Strikebound

Clydesdales striking out at the Royal Highland Show, Edinburgh

A couple of weeks ago we departed France mightily ticked off at striking French rail employees. Tomorrow we are booked to return and now it is the turn of the air traffic controllers. 'But you come here every year.' said a friend today. 'Surely you expected this? Summer strikes are an annual occurrence.' Well, actually, no we didn't. We don't really pay attention to life in the fast lane.We're normally pretty unfazed by strikes of lock keepers. The travel is slow and the inconvenince slight. Just tie up for a day and enjoy a sympathetic glass of wine in the sun. The faster the travel the more annoying, disruptive and expensive things become.Working around a striking train cost us plenty but now it has come to aeroplanes we're talking serious money. Heaven help those in the future if they face intergalactic or even time travel strikes. Today I have been fixated on our airline's flight tracker. At the time of writing our flight is still optimistically listed as 'on time'. The other options are 'delayed' which is a euphemism for huddling for hours on end amongst the miserable masses in an airport terminal or 'cancelled' which means you're stuffed, your holiday's stuffed and, frankly, 'stuff you'. I don't know why there is a strike. I'm sure they have legitimate reasons with which I might even be sympathetic but picking on the ordinary paying punter is really not on.
This summer is proving difficult.