MAUREEN THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY’S FAVOURITE COLUMNIST
Love is in the air
The irresistibly trashy
magazines (you know you’re
addicted when you start
making appointments at the
doctor’s just so you can sit in the
waiting room and read them)
have been full of the news of
Madonna’s split from Guy and Katie
and Peter’s ‘rocky patch’. All rather
depressing, but I’m pleased to say
that the path of true love still runs
smooth for some.
North America Travel Service
sales executive Jane Riddington
called in this week to brief us on
new destinations in the Caribbean.
Just looking at the sunny pictures
made us feel warm.
As Jane turned pages for us,
Penny couldn’t help but notice a
sparkly ring on the ring fi nger of
her left hand. “Is that an
engagement ring?” she asked. Jane
blushed before replying that it was.
Jane and her boyfriend Simon
had been on holiday in Jamaica,
visiting Dunns River Falls. The
romance of the setting fi red
Simon and, with the waterfalls as
a backdrop, he popped the
question. Quite loudly actually,
because cascading water was in
danger of drowning him out.
Jane told us it was a surprise and
that Simon was shaking. “How
romantic,” we murmured, “did he
think you’d say no?”
“No,” replied Jane, “I think he
was afraid that if I didn’t like the
ring, I’d push him over the falls!”
Happily, everything about the
proposal and the ring was perfect
and when she returned to the UK,
Jane bought a bridal magazine for
inspiration. To her amazement, she
spotted a picture of a bride and
groom she recognised as a couple
she met while backpacking some
years previously. In her excitement,
The cat was not travelling with his
documentation and is now in detention
abroad for attempting illegal entry. I jest.
He’s in quarantine. www.travelweekly.co.uk
28 | Travel Weekly | November 14 2008
she called the friend she’d
travelled with to share the
information.
Within moments of
making the call however, she
was regretting it. “Why are you
reading wedding magazines?”
Asked her friend suspiciously.
Whoops! The cat was out of the
bag before Jane even had time to
announce the news to her nearest
and dearest. Still, it’s out now and
everybody is happy to have
something to celebrate in these
gloomy times. Congratulations!
Who let the cat in?
From cats out of bags, to cats in
them. A friend who works for an
airline made me laugh when he
related a complaint he’d received
from a woman who’d travelled with
it. Her fl ight had landed in a
European capital and she’d
collected her suitcase, only to hear
noises coming from inside it.
Opening it in the arrivals hall,
she discovered her pet cat curled up
on top of her pyjamas. How the
animal got there is a mystery;
perhaps her fl annelette two-piece
set was irresistible (maybe they
were the cat’s pyjamas) her children
may have packed him to keep their
mother company.
The bigger mystery to me is how
he survived the delicate touch of
two sets of baggage handlers and a
freezing journey in the hold.
Needless to say, the cat was not
travelling with his documentation
MAUREEN
and is now in detention abroad
for attempting illegal entry. I jest.
He’s in quarantine. His owner is
furious. She has complained that
the airline was negligent in failing
to detect the cat in her baggage and
is demanding that his return fare is
paid for by them. By my reckoning,
she has a cat in hell’s chance of
succeeding!
Incey wincey spider…
A persistent myth abounds that the
average human being eats up to
four spiders in their sleep in a
lifetime. I don’t know if this is true,
but I heard recently from one girl
who’s tried the delights of spider
while she was awake.
Having lived in China, Vietman,
Cambodia and Laos, Lisa Yeo of
TransIndus China Travel, is an
expert on her region and came
home not so long ago after a trip on
behalf of the company.
She told colleagues she had
enjoyed seeking out local foods and
that one of the highlights of her trip
was a meal she’d had in Cambodia.
“It was a spider,” she said, “and it
was sweet with some gooey
substance inside.”
“Commonly known as its guts?”
asked a colleague.
“You could even see the little
hairs still attached,” she said
cheerfully. Remind me not to accept
an invitation to dinner at her house.
Maureen Hill works at Travel Angels,
Gillingham, Dorset
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