My flight on Qatar Airways was just too easy, great flights, good hub at Qatar, great seats, good food and being able to fly into Brussels instead of my usual Schiphol is just so much more convenient leaving me with an easy drive to the hotel.
That's the good bit. My bag was the very first bag to arrive at the carousel, I didn't bother to get into the scrum to retrieve it straight away, I let it do a full lap first! I tend to travel at the front of the plane and although bags come through much more quickly experience tells me that travelling with 'oversize' items, my golf clubs or my bike, you always finsih up waiting til last for those items.
Well I waited and waited, and waited and waited. I eventually accosted the Qatar ground service lady to ask her to check on it. She wasn't exactly speed personified and after a 24 hour flight you tend to become a little impatient to get away from airports. However I stayed calm and patient, well for me anyway, and made her go backstage so to speak, to look for it. No joy, no sign of it, probably still in Doha she thought. Now I know that it's just a missing item for her but she demonstrated a real lack of sympathy, took no responsibility, directed me to the Lost Property office to file a report and promptly disappeared. No matter what the outcome over the next few days I have a feeling that I might be talking to Qatar Air about their customer services in Brussels.
Mind you the young lady on the lost Property desk was obviously bored but took all the details, her English while much better than my Flemish or French wasn't great but we got it done, although her take on the oucome was that I at least had the claim paperwork to make a financial claim on the airline. Her parting shot was that if it turned up they would send it on to the hotel but not to pester them, there was nothing else that could be done!
I actually asked Jurgen to ring them for me as soon as I got to the hotel to make sure I hadn't missed something on the language front, but he got the same response, so I guess I have to wait now to see what happens!
Its great travelling half way around the world to race and then have no bike! To say I'm a tad frustrated would be an understatement. I obviously need to see if they turn it up but how long to I wait, and without riding. My insurance will cover the value but its just such a time consumming affair setting a new bike up, I know I've just done it (well watched anyway) plus of course the shoes, helmet etc that's in the bike box. Oh well patience is a virtue, just not one I've been over endowed with!!!!
The cleaned and polished race bike ready to go into the bike case.
The new bike ready to ride when I get home, courtesy of Bikes@Brighton.
To cap off my day, I had tried to order some bits and pieces from Wiggle to be here when I arrived to try and save some weight. Wiggle have royally stuffed up that order, 'stuck in the system' they said be shipped soon, but there's still no movement, told them to stuff the order and stop sending me emails in the future. They and their ilk are not good for LBS's anyway, not that I really have one that's well stocked where I live but maybe that's a chicken and egg situation?
Finally there was a bit of excitement her last night, a helicopter landed in the garden! According to Jurgen he got a call about 7pm from a chap that said he was in the area, fancied something to eat in the terrace restaurant and could he park in the garden! So he did, what a show off
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