Sometimes life happens

Dear Anderson,

Following the fire in the Channel Tunnel last Thursday we were able to re-start limited operations on Saturday. We are currently running a restricted timetable with fewer services, longer journey times and intervals of several hours between some trains. We advise that you consider rearranging travel planned for the next two weeks unless absolutely necessary. This especially applies if you are travelling over the weekends of Friday 19th to Sunday 21st September 2008 and Friday 26th September to Sunday 28th September 2008. If your journey is essential, then you should check in for the train time given on your ticket and we will endeavor to put you on one of the next available trains. Please be aware that you could experience extended waiting times, particularly between Friday and Sunday when there may be a delay of up to several hours before boarding. Your journey time will also be significantly longer than normal.

Yeah so this is what I got when I went to check my e-mails last night on my way home from my Weight Watchers meeting. I had a look at the train schedules and basically they are only running 4 trains a day instead of 8-10. The closest one after our scheduled departure time was 4 hours later and took twice as long to get into Paris meaning we would be lucky to get into Paris by 8pm on Friday. Similar situation on the way home.

Last night I went through all the options we had in my head. The Eurostar tickets were refundable. The hotel most likely not as I had booked on Hotels.com. I was sick to my stomach at the prospect of being out £115. I looked into flights but all the airlines have jacked their prices up because they know they can due to a lack of Eurostar service. I spoke with Mr. Y in E about driving over but this would mean trying to find parking as our hotel did not have any and as gas prices are so high and ferry prices are almost as expensive as two Eurostar tickets it seemed a little backwards. Mr. Y in E was great, he said we try and get a refund from the hotel or at the very least see if we can switch dates to something a couple months in the future. If not we cut our loses it was just bad timing that one of only two fires in the tunnels 14 years of use for passenger rail happened two weeks before our anniversary trip to Paris. He suggested alternative places we could go but after six months of researching European cities deciding on Paris and then setting everything up I just did not have enough time to wrap my head around someplace else.

It looks like all my bitching and anger last night paid off. I woke up this morning with a much clearer head and decided that yeah it sucked but so what. Short of France declaring war on China I am relatively sure that Paris will be there in a few months time. My outlook was further boosted when after sending a carefully worded e-mail to hotels.com came back letting me know that a full refund would be granted and I could expect it back on my credit card within the next 8-10 days. May I just say I love you hotels.com thanks for making my day. Now that my head was much clearer I realized it would be lovely just to stay at home, I made a reservation at one of Mr. Y in E and my favorite restaurants locally and am now in the process of planning a day trip.

So I have made a list of Pro’s for not going to Paris.
1. Cheaper- Dinner in Paris was going to come to around £300 yeah I have a foodie for a husband.
2. The money we are getting back from Eurostar and the hotel not only pays for the dress I bought to go out to dinner but dinner at the Blue Strawberry where we will now be dinning and it covers Mr. Y in England’s anniversary gifts. So basically there will be nothing left on the credit card after our anniversary to pay off.
3. The restaurant in the UK we are going to does not have a dress code so Mr. Y in E does not have to wear a jacket and tie. This makes Mr. Y in E very happy. Mr. Y in E is more than willing to wear such shackles when it is appropriate but would prefer not to.
4. We have a million day trips on our to do list that somehow life always takes over and we never get to, now we will.