JVS 4 - Waiting Lounge
We weren't able to attend David and Emma's wedding a couple of years ago because Emily decided to be born that month (or week, I can't remember) and the drive to the south of France just didn't seem like the best idea at the time. So we missed the wedding. And never got David and Emma a wedding present. So just a few hours before we were to leave for the airport and head home, Jan and I went into town to find a thoughtful wedding/house-warming gift.
David and Emma have a lovely yet bare garden beside their new house so we went in search of the most logical of gifts - a comfortable deck chair and an outdoor barometer. After much searching, we ended up settling for an outdoor thermometer instead of a barometer, but we found the most wonderful garden lounge chair. The store didn't have any in stock so I would have to walk to their warehouse down by the docks to pick one up. I sent Jan back to the house and headed south "past the big yellow building". Only a 10-15 minute walk, I was told. A-bullsh!t.
After walking for what seemed like 45 minutes, asking anyone I could find along the way for directions (most of whom ended up being friendly port construction workers), under the blazing midday sun, past an endless succession of nameless warehouses, and increasing my stride to a hurried New York pace whenever I thought about our impending flight, I finally reached the southern most tip of the island of Jersey and my destination. "I'm here to pick up the Sun Chair" I said as I handed them my receipt from the store. And off they went to get it for me. And I waited. And waited. God, this is painful just thinking about how to narrate this story...
OK, long story short: there weren't any left in the warehouse. They sent me back to the store. I double-timed my walk. They apologized. I didn't accept. I demanded the floor model that had enchanted us just an hour and a half earlier. And a discount. And I got it. I folded the chair over my shoulder and walked back to David and Emma's house.
The look on Jan's face when I arrived sweating and exhausted, almost two hours later than the 30 minutes I had promised her, with a Sun Chair flung over my back, was priceless. Thank goodness Jan had the foresight to go ahead and pack without me. I got back with just enough time to have a quick lunch with David and Emma before we had to catch a cab to the airport. And that was just the beginning of the return flight from hell...
Here's a fun video of Emily doing her thing in the waiting lounge of the Jersey airport: