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Travel Stories: Part III: Ham and Cheese @ Schiphol

By L-J Anjema © Dec 6, 2005 Laurens-Jan Anjema and SquashTalk LLC

Another lil’ update of the big trip ... (see earlier)

... So after I qualified for Saudi Arabia in Weybridge on Thursday evening (november 17th) I drove to my training base in Chingford, UK, where I only had two things left to sort out: book a flight for the next day and relax.

The huge trip I booked to Frankfurt (for Bundesliga, the German league),  Qatar, Hong Kong, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia respectively was with Gulf Air and would start and end in Amsterdam. I would leave Amsterdam the following day at 1’ clock, only I still was in London.

No worries. All I had to do was book a cheap lil’ easyjet-flight which would get to Amsterdam in time before 1 o’clock. The problem was that I’d left it too late so there were no cheap flights and the ones that were cheap got to Amsterdam around 12 o’clock. After my previous Easyjet-experience I thought I’d better not take that risk anymore…

So after a bit of surfing I found a cheap flight straight from London to Frankfurt with Ryanair. I called my Bundesliga-manager to let him know my changed time of arrival, called Gulf air straight after to let them know that I wanted to cancel my Amsterdam-Frankfurt part but STILL wanted the rest (as normally if you don’t turn up for only a part of your trip, your whole trip gets cancelled) and was finally ready to CHILL.

So after a few stressful days (see previous article) I’m finally relaxing while busy with a Jamie Oliver masterpiece (pasta with sausage) which is hard enough if you’ve never used an oven and don’t know you have to use a bit of olive oil to prevent the sausages from sticking to the foil. “But hey, I’m doing great. All set. My bags are packed. I’m ready for this huge trip, I’m playing well. My flights are all sorted. My tickets are… My tickets are… My tickets are… Oh no! My Gulf-air tickets are lying at Amsterdam airport!! If I fly straight to Frankfurt tomorrow, I won’t have my tickets to Asia with me!!"

So straight back to stress-mode again.

... Oh well, EasyJet again ... (photo © Easyjet )

In order to pick up my tickets at the annoying OAD-desk or whatever at Schiphol airport I had to do everything all over again but then in reverse: call my Bundesliga manager, explain what went wrong and notify him of my original arrival time, call Gulf Air again to ‘un-cancel’ the flight I just cancelled (which I’m sure they don’t do too often…), basically throw away the Ryanair ticket I just booked and book the only available flight with Easyjet to Amsterdam the following morning at 6 and ask my coach for a ride to the airport at 4 in the morning.

His response was: “Only if you promise me something”.
By this time I was ready to promise anything but I still tried to sound convincing asking what.

“Only if you promise to never serve so poorly anymore”, regarding the fact that Ben Garner hit about 12 roller-nicks of my serve in the final qualifying round that day. In my opinion not my bad serve but his successful risk taking and successful shot making. But I swallowed and said: “I promise”, sincerely.

... breakfast at Schiphol ...

The next morning when I almost sleepwalked into my favourite café ‘Old Amsterdam’ at Schiphol-airport and the waiter asked me if I wanted the usual, “Ham and cheese omelette and a café latte, sir?” I realized I have anything but an ordinary life.

- Laurens Jan Anjema
Halfway in between Bangkok and Bahrain
Sunday 4th of December 2005

Laurens Jan Anjema: PSA Ranking 3-1-2007: #21 Audio Interview His website (www.princelj.com)

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