Hooray for www.booking.com!

As my wives and daughters will confirm, I am not a detail man. So it would have surprised no-one (except me) to learn that I managed to book two holidays in the same month, with dates overlapping.

We are going to Canada in September and Jordan in October. I booked the Jordan hotel  dates correctly but managed to transpose the month to September. no problem - one can go back to booking.com and cancel/change bookings at will. Except that one of the Jordan hotels was a 'special deal' and could not be changed!

In a panic, I phoned Booking. Maybe the hotel would view kindly a request to move dates if it came from a source of considerable business instead of just another incompetent holidaymaker.

They were brilliant! I spoke to them on Sunday (Freephone number!) and they contacted the hotel as I held on. Unfortunately the person with the POWER was not in, so the helpful lady dealing with my problem said leave it with her and she would talk to them on Monday when said person of POWER would be around.

About 11am on Monday I got a call - the hotel had agreed to move the booking to October!

Guess who I'll be booking all my hotels with from now on?

Has the world gone mad?

Yes.

Elderly relative died and left behind a selection of walking sticks. No good to me so what to do?

Idea! Give them to the local charity shop so some poor old soul(s) with mobility problems can get a cheap solution.

The charity shop was unable to accept my donation. The reason quoted? Health & Safety!

So sorry to tell you, mobility challenged people of Berkshire; you will just have to continue stumbling, falling over and breaking bones in the name of H&S!!