7699/20638
Just as I was almost starting to enjoy this holiday in my living Hell, it's time to go home. Our flight wasn't until 8.20pm so we left our bags at reception and headed to the slopes for the only acceptable winter activities, snowball fights and sledging! I made both the kids cry during the snowball fights, but the sledging was more fun. Ernie was well into it, even though he crashed through a casual fence on his first go.
Without the kids disappearing for a lesson we were able to have more family time and had coffee/hot chocolate in a cafe opposite our hotel which we hadn't tried til now and which had a counter full of fancy cakes. Then we had lunch at the hotel - getting food had been the toughest thing about this holiday with all the restaurants closed in the afternoon and booked up after 7. Last night we were going to get a takeaway pizza but there was a 2 hour waiting list for that, so Catie bought some warm stodgy croque monsieurs and dubious individual pizzas from the Spar. It was one of the most disgusting meals I've ever had, but a fitting one to remind me of the junk I used to eat without thinking about it, before i return to the Zoe recommended meals.
But it turned out that no one was lunching in our hotel at all so we had the small restaurant to ourselves and it was excellent. I played the kids at pool and a double length table football game. We were having excellent fun at last! Nothing could possibly go wrong.
Luckily I went to pick up the bags from reception about half an hour before the cab arrived, because it turned out that one of them was missing. It was the small suitcase that Phoebe was going to take through as hand luggage. It just wasn't there. It seemed unlikely that anyone had stolen it - why just that one? - so I hoped it had been moved somewhere. I thought it just had Phoebe's clothes in it, so it would be annoying to lose them and the case, but not the end of the world. Much better this than my ruck sack with my computer and the kids ipads in it...
But then I remembered that at the last minute of packing I'd seen there was space in there and moved her bedtime cuddly toys into a space in that now missing suitcase. Phoebe went ballistic when she realised and not without reason. The receptionist had assured us that someone was always on reception and our bags were safe, but it seemed that that was not the case.
I assumed that someone might have accidentally taken it as they left - so maybe we'd get it back eventually, not that that would assuage Phoebe who was horrified for her cuddly friends. What was our trip home going to be like now? Would she even be able to sleep tonight without them. Luckily she still had Fluffy Rabbit in her mum's hand luggage. This is her oldest and most precious toy (as seen on Twitch of Fun). Ernie was also freaking out, even though he had no skin in the game. It was a nightmare.
I went back to check our room - I was 99% certain we'd brought the bag down - but in any case the cleaners had been in by now and the bag was not there.
This went on for a good 20 minutes and our cab was imminent, when finally the receptionist got some clue as to what might have happened and took me upstairs to another room - the porter had taken our bag along with those of a new arrival at the hotel. Our day was saved. It was there, with a bag of duty free wrapped round the handle. I should have taken that for the trauma caused.
Phoebe screamed with delight, relief and all the other mixed emotions when I showed her the case. Fucking Hell, that was a lot to go through just after a relaxed day.
The trip home was fine. We got to the airport early and luckily I'd sorted out the payment for the big bags and we got everything else through as hand luggage. We had ridiculously delicious sandwiches at Turin airport - why can't the UK get airport food like this?- and I bought some 100% dark chocolate which was frankly insane stuff, but I sort of enjoyed it.
We took our time getting off the plane and were the last to leave. It was a long walk to passport control and the airport seemed largely deserted. After a wee break we were maybe 15 minutes behind the people who had rushed to get off first, but we met them all at the luggage carousel, where our bags were just disappearing on the belt. We picked them up and were on our way.
We had a 90 minute drive home to complete, which was a bit of a stress, but I stayed awake, even if Ernie didn't. It was good to be home. Thank fuck we found that suitcase.
I managed to do a decent chunk of the jigsaw as I waited for the adrenaline of the drive to die down. It was good to be back with my jigsaw.
