Guess what I did today?

If your answer was "have a relaxing Sunday afternoon" or even "have an uneventful travel experience" then you clearly are not familiar with my "friend" the travel curse fairy, or TCF for short.


(Steve McDonagh or any other creative types, an illustration of what such fairy would look like is most appreciated)

Yes, my friends, the TCF paid me a visit today and turned a simple 3.5, straight flight into a 6 hour nightmare.  Nobody else I know can get their flight delayed for hours AND manage to get their pre-paid rental car reservation canceled out of the system only to spend another hour on the phone and finally getting a different rental car.

But wait, it gets better - the highlight was arriving at the hotel 20 minutes after the front desk attendant left, which was precisely 20 minutes after the night attendant was supposed to show up.
Half an hour later, the hotel's manager showed up with her two small kids that had obviously just been woken up.
I ended up getting my room key and when I asked why nobody was staffing the desk the security guard looked at me, shook his head and simply said "I have no idea, this has NEVER happened before".

Of course it hasn't - the TCF and I haven't even been to this hotel before!


Soooo, since I am scheduled to be traveling for the next 7 weeks, let's have some fun with the TCF as I announce:

(drum roll)



Here's how it works, I tell you actual, scheduled events that are SUPPOSED to happen and you guess what is ACTUALLY going to happen, while allowing for the Travel Curse Fairy to strike at any point in time.

The person that guesses closest to what the travel curse fairy dishes out, will receive a bottle of Anguillian Pyrate rum, an Anguilla t-shirt and a genuine, hand-written note from me!

I might even come up with other games along the way, as I know most of you don't have a 7 week attention span, but for now, just play along...

So to kick the first round off, here are 6 scheduled items that are supposed to happen.
In the comments add your guess on what WILL happen:

1. Number of days I am supposed to be traveling:     53
2. Number of intended lost or delayed pieced of luggage (note, I do carry on whenever I can):  0
3. Number of airports I am scheduled to visit:     31
4. Number of scheduled unexpected overnight lay-overs:     0
5. Number of car/hotel reservations that are supposed to get lost:  0 (but we're up to 1 here already)
6. Number of countries I am supposed to visit:     4

Your guesses please!