#i can never nearly explain it all. my I Could Probably Fill a 45 Min Long Youtube Essay topic.

[spiribia]

player freedom to do whatever the F you want has been a core tenet of GW2 from the start, but as genuinely neat as this can be, I think this is also my biggest issue with approach to map-wide metas. here is a huge event for anyone that happens to be around when it occurs - jump in if you want! - but often these actually pertain to the main story and are intended to slot linearly somewhere in between main story quests, and along the course of the main storyline itself it may not be extremely clear at what point it would be accurate to attend the meta.

let's say you've followed the main story to the Dragon's Lair map (which I just made up) for the first time. plotwise, you must set up camp with the NPCs and make preparations before embarking to destroy the dread dragon - but since you set foot on the new map, you are concurrently seeing information on your screen about a meta with an end goal to Help Bobby storm the Flame Gate and slay the Infernal Lieutenant. "OK," you say, "I don't know who Bobby is, and those things don't sound suited to my current phase of the story, so I don't have the context to participate in this meta yet." shortly after the NPCs may conclude that preparations are finished and the march on the dragon can begin - Quest Complete. you get a prompt to meet with the same NPCs to proceed with the next instance. this could be a traditional single player instance where the NPCs rally and begin their descent. It could just as easily open with the NPCs going "With the battle won and the barrier disabled, the dragon is vulnerable now - let's finish it off!", as though you've missed a step walking down the stairs.

the main story when beelined is full of little discombobulations like this - it's not impossible I've historically just missed out on relevant cues, but I do know with some certitude it's not a uniquely me issue to experience slight "do I know these side characters? when did they get here?" tier stumbles from time to time, even when I have completed the relevant material at the relevant time, due to further factors like multiple branching paths in metas. I understand that the format of GW2's living world is that you are naturally not going to be present for everything that occurs - it moves and breathes regardless around you - but this creates a disjunct with the linear main story About You when it plays it safe and acknowledges extracurricular activities or paths you *may* have done with a certain level of assumed familiarity for these characters and situations.

the game has no way of controlling what the player has broadly witnessed beyond the journal quests themselves, and also has no interest in being the boss of the player over this - yet there is still a structured developer choice of what from this broader content is utilized in the linear story, and how. the narrative may not ever force you into situations where you are exposed to a particular NPC - however, it WILL make you witness the NPC's emotional death in the main story with equal gravitas whether they were your mentor figure or whether they were some person shown in a cutscene for 2 seconds before dying.

the game doesn't seem to want Isolated Pocket Instances For Important Story and Overworld Map For Sidequests. i understand this, and moments where main story is integrated in a massive map-altering event with 50 other players in collaboration with each other is genuinely a wonderful experience when it does land correctly. the main issue is that for me the thrill of these event chains is not necessarily 'narrative i've gleaned from playing through them.' they're loud, dialogue is drowned out, the screen is visually plastered in flashy effects, you're focused on dodging AOEs and healing your ten simultaneously downed comrades. because of the spontaneous nature of these events you may have missed the first 3/4 of the NPC's conversation and so don't even really know what their banter is about even if you can stop to read the chat log for it. there is a meta where rox admits that she is thinking of joining the olmakhan, and if you don't happen to be around her when she says it you will miss that extra bit of context - yet as most other metas do, gameplay wise, this meta encourages players to split up and be in different places, most of which will not be near her.

it's simple enough to talk about these points - i understand it's much harder in practice to make cohesive. as with most mmorpg storylines, there is a jankiness here that i ultimately am willing to overlook because of the rapport the game has otherwise established with me.

it's not even that I mind spoilers, but because so many things are occurring regardless of if you were there for the context or even if you're at the right point of this chronologically at all, the map becomes this morass of random things that you can feel a bit detached from. if you see your main story NPC friend needing escort so they can set up pylons - is this related to a future plot event, or did you just miss the first section of this mini event where they said "I just discovered we have a rat problem in our storage, I need help setting up these rat pylons to repel rats"? are you 'meant' to be here - if not by the game's standards, by your own sense? and for those who do mind spoilers, you're seeing Help Bobby Use Crystals To Shatter The Field Protecting The Dragon Lieutenant on your screen from the moment you set foot on the map. 

i'm always in favor of more guidance along optional material - more "(Optional) complete the meta of this map" objectives appearing at the appropriate time, more achievements for completing the meta before proceeding to the next quest, more concrete pointers where

#talks #for a year i keep sitting down to articulate my thoughts on the storytelling and it always ends up five million unfathomable #paragraphs long #i can never nearly explain it all. my I Could Probably Fill a 45 Min Long Youtube Essay topic.

