Holidays to arrange

I had nothing to do on this hot afternoon
but to settle down and write you a line

I have to finish off the job I started doing yesterday and get Mandy on a filght to Menorca in two weeks time.
And get Jake into a kennels in two weeks time.

Item one is fairly easy, Jet2.com have started a three times a week route to Mahon from Leeds and the bleedin annoying thing is that its cheaper than what we've all paid ten months ago.

Let me explain,

Every second year we journey to the fair Spanish paradise isle of Menorca with some good friends of ours, first two weeks in August every second year, our family and theirs, our kids are exactly the same age, its spooky, we have a great time.

But its not cheap.
OK its not expensive either, about £2500 per family.
The apartments we book direct with the spanish owners, the flights are more difficult.

Leeds/Bradford airport serves the fourth largest connurbation in the UK and yet it is still not over-served by flights and the vast majority of our holidays have always commenced at Manchester Airport, but at least there is a weekly flight to Menorca from Leeds, operated by Airtours, at £275 a seat, for that sort of money I could fly to New York (seriously), but if we want the convenience of journeying from an airport that is only one mile from our home (as the crow flies across fields) then we have to pay the premium.

So last September we booked eight seats on the Airtours Leeds/Mahon flight (four per family) and left it at that.

A few months later Mandy decides she didn't want to go with us this year, she's 17 and doesn't want family holidays anymore, etc etc teenage whines etc etc..... so I cancelled her ticket in May after giving her several last chances to change her mind, she didn't, I cancelled.

Last week she changed her mind.

It was my fault, I gave her another very, very last chance when I told her that Jake would need his kennel cough medicine at least two weeks before we left, if she was staying at home then Jake wouldn't go in kennels, if she was coming then Jake would need his kennel cough certificate, it was decision time yesterday.

She wanted to come, but just for a week.
Luckily for her Jet2.com have launched their new route, so I could get her a return flight for one week for £177, almost £100 cheaper (times three) than what we had paid to Airtours - bas'tads.

I have to book it this morning, its a late night flight which means that for two nights of my holiday I can't have a drink at all as I've got to collect/deliver her to Mahon airport, but hey, what are dads for ?

So the problem now is Jake.
I rang three local kennels yesterday, two are fully booked (hardly suprising) and one can only keep him sunday to sunday, we need saturday to sunday.
My brother offered to look after him for one day and deliver him to the kennels on the sunday so we are running with that plan and Mandy is all excited now - I only hope that the place is still open today when I ring to confirm.

I'm dead if it isn't.