Hand of God

Had a mad trip to Ireland on Saturday... Was supposed to go with my friend Skippo to an evangelistic event... 5 of us going, Skippo(drums), Tinu(singer), Olmo(saxophone), Bambo(bass) and me(piano)... 4 of us were supposed to meet at Tottenham Hale Rail Station and Skippo would meet us at the airport... I woke at 7am at dragged my sleepy feet to the tube station and halfway during the journey to the meeting place I discover that I had left my passport back at my place... gah... took the train back and then took a cab to my halls to grab the passport and headed towards the station... Skippo called from the airport 5 min before I arrived at Tottenham Hale...

Tinu was there already calling Olmo and Bambo trying to find out where they were... Our check-in time was supposed to be around 11am and we were going to miss the 9.07 fast train... I had to grab some cash but the cash machine wasn't working so I paid for the train ticket with my debit card... Tinu and me decided to get some breakfast at KFC since the guys hadn't showed up yet and the next train was 9.22 fast train... KFC was closed so we went to Burger King and they didn't accept cash there, I placed my order and ran across the road to the nearby petrol kiosk cash machine... ran back and Tinu said that the other guys were here so we had to leave... it was 9:18... had to leave my breakfast at Burger King... Met up with the other guys and Olmo said he had forgotten his passport... we had to decide in about 3 minutes what to do and whether he was going on the plane or whether he still had time to rush back then go to the airport... We took his saxophone and music stand though...

Tinu, Bambo and me met Skippo at Stanstead airport... Skippo and Tinu were on one flight and the rest of us were on another, apparently there was some mix up with the planes... Bambo and me checked in 1st, had a slight hiccup with the metal saxophone and music stand but it worked out, it went on Skippo's flight instead... Skippo was trying to call Olmo... This was about 1030am... Me and Bambo headed towards the departure gates 1st... Skippo and Tinu were still outside waiting but Olmo didn't show... So we all met up near the lounge area...

So anyway, here we are about to leave London and Skippo's phone dies... He was the only one with Olmo's number... I had the old ones... tried calling them but got one of Olmo's friends... Skippo and Tinu head towards the final departure gates... Me and Bambo followe... Skippo found a power supply near the water cooler, so he managed to get in touch with Olmo... This was about 1128... The boarding gates closed at 1130am... 1129, Olmo comes shooting down the walkway, panting for breath... How he managed with the tube closures, I don't know... He was supposed to be able to take a straight train down to where he lived, but he had to change trains 3 times... End of story? Nope, just the beginning...

So we went to Ireland, seperate flights, got picked up by this woman, very nice but didn't know where she was going... so after driving round about the roundabout 3 times, we got dizzy and just followed some road blindly... Olmo calls Skippo and Tinu to find out where the venue was and how we were supposed to get there... Skippo said he was already at the venue but had to go back to the airport because he left his bag in the plane with all his drumsticks and books etc...

We arrived at the venue and there was some mix up with the rooms so we didn't get one to rest in at the end... so we lounged around the hotel... 4 of us waiting for a reply from Skippo... sound check was at 330pm... Skippo still hadn't arrived by 3:15... And we couldn't call him either because his phone was dead!!!

3.20pm Skippo shows up and he says that the plane had left for Paris and would be back later that night... So he had to get new drumsticks... We had sound check with was horrendous cause nobody on stage could hear what we were playing... Had the actual performance and had to play some songs I didn't know at all... Oh well... Another lady comes up and tells us that 2 of the band members from the other act hadn't showed up so we had to cover for them... The other thing, our 9pm flight got cancelled and moved to 7pm so we had to leave early... we went on stage again for another performance and this guy shows up telling us that our flight had been moved to 11pm... so we sat and waited for a bit... then he comes back again saying that we have to go now cause it got shifted again... So we had about half an hour to get to the airport...

We arrived there at 8pm and started checking in, Skippo found his bag at the lost and found... amazing... it has Tinu's shoes in there as well... Anyway, we headed towards the boarding gates... Grabbed a few Burger King bites and started gobbling down our food... The security guy told us we had time so we chilled out a bit... at 8.30pm we headed towards the plane... and we heard FINAL CALL for our flight... so all 5 of us started running... it was really funny... what a day... managed to catch our flight...

There's more... we landed at Luton Airport and tried calling a cab but the 1st one didn't want to pick us up cause we were over the passenger limit... we called a 7 seater instead and the cab driver was something else... after arguing about the price... which was like £100... insane... we had to drop Olmo off 1st in Central London and then all of us around North London... He wasted A LOT of time playing with the sat nav... gah... and he turned right when the sign said NO RIGHT TURN... Then he travelled from the North West down to Central and the back up to North East... I got back home in one piece though and so did the rest... Was about 1.15 in the morning, I plonked myself on the bed and went to sleep... Wonder what kinda of adventures God has in store for me next... That was fun test of faith...

Reality