Man plans, God laughs, and what is good about it?

A very good friend of mine send me a message that he would be in London in few days! He was coming from very far with his wife, such an amazing opportunity to meet! My flight booked, 24 hours to wait till landing in London...

Suddenly my phone rings, a medical assistant from my son’s school asks me to come. Something has happened to my son. I jumped into the car, drove to the school, this is how the very long day started. Gladly, everything was okay, but after that my phone rang more and more… Actually I was back home 1 hour after the start of the new calendar day… Oh! I have my trip to London in several hours!

 London, I am here. Beautiful sunny weather, quick stop in Baker street, remembering adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson... Happy to meet old friends and to spend a great time together. I has always been passionate about creating human connections and so grateful to have a business opportunity which gives me the chance to travel and to meet new people, become friends and work together!

Next day few meetings just before jumping to my plane to Nice. I plan to arrive at the airport in advance, as London is busy town, with a lot of traffic and I don’t want to miss my flight. I call my son feeling a little bit worry about leaving him all of a sudden: “Sinotchka, I’ll be there for dinner”!

I travel a lot and, frankly speaking, I really like to spend time in the airport. It’s probably one of the most stressful place: people are worry about missing flights, lost papers, personal belongs, all running around but I found pretty points in it. I love to seat at “my place” – the place I’ve choose previous time, drink my cup of green tea and observe people – you can learn a lot! So 2 hours are like a few minutes, especially while listening some audios, and I am finally seating at the plane already. 1.50 minutes more and I will be home for dinner with my family at 8.00 PM! It was my plan so far 😉

The captain starts to make an announcement. British accent seems to me a completely different English, so I don’t put my attention on what he is saying and keep headsets in my ears. I notice that we don’t move, and people don’t take seats. I decide to ask my neighbour about what’s going on. Nice couple sitting near me answered: “National strikes in France, we can’t take off and because of security option we need to stay in the plane for 2 hours till France allow our plane to land!”

Of, such news! I understood that dinner will take place without me ... 

I am practicing aikido since 14 years old. Martial arts take important place in my life. Aikido is not about sport, but about your spirit. You learn about power of energy, harmony, and love. I train my brain to see positive, even if situation is not. You always have a choice to ask yourself “What is good about?”

OK! Looks like I will not be there for dinner… will be there for dessert 😉

Life is good! Modern technologies give us possibility to work everywhere. This 2 hours I was talking with my partners, was making some calls and emails, I have even registered a new business partner! Batterie was slowly and inevitably going down. Last 1% I called my husband to say that I will be there at 10.00 PM. He said he will wait for me.

Yes, next announcement from the captain! “Dear passenger, I don’t have good news for you. We have a delay for an extra hour, but we still have no authorisation to leave the plane!” What’s the mess?

My inner voice suggests me new options of positivity... What is good about it? I decide to talk more with passengers, almost yelling and crying, but nice couple seating near me are very interesting people. We start our talk, insensibly becoming a discussion, and during it I’m thinking about the way we can connect with people and the power of attraction of the positive people everywhere! The plane, full of 150 passengers, was divided in 2 groups – these, who was quite comprehensive about what was happening and these who were asking the crew each single minute for updates, expressing deep frustration.

Next captain announcement!! Yeah!! “Dear passenger, my last announcement tonight!! (few seconds of hope 😉) We are almost out from our permission to be your crew in this flight, new captain and his team will replace us here in 30 minutes and we also have an extra delay of 1 hour!” We are close to 4 hours of delay; a group of people don’t want to fly anymore and decide to leave the board of the plane. Fine, but because of security restriction they should take their luggage. We are waiting, nice couple and me are probably the very last people having fun and laughing, still many stories to share. My phone is off. My neighbours kindly agree to give their cell phone to send a text message to my husband. I have no clue now, when I’ll arrive, looks like at midnight?!

New crew came on board and captain made an announcement: “Dear passenger, 35 passengers decided not to fly with us today because of security option, so we will ask you to leave the plane while the police checking for any missing luggage. We have an extra 2 hours of delay!”

Wow! For the first time I’m participating in such an incredible situation! Well, no more expectations to sleep tonight, or to be home, anyway I feel happy and grateful that my family is Ok. Probably my son is sleeping and not waiting me, and it’s good - I don’t want him to worry so much.

Finally, when nobody was expecting to take off anymore, we started moving.

3.00 am of the morning - I am back home to Nice. Saying quick “Goodbye” to my new friends, I forgot to ask them to use the phone to text. A group of angry passengers still had energy to stay to ask for ticket's refund, transportation fees and more... I was amazed by this situation: visibly, 11 HOURS of waiting was not enough!

I went into airport. I need to phone my husband, but where I can charge my cell phone? I went out and, in this moment, understand that it’s quite surrealistic to find a possibility to charge my phone in Nice airport. Honestly, I am exhausted! Walking in long corridors I have finally found a coffee machine with electrical outlet. “What is good about it?”- I ask myself. The good point is that coffee machine makes hot chocolate 😉 I was seating inside, drinking my hot chocolate, counting minutes. 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20… And miracle happens: my phone is back, and I am calling Alain! “I have just landed!” “I know,” he replies, “your friends from the plane texted me a while that you have arrived, I am already at the airport and waiting you at the parking”.

As we has capacity to find bad in good, I stand for idea to find good is bad!

Always ask yourself: “Wow! What is good about it?”.

It was an awesome trip with amazing friends! Thank you London!