[rock-hopperhazuki]

Yeh Imma post this before I sleep

You know what? I’m up late, feeling like ranting about something so Imma do it. I just feel like getting this off my chest, laying it all out, and in turn give yall a glimpse into my current situation and why I’m just not doing well lately. If you don’t wanna read it, I’ll put it below, cause it is a LOT. This is my longest post yet and I go into a bit of detail about me and my bf and our experience at our job cause that’s what started all this. READER BE PREPARED! (I also wrote this in the last hour or so and don’t know if there are many mistakes, probably gonna go over it to see, but meh):

Alright, let’s go back to the VERY beginning.

Jan. 24, 2017 was my first day at my first job. I’m a janitor at one of the courthouses in town. That was also the day I became acquainted with one of the only other young employees there: Robert. 

We quickly became friends and even tho we only get to see each other during our 45 minute lunch break and when we clock out for the night, it only took like two weeks for us to go on our first date, kiss, and start going out. (my first intimate relationship ever, mind you) And it also only took another two weeks for us to get in trouble. And that trouble was getting caught making out and heavy petting in the elevator (which we were doing for about 30-45 minutes apparently) by one of our supervisors after lunch. 

Also, up until this point only about 2 other employees that we were cool with knew we were together, it came as a shock to our superiors. So we get called down to the office and interrogated separately. Both explaining the situation the best we could. Granted this wasn’t planned or anything, it just happened and we lost track of time. We get reprimanded and told that the manager would discuss this with us the next day when he came in. So I’m freaking out thinking we’re gonna get fired, and only after I’d been there for only about a month.

But, when we speak with the manager the next day he basically said: “We don’t care that you guys are going out, so long as you don’t get married while you’re both working here and you’re not ‘stealing time’ being all affectionate”

Stealing Time is basically not working while you’re on the clock, they consider that stealing cause you’re getting paid to clean and you’re not doing that, and still collecting a check. 

I’m super relieved and glad we can be together and that we didn’t get fired. Most places don’t allow couples to work in the same place, so I’ve heard. Afterwards we become a bit more open with our relationship. Everyone now knows we’re together and we get teased a little and called cute by our, mostly older, co-workers. And everything is pretty cool...until we get into more trouble down the line.

Me and Robert get back from lunch a few minutes late once or twice (not because of elevator shenanigans tho, we went out to eat and came back late). We get a warning and afterwards our supervisors give us strange looks and come to our floors more often to check on us. Which doesn’t do wonders for my anxiety and paranoia btw.

Robert had his own run-in with trouble down the line as well. There was a new girl who worked on the floor above his, but the hose in her janitor’s closet didn’t work or something like that so she was allowed to go to his floor and use the hose in his closet to fill her bucket for mopping and other bottles. We were cool with her, so when she came to his floor everyday, they would talk a little before she left.

She also didn’t like our superiors very much, and one day one of them came to Robert’s floor while they were talking in the closet. In turn, she SLAMS the closet door shut while they’re still inside so he won’t ‘be listening on our conversation’ or whatever. But the slammed door brings him right over and he opens the door. AND FOR SOME REASON, she tries to hide behind the door so he won’t see her. Of course he does and the situation looks bad. Robert tries to play it off, but HE gets in trouble regardless because, get this: they think they were basically doing what we previously did in the elevator (stealing time, getting frisky, whatever). But also get this: they don’t call HER to the office, just him. And he gets a strike against him. He tried to explain what happened and defend himself, but they just don’t listen or even let him speak for himself.

That kinda puts a damper on our relationship with her. And tensions grow between us and the higher-ups. We start having lunch away from the other workers while in the cafeteria, and more time outside as well. 

Another incident happened during Chore Time.

Chore Time at my job is about 30-45 minutes before we clock out. During the day we do our designated areas and floors. But at Chore Time, we come down to the office and get assigned one last mundane job to do before we go. That night, I was to do the exit door glass on the first floor. So I took the paper towels and nearly empty Windex bottle they gave me and did my chore. I finished up pretty early and decided to go back to my floor to refill the bottle and wait a little bit before going back to the office to clock out.

When I got to my floor I saw Robert. He was doing the glass panes going down the hall as his chore. I decided to stop on my way to the janitor's closet on my floor to talk to him. It’s still kinda early, I thought. I have some time. And wouldn’t ya know it? One of our supervisors comes to my floor at that time. We get reprimanded for just talking and I tell him I didn’t intend on just standing around talking until it was time to go. I was gonna go fill the Windex bottle and stopped to talk for a little bit. I didn’t know if he believed me, but I went on my way, filled the bottle up, and made my way to the office to clock out with everyone else.

I thought that was the end of it, but the next day we’re called back down to the office cause the supervisor that caught us the night before called the manager. We are told once again that we aren’t to be ‘stealing time’. The supervisor interjects and says that Robert was still working while I was talking to him (technically not ‘stealing time’) and that I was the one standing there, not where I’m supposed to be (even tho that was my floor). He says that I lied about going to fill the Windex bottle cause I wasn’t anywhere near my closet. Even tho I was already on my way there when I stopped to talk to Robert. I didn’t even know he was up there. I tried to explain this to the manager, but he didn’t want to hear what I had to say (just like how they didn’t want to listen to what Robert had to say before) and sent me home early.

Now, I’m upset, but inside I’m kinda like “Whatever man” and I just peace out and call my ride. Robert is way more angry that they sent me home and I text him to calm him down, I’ll be back tomorrow. When I do, I ‘apologize’ for ‘lying’ to my supervisor and promise not to ‘steal time’ with Robert again and got right back to work.

Things are tense, but for a while there aren’t anymore incidents. My anxiety and paranoia go down while I’m working and I feel better knowing that if anything’s wrong or bugging me that I have Robert and during lunch we talk a lot. We are still affectionate with each other, but only during that 45 minute lunch we have. The only time we have to ourselves. No rendezvous in the elevator’s after lunch, no stealing time to make out. None of it. Only during lunch. 

Until our manager eventually tells us that we shouldn’t be affectionate inside the building since state workers may see us and disapprove, even when we’re in the cafeteria, on the lowest floor, during our lunch when most of the state workers are gone or on the upper floors in their offices staying late. We are upset, but decide to try to have lunch outside every day. Even when the weather gets cold, we stay out in the courtyard and eat. And for a while that’s fine.

Until later down the line, we get told that we can’t be affectionate out there either, since state workers leaving late could still see us when they leave and we need to ‘uphold the company image’. Even tho they are never that close to us and they don’t even give us a second glance. It’s not like we’re constantly lip-locked or anything. They never seemed to have a problem with any of this before.

So now, we’re both mad. They seem to be constantly tightening the reins on us. If you go back you’ll see that they said they didn’t care what we did so long as we’re not ‘stealing time’ or get married while still working here. We were told at the beginning that we could be a couple in this place and they keep trying to put a stop to what we do when we’re together.

They also pulled some other stuff. The other court building was down a person and needed a replacement for 6 weeks. Other than the handful of new people with no real defined job yet, they asked me first if I would take the position, saying I could say yes or no. At first I said yes, but once I really thought about it, I declined cause I didn’t want to be gone from Robert that long. Also the hours are shifted slightly and with the way my ride to work is set up, it wouldn’t have worked.

The next person they went to was, of course, Robert, but this time they didn’t give him the option to say no. They just gave him the position. Trying to split us up. Now, he wasn’t completely transferred over there, just filling in. And since their hours over there are different than ours, how it worked would be:

He goes into work at our courthouse at the usual time and does his usual work

When the time comes, he makes his way down the street to the other court building and does his duties there

When it comes time for them to clock out, he goes back down the street to our courthouse and finishes up his usual work and clocks out with the rest of us like he always does

Which meant I only saw him for the final 15 minutes of our usually 45 min lunch and when we clocked out at the end of the night. For 6 weeks. I was frustrated that they did this, but we made our time together count until he finally came back to work fully at the courthouse again. We were glad to be back on our regular schedule. And even more affectionate.

We just disregard their rules while they’re not around. But it turns out our good fortune ran out. We were apparently caught on camera kissing and one of the security guards told our supervisors (which is CRAZY cause we’ve been together this long and there are obviously cameras in the courthouse but they never saw fit to tell anybody about us if they saw something, UNTIL NOW APPARENTLY. JUST OUR LUCK). 

So last Wednesday, I was called into the office where our manager and the cleaning manager of the court building down the street were sitting there with our HR rep on the phone. And basically it was explained to me that after all that’s happened, in order to uphold the company image and keep both me and Robert as employees, I’d be transferred to the other building starting the next day.

I have no idea what they told Robert once he was called in, but at lunch we sat across from each other on a bench outside. Not touching, not looking at each other for a bit. When he finally spoke and asked me if I was alright, I broke down and cried. Went into full panic attack mode. My head hurt, I had trouble taking a breath, I felt sick, sad, angry, scared. So many things went thru my head. 

I wanted to quit right then and there. Just say F*CK IT. But I couldn’t. At least not right now. My family depends on me now to help pay for things around the house. And I’m trying to go on a trip with friends of mine in October. I need the money. But I didn’t want to go over there. I didn’t want to go over there when they asked me and now they were forcing me to go. I’d just gotten Robert back from that place and he didn’t have much good to say about it either.

But even during my breakdown, Robert was comforting and level-headed. He promised me that things would be ok and that this was a sure sign that we needed to move on from this place and find better jobs, make a better life for ourselves, and strive for greater things than this place. He said all the right things, but I still felt hollow. I still kinda feel that way and it’s almost been a week since it happened. 

I don’t like it very much over there. I don’t get to see Robert during the week. We talk on the phone tho. We’ve both been looking for new jobs and have applied to a few places. No luck yet and I’m feeling very discouraged about all this.

He tells me not to worry, good things come to those who wait, our breakthrough is close, all that. But rn, it doesn’t feel like that. I just feel...bummed and defeated. I’ll keep going, I’ll keep looking, I just feel like the enemy won this round. And it really SUCKS. I never really liked this place, but I never imagined it’d get to this point. 

Imma keep searching and praying that things work out for the both of us. I gotta be strong and stay positive, it’s just not easy. Annnnnnnnd that’s where we’re at right now, I guess.

#man this was a lot #my hands hurt #I just let this flow over the (now) last hour or two #welp #that's what's up peeps #://// yikes #man i'm tired #emotionally physically and mentally #and hungry #I need foods #bye for now #words of advice and encouragement would be very much appreciated #just throwin that out there #My Posts

[deepjuillet]

I seldom write about travel, and when I do, it’s only about spectacular experiences. I have never written about misadventures that caused so much anxiety and grief that I wonder why we carried on when things started to go wrong. But when you have such an experience that lasted from the time of beginning the journey to the very end, and beyond, I thought on the hindsight, it was an adventure worth remembering, even though we were not that amused when it all happened.

It began when we started our journey to France on a mid-June Monday. We had already moved from our Kent home, so we stayed overnight in Ramsgate. In the morning, as we left for the ferry from Dover, it was a last minute dash because of the roadworks along the way. As we were waiting for the ferry, I realised we forgot to book the European breakdown cover. I made a last minute frantic call to the breakdown provider (I had three covers those days, don’t ask me why and how!) and selected an option that was slightly high priced but provided more cover. To be honest, that was the best last minute call I’ve ever made; if I hadn’t done that, we probably had had to come back without the car. So with the breakdown sorted, we set sail on the way to our destination, Normandy. We planned what we’d do each day, and had a busy schedule ahead but we were sure that we were going to have a great time. Only if we knew what lay ahead of us.

Here, I’d flashback to the week before we started our journey. I was on M25 on my way home and I suddenly felt the car lost all its power. As if it went into a limp mode. The car was only over a year old, so you don’t expect a major fault to develop. The breakdown mechanic couldn’t fix it, but he reset the warning light and asked to start and see if the traction is back. It worked. So I thought it was a freak incident and I must have done something to cause that. The dealer could not have a look in such a short notice, so we decided to carry on with the plans and get the car fixed later.

Coming back to 20th of June, we did the usual. On reaching Calais, a trip to Adinkerke to buy cheap tobacco and Speculoos, a quick trip to Carrefour Mivoix and late lunch at the McDonalds there. With all that done and a cranky terrible two, we headed for belle Normandie. Except that we were running a bit late and looked like we wouldn’t get to the campsite before 8:30 pm. It was a long drive but that never bothered us. Not until the things started to go wrong very quickly. We were approaching Boulogne-sur-mer on A16 where the road goes on an incline. It’s not steep by any means, but the car generally needs to work harder. Whilst on that section, the car lost power again! Second time within a week. I exactly knew what went wrong when the engine warning flashed on the dashboard. It made me panic a bit. A breakdown on a foreign country is a terrifying prospect, let alone that happening on the autoroute meant we’d have to pay highway authority the fees to be towed away from the autoroute. So I decided to carry on driving at 50mph until we reached the next exit. Thankfully it was a country road and I carried on driving for a while before we stopped on the verge. My satnav said it’s a place called Beuvrequin. I remember the place we stopped, with houses on the right and the other side of the road, had vast fields.

Beuvrequin, verge/footpath where we stopped

Beuvrequin, view on the other side of the road

After we calmed down our crying daughter, upset that the holiday might not go ahead, I called the breakdown agency. I reported the breakdown and was told that the wait time is about 45 mins. Being parked on the pavement by a country road was not the best of the places, especially getting stares from people who had to go on the grass. A few minutes later, I received a call from the French contact from the breakdown company, telling me that they cannot send assistance because during my application I said we’ll be going to Belgium and then France. So, tow away will have to come from Belgium, and they don’t to towing across borders. Infuriated and anxious, I called the UK number, and after explaining the situation, they said we should get assistance and they will arrange with the French colleagues. Another 15 min later, which is almost an hour since I was told that the assistance is 45 min away, I received another call from the French number saying they are sending breakdown van and it’ll be coming around 5:45 pm. By then, I doubted any garage will be