I am writing this blog post on New Years day from London, after having brought in the New Year at a party held at a friend’s flat on London’s South Bank, not far from the London Eye and the Tate Modern. The location gave us a splendid view of the eleven minute firework display that lit up the sky as soon as the Big Ben chimed at midnight to herald in 2008. Of course, we welcomed the New Year in true London fashion, drinking fine French champagne and little eats catered in from the local Spanish and Indian restaurants. The spectacular firework display which cost the Mayor’s Office an estimated £ 1.3 million was held at the London Eye and was witnessed by nearly 700,000 people who gathered at the banks of the River Thames to partake of the festive atmosphere. After all, London will host the Olympics in 2012 and the city is brimming with confidence with a number of events planned this year to celebrate the Olympic Games.
As soon as the display ended the crowds thronged the various tube and bus stations. The mayor and London Transport’s benevolence ensured free public transport for all Londoners between 11.45 pm and 4am. Those who drove into town despite repeated warnings from the London Metropolitan Police had to suffer the indignation of roads being closed off to traffic as London’s citizens took over the streets as they made their way to the nearest tube/subway stations on their way home Though there were some reported incidents of binge drinking and rowdiness, the crowds were calm, well behaved and in great spirits.
At the party, I asked a number of Londoners what they traditionally did on New Year’s Day. Like most large metropolitan cities, London has people from all over the world and the popular response was that they usually spent the day recovering from the night’s festivities but the more energetic amongst them do venture out to one of the city’s many gastro pubs for a pub lunch.
Of course, my trip to London for the holidays was also marked by high drama as the air carrier MaxJet on which my husband and I had come to London declared bankruptcy on Christmas Eve. As soon as I hear this my mind whirled with all kinds of scenarios and the daunting prospect of buying a fresh ticket at the peak season of the year when airfares are usually the highest. We had few days of despair as repeated efforts to get through to customer service at Max Jet were met with long waits on the phone, the usual standard message of Max Jet’s exemplary service on board their aircrafts and unfortunately with no access to a representative. Our emails to MaxJet also remained unanswered. We finally got through to a representative on the 30th and left them our contact details to get back to us when they had more information on our tickets for the 2nd of January.
When all this was happening, we always had an uneasy feeling at the back of out minds that we really had no idea of how we were supposed to make it back home. A travel agent at Harrods in London told us that he had heard that MaxJet passengers were being accommodated on EOS, Continental and Virgin Atlantic. Adding to my worries was the proverbial concern of my baggage allowance in case we were pushed to another airline.
Finally on New Years Eve, Oscar, the MaxJet representative called and was extremely polite and apologetic. Oscar regretted the inconvenience and mentioned that the representatives were very busy and that MaxJet was indeed as their website mentioned going to put my husband and I on a flight with EOS, an exclusive business class only airline which flies out of Stansted Airport. He also suggested that I should wait until New Years day before calling EOS to confirm the booking. A call to EOS today confirmed that they did have reservations for both my husband and I for a flight out of Stansted on 2nd of January at 10.30 am. So despite the white knuckle ride, MaxJet really came through for us at the end.
I am looking forward to familiar Manhattan tomorrow ….
