Ups and downs

When I was preparing for this - jaunt, adventure, mid-life crisis version umpteenth, whatever it is called - I warned myself not to expect everything to be perfect. Because life isn't. Perfect. And I'm glad I pre-warned myself, because not everything has gone to plan.

Take the lady on the plane who inconveniently decided to have a heart attack just after we'd flown over Sri Lanka. Oh wait, we'd better make an unscheduled stop at Colombo. Doesn't matter that it causes us to land two hours late at Abu Dhabi and we miss the connecting flights to Dublin, then Edinburgh. Its okay to enter the UK in Manchester instead of Dublin, isn't it? Flying FlyBE to Edinburgh, who announce the gate about 10 minutes or so before boarding time. With me lugging my baggage seemingly from one end of the airport to another.

Or take my carefully organised access to cash with a Cash Passport card. I dutifully transferred most of my available cash to it and changed it online into British Pounds. Because I was told the PIN can't be changed, I carefully recorded it in a secret location, then filed the original advice deep in my records in the storeroom at home. Then when I landed in Edinburgh I went to retrieve my PIN number... and it had disappeared, vamoose, apparently gone forever. I could order another card, but in the meantime... thank goodness for credit cards, shame about the exchange penalties.

Or my attempts to set up a bank account. "So sir, do you have a passport?" "Yes". "And do you have a second means of identification, like a driver's licence?" "Yes". "And do you have proof of your address, like a rental agreement, or utility bill?" "Will a mobile phone account do?" "No". "Well, actually, no I don't have proof of my address". "Well sir, when you do, come back and see us". She was very polite and professional. But apparently helpless in the face of the bank's policies and procedures.

I could go on.

Thankfully, I did get to Edinburgh in one piece, albeit seven hours late. And I have managed to retrieve my PIN through the very helpful people at Cash Passport. And I have found a far more accommodating bank (HSBC) that is willing to allow me to use the address on my licence as my "home" address, and my address in Edinburgh as a correspondence address.

Through all of this and more, I have been thankful that I am educated (although some may doubt it), that I speak the same language as those with whom I am dealing/negotiating/arguing/pleading (although at times I doubt it), and that I have access to secure accommodation and alternative forms of cash. As I reflect on this, I am humbled as I consider the tenacity and courage of the refugee or migrant for whom the opposite of all these factors is so often true.