Best Laid Plans

We had big plans for this trip. We were going to go visit with family in Manchester for a few days then take a couple of weeks to tour Scotland - Edinburgh, Dundee, Inverness, and up to the Orkney Islands. We were going to visit Loch Lomond and Hadrian's Wall. Then we were going to drive back south to visit Mark's stepmum and then we were going to attend the reunion of engineering graduates from Hatfield Poly (now the University of Hertfordshire) to commemorate their graduation 40 years ago.  Then we were going to spend a night or two in London and see Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre before flying back home. Yes, indeed. Lots of plans.

This wasn't the first time we made big plans for Europe. Just two years ago we had big plans that involved a rail trip to Paris through the Chunnel, then on to Switzerland and finally to Italy via the Bernina Express. Those plans were seriously altered when Mark ended up in the hospital in Paris. At least this trip did not involve a hospital stay.

So what happened this trip to turn our plans upside down? First off, the person in charge of planning the university reunion flat out failed to do it. A date was set and nothing further happened. Unfortunately, we booked our flights back in March based on the date that was set for the reunion. And these days, once your flight is booked, it is set in stone. It cannot be changed. Period. Even when it became obvious that the reunion was not going ahead, we were still going to be in England. But it wasn't a problem. We would be free to tour Scotland a bit longer. There would be no reason to head south until it was time to go to the Globe and visit with Flo.

Then the Offley Morris threw a wrench in the works. Mark received an invitation from Offley Morris to their final day of dance. Mark danced with this group for nearly 40 years. He'd been disappointed that he wouldn't get to attend their final day of dance because they'd originally intended to do it in July and we'd booked our tickets for August and we just couldn't do back to back trips. And now they were going to have their final day of dance in August. Mark would be able to attend after all!

The problem was that this just couldn't be combined with the tour of Scotland. We would have to be in the south no later than Friday evening in order for Mark to attend the final day of dance. That would mean leaving Scotland after a few days, heading south for the day of dance and then heading back to Scotland again on either Sunday or Monday. Bad ideas! (For some reason, it seems to take between five and seven hours to travel 160 miles in England. It would probably have taken a little longer to get to and from Scotland.)

But it was a non-problem. We had not yet booked any hotels. We adjusted our plans to stay in the Manchester area a day or two longer than originally planned. We eliminated Scotland from the itinerary and headed south a week sooner than originally planned so Mark could attend the day of dance. Then instead of heading back north after dancing we opted to go further south - down to Brighton and Worthing - places I'd never been before.  Then we would drive a little bit further north to get near to London for a visit to Hampton Court Palace and Macbeth at the Globe. Perfect!

So the tour of Scotland is now slated for another time, just as the Bernina Express and Florence trip is slated for another time. Right now, it's far more important to remain flexible and go with the flow.