Last minute planning was the order of the day as the trip came even closer......

The Days Before

With all the hullabaloo about the tickets sorted, the next hurdle I suppose to hit me was the actual flight time, we received the Barmy Army pack just days before we were actually due to fly, and it was probably about three days before that it actually dawned on me that I would be sat in one single seat with massive arse ache for a whopping twenty odd hours. This suddenly did not appeal at all to me, and perhaps a few nerves were beginning to appear. It didn't mention anything in the travel pack about stopping of en route, and seemed to hint at a direct flight straight through to Melbourne, something that British Airways had only recently started doing.

Never in our minds at this point, was that we would actually struggle to get of the ground. The news channels were suddenly beginning to report that Fog had grounded many a flight at our departure Airport, Heathrow, only European flights mind, but enough to send doubt thoughts through ones mind. The fog they said would last for a few days, and so would cover our departure day. Images of people stood in makeshift tents hardly filled me with any confidence.

Still it was too late to either back out now, or even have any more lingering doubts, the day for departure had arrived, and in tow packed to the rafters in the suitcases, was hundreds of pounds of new designer gear (well most of it was Sportsworld, but who cares!)

Also just prior to going, the whole 'Haslam Out' campaign surrounding my team Mansfield Town had really began to bite, so a last minute rush took place to get hold of a Flag containing those words, just to see if we could get it noticed on the telly, little did we know just what kind of storm it would quite literary blow up!

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