Sarah and Scott: A series of unfortunate events...

I feel that I need to start at the very beginning, because it is a very good place to start. I arrived at Victoria Station a few minutes before mine and Scott's agreed meeting time, to receive a call from

Scott to say that the Jubilee line was down- so he would be late. Three trains and many minutes later he arrived. We were busy enjoying our cooked breakfasts from The Dukes Arms inside Victoria Station when some random man from the street walked in, up to us with a Starbucks brochure in hand, and in broken English (or perhaps not even English) wanted to know where Starbucks was. The brochure is a significant thing to mention, because as he was asking for instructions, he randomly lay the brochure down on our table. Scott looked at the man, saw I tried to help him and continued on with his breakfast. I explained where Starbucks was located (shocking I knew, really tehehe) and thought it seemed random that this man, wearing a brown jacket with an orange and brown plaid shirt underneath, had laid his brochure on the table. He then awkwardly picked it up and left. I saw Scott's passport sitting on the table, where that brochure had been laid, and asked if anything else was there before- as I jammed his passport into the safety of my handbag. Scott said "No- that was lucky", we both had a lol about the strange event and we finished our breakfast and headed towards the coach station. 

It wasn't until we only has 15 minutes to go until our coach left for Gatwick Airport, that Scott patted his pockets and said "Wait on. Phone." He then checked his bag. No phone. 

"Right- well we will have to go back then." so off we went- back to the pub- cutting time finely. We arrived back at the pub and checked our area- no phone. It was then we were convinced that the asshole who was asking "directions" really did us over- and was now the proud new owner of a Black 16GB iPhone 4. Outstanding. 

Scott was taking it quite well. Both of us were annoyed that it was something that stupid that caused this. How easy it should have been to see coming, and how trusting and helpful Kiwi's are. Perhaps not now. 

We were really cutting time finely now- we arrived at the coach station, checked which gate we needed and high-tailed it to the gate only to find that we missed the bus. By one minute. Un-freaking-believable. We then had to walk back and find the National Express booking office and pay to change our ticket to an hour later. We were so lucky that we had time up our sleeves before our flight was due to leave!

Finally we arrived at the airport, checked in and Scott had a cheeky smoke. Meanwhile, I was feeling more and more stressed about missing the flight (anyone would think that this has happened to me before... it has...) and finally we were in our seats. 

Once settled in, we were waiting for the plane to start up- but it didn't. Time went by. Minutes even. Half an hour. Forty five minutes. An hour! At last the cabin crew leader came across the speaker to explain that we were to be delayed due to a refueling problem. Awesome. More minutes later and the Captain was standing at the front of the plane. He went on to explain that the fuel tanker had been filling the plane, but it drove off mid-fill because our flight should already have departed. What the? We waited longer - getting frustrated. Scott was losing it he was so hungry. Ravenous. It was, in all fairness, getting beyond a joke. The Captain came out again to explain that the fuel tanker had returned, but a puddle of fuel had leaked onto the runway and we were unable to fly until it had been cleared. More waiting. And then there were fire engines on the runway. That's different... 

Yep. That's a bucket of rags used to mop up spilled aviation fuel...

It's serious business... 

Finally the all clear was given- after two and a half hours of sitting on the plane. By the time food came around during our flight people just went nuts for it- and things were running out left, right and centre. Madness. People were just ridiculously ravenous. 

But- we are now in Athens and we are safe....

So... cheery bye :)