fourth course (seriously good food). We drank and danced the night away after that. They’re a fantastic couple and I wish them all the best for the future. Naroc!


The football crew

I’m off to Timisoara in Romania today for Kevin and Oana’s wedding. Really looking forward to it and will be back on Monday. Enjoy your weekend!

A savage capture by Darren from last weeks trip to London. Taken inside the Tate Modern.

Last Saturday was brilliant. Myself, Lottie, Darren and my bro were flown over to London for the Awesome Tour of Sydney competition run by Tourism New South Wales and the crew from 1000 Heads. Making it just on time for the start of the briefing in Wandsworth, we got a taste of what was to come over the next 6 weeks. There’s 12 bloggers in total vying for the top prize of 2 return flights plus loads of activities (Bondi surf experience, jetboat ride, blue mountains tour etc) PLUS a matching package for members of their community. That essentially means people that read this site and help out with the overall ‘Send Anto to Oz’ effort.

We’ll be set 6 challenges in all with the first one being sports related. Cricket related in fact. We (that’s you and me dear reader) have to come up with a cunning variant of the game you see there on the left. The basic rules of the one 1000 Heads came up with are:

Players agree amongst themselves the number of overs that are to be played – each over giving the player six attempts at scoring ‘runs’ (much like real cricket). Once agreed, players take it in turns to spin their coin on the playing surface and attempt to score runs. The classic version uses the board below, with players spinning from the centre circle and scoring runs by landing their coin within the rings. If your coin finishes up off the board though, you’re out… Howzat!

They’ve come up with a few variations to play in places like the pub when you may not have a game board to hand. Throw a few bar mats down in a rough oval, spin the coin and if your coin goes beyond the beer mats that’s a run. If you hit the beer mats then you’re caught out. See? Easy enough. (illustration here)

I’m getting the creative juices flowing so any and all comments are welcome below. As they say themselves: “We’re setting no limits to what you can do with this challenge. Creativity will be rewarded“. The response has to be in by Monday (10th). This should be good.

Heading for London in the morning to compete for the ultimate Sydney-bound blogger award. Really looking forward to it. Myself and Lottie will be in direct competition but we’ll try and keep it civil. Darren (It’s his birthday) Byrne and my bro will complete the traveling party so expect photos and video come next week.

In other news, my laptop is knackered. Looks like a heat issue which is frustrating as it’s only 18 months old. Playing football tonight for the first time in weeks so will probably be in ribbons come tomorrow morning. A long one though so enjoy your weekends.