Wednesday 10th February 1999

We were up again at 7am, as we were told our flight was at 09:55, with check-in one hour before. There was a buffet breakfast of which we all took advantage (some more than others, eh Keith?).

It was then back on the hopper - which this time we shared with a team of biathlon skiers who had a HUGE amount of kit - to make our way back to Terminal 2, where we found that the flight had already been delayed until 1pm. A phone call was made to Martin R in Frankfurt, Germany, to give a status update. He was astounded to find that we were still in England, especially as no delays had been been announced to his flight later that evening. We agreed to keep each other informed of progress, delays and the like. Hey ho, plenty of time to hit the shops!

The hit included quantity purchasing of beanbag frogs by Sara and Keith, which were duly given fine TDC names such as Hooch, Kirsch and Grenadine! A further announcement was made to notify us that the flight had been put back further to 2:30pm, and this was accompanied by an announcement to pick up food vouchers. These we duly used in the pub for more booze and pub grub. Martin F was by now getting into the full "Waterhouse Wibble" mode, and was giving at least as much gibberish as he was getting.

Sara then rang Martin R again to give a further status update: in the intervening time our plane had been delayed again, this time to 4:30pm. Martin reported that there was still no delay to his flight, but would phone back at 4pm UK time with a further update. With this arranged, fatigue got the better of us, and we found a suitable spot to snooze, read and watch television.

At 4pm Sara's mobile duly trilled. Still no delay to the Frankfurt flight, but unfortunately we could not give Martin the same good news: our ETD was now 6:30pm. At this rate, despite our 24-hour head start, Martin would be there before us!

The only things Martin F doesn't like about flying are takeoffs, landings and turbulence, and as we had all three, he was not a happy chappie. Martin R's flight was progressing as planned until about twenty minutes before the scheduled time of landing, when it was announced that there would be a three-quarters-of-an-hour delay before landing. Little did he know that it was the flight from Heathrow that had caused his flight to be held in stacking . . .

The Heathrow flight landed at ten past nine, just after the scheduled slot of the Frankfurt flight. Igor was there to meet us, and said he'd made the initial arrangement for the hire car, so we went off to sort that out.

Martin R's flight duly arrived, and he quickly passed through passport control and picked up his bags. He then tried phoning Sara's mobile, only to find it still switched off. With no sign of the others, he had little option other than to go through the exit gate and hope. Igor did a second interception and the first two parts of the team were united in the car rental office.

We were all astounded by the amount of snow around us - all stacked up in neat three-foot banks either side of the road. Most impressive! Igor took Martin R and his kit in his car, and the others followed him in the hired Fiesta to the pool, where Aleš was waiting for us. Keith had a great time sliding the car around in the snow, much to the agitation of his passengers. Upon arrival at the pool, the abundance of snow got the better of Martin F, and he took a flying leap across the access road to land face down in what last year had been an expanse of grass. And disappeared!

Going, going . . .

Gone!

We then made our way into the pool. Sara, Martin F and Martin R - who were all on last year's team - all said that it did not seem like a year since they were last here, and all three were amazed at how familiar everything felt. We ordered our drinks at the bar - three Laško Pivos, one Vodka & Orange and one Coke for Keith, who had continued to draw the short straw to drive.

We spent twenty minutes catching up on news and stuff, then Aleš led us to Bled and to the home of Magda, who was going to be putting us up for the next two nights.

Martin F, Colin, Martin R, Sara, Keith

Magda showed us to what was essentially a self-contained flat, with a large main room with two double sofa-beds, table and chairs, satellite TV and kitchen area, together with a separate bathroom and an additional room with two single beds. Very comfortable! So comfortable, in fact, that after a few nightcaps of Napoleon Mandarin Brandy only Martin R managed to get up at the pre-arranged time . . .

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