Dublin and the Giant Stuff Up

Well what a day! It started of all right with a leisurely drive back to Dublin from Gort. Arrived in Dublin around 14:00, returned the rental car, caught the shuttle bus to the airport and then to the airport hotel. First stuff up, my reservation at the hotel was for yesterday. No big deal, just pay for another booki g a d get a refund from the travel agent after giving him a serve for mixing up my reservation.

Then I get to my room and think Hmmm, maybe I had better check my airline tickets are for the correct day! Turns out at that particulary moment I should of been four hours into a flight from London to Kuala Lumpur, not sitting in a hotel in Dublin, Ireland!!!!

Well it turned out it was my fault. I don't know why, I think probably tiredness, plus the fact I hadn't checked my itineary since Nicks wedding and I had the original departure date in my head but this had been changed before I left Australia. Probably the other reason was that I just lost track of days, so even though I saw on paper that I was leaving for London and home today, it just never registered in my brain. Idiot!!!

So it turned out after frantically trying to find a contact number for Malaysian Airlines that whilst they initially said they could only get me back home in ten days time!!!!they put me on a flight the next day. At this stage I believe the new flight from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpar connects with my original flight from Kuala Lumpur to Brisbane, getting me home at the same time as the original ticket but without the overnight stopover in Kuala Lumpur. This I will have to confirm once I get to Heathrow.

Fortunately Malaysian Airlines got me on these flight for only an extra couple of hundred Australian dollars. The British Midlines flight from Dublin to Heathrow was not refundable so I had to buy a new ticket and upgrade to business class as that was all they had available. So all up it is going to cost me a nights accomodation in Dublin, the cost of the flight from Dublin to Heathrow and a few hundred dollars for the new international flights. I guess it will also cost me an extra days car hire as well. I don't understand why the car rental company didn't mention to me when I returned the car that I was a day late in it.

Its a bit of a pain really because tbe rest of the holiday went to plan almost perfectly. Oh well, day done, crisis over, Phew!!!