STUCK IN LONDON

I’m sitting at a kitchen table in Balham, just south of London, having just missed my flight back to Toronto. How could this happen, you ask, and this is a good question, seeing as how I really am a good traveller. No, really, I am. I’m so good that I insist on making travel arrangements for other people, like an overbearing travel mama. Which may be how I ended up in this situation.

To make a long story longer, the CHFI Royal Wedding Morning Crew just wrapped up a stellar 4 days in London covering the big event. It all went swimmingly: the weather was perfect, our borrowed studios were great, everyone brought their best game, and we were on it. We had Alison Eastwood from Hello Canada giving us the inside intel on the Royals, and Jennifer Campbell from Country 106 and Adele Newton from CHYM in Kitchener out in London and Windsor doing field reports, and Shem Parkinson doing social media, not to mention Jax from Kiss just being all round hilarious and adorable. Plus our wonderful staff back in the war room at the studio in Toronto. In this day and age, it’s amazing to have a big old radio crew covering an event the way it should be covered.

Anyhoozles, we all headed back home this morning, and I arranged transportation to Gatwick for some of our party, which involved a 2 hour trek from London, and we got there in plenty of time, so yay me. Except once I arrived I realized that I had left my passport in the hotel safe. Total amateur move. “Save yourselves!” I cried to my colleagues, “it’s too late for me!” And indeed it was. I called the hotel and arranged for a courier to bring the passport to the airport as fast as possible, but it took – wait for it – three hours. Three hours of me waiting in front of the terminal checking my watch, not daring to eat anything or go to the bathroom for fear of missing the courier. Three hours, during which I paced, cried, shook my fist at the sky as the plane I should have been on took off overhead, and at one point texted a picture of me crying to John (my husband) so he could see how miserable I was. His response was “Nice sunglasses”. Oh, and it only cost $200 to courier the passport. That’s right. And all for naught.

Did I mention my knee? I’ve done something to my knee, and I have water on it, so I am hobbling along like a crone. I’ll get it fixed when I get home, if I ever get home, but in the mean time I have mobility issues WHICH ARE NOT HELPING.

What does help is that my dearest friend Lis and her family live not terribly far from Gatwick Airport, so I rebooked my flight for tomorrow, hobbled onto the train, and made my way here. Lis was still at work when I arrived, with the front door locked, and I had to go to the bathroom really badly, so I may or may not have used the watering can in the front garden. Let’s just say I didn’t.

All to say that if I don’t screw up any further, I will be home tomorrow, and back on air Wednesday. I’m so grateful to have friends in far places (Lis is cooking dinner right now and being generous with the wine), so don’t cry for me, Ike and Tina. I’m coming home.

Read more Mo to Go HERE!

Have a comment? A suggestion? Just want to chat? You can email Mo here.

Listen to Darren & Mo weekday mornings from 5 to 9 on CHFI.