Winter Holiday (We're All Going on a)

Remember at the start of this month I mentioned that it was Offspring's birthday, but I never actually told you what his present was? Well, now it can be revealed (because we've just booked the flights). We are going to spend a week touring Jordan, starting a few days after Christmas. And Offspring will be flying out from the UK to meet us there.

The reason it took so long to get the tickets booked is that we tried to book Offspring's ticket online. After doing all the stuff on the airline website, it said 'something went wrong - please try again'. Hrmmmph. We tried three times and gave up in disgust. The next day BetterArf went to a real travel agent and had another go, only to face the embarrassment of a maxed-out credit card. 'No, this cannot be', quoth she, but examination of her credit card account on the Interweb revealed that the previous day she had been debited for the exact amount of Offspring's ticket. Times three. But of course, nothing from the airline saying 'here's your three tickets for the weirdo who want three seats'.

So, it has taken a while to get all this sorted out, but now it is. And no, we never thought of cancelling it because of the terrorist bombings in Amman - we'd be in just as much danger in Dubai or London or pretty much anywhere else. Now that we have an exit strategy for leaving Dubai, we realise that after 12 years of living very close to some of the world's most amazing stuff, it's about time we actually went to see some of it! Can't wait.