IF - Climbing

An oldie for this week, this was done for some homemade postcards when my wife and I went to visit New York - cheapskate I hear you cry!

A good friend of mine, Peter who travels a lot (and has the gift of the gab) told me that if you turn up earlier enough and dress smart/casual and tell them it's your wedding anniversary, you can usually get upgraded - which we did and it worked - feeling very pleased with ourselves we went to wander around WH Smith - only to hear our names announced over the tannoy, to return to the check-in desk. Where we were duly downgraded because my wife had booked a vegetarian meal and they couldn't give it to anyone else. The moral of this story is don't marry a veggie - only joking!

There is a happy ending to this ramble, when we did fly back from JFK, we got pulled to the side at check-in, my wife who was starting to re-enact the Out-of-Towners, was happy to find out we'd been upgraded - in shorts and t-shirts - the plane was delayed taking off for about an hour because of storms over somewhere. But we didn't care, because we had free booze and nibbles - it's the only way to travel . I still have a tiny jar of marmalade unopened and a tiny salt and pepper set from breakfast tucked away - sad I know - but it always brings a smile to my face when I find it at the back of the cupboard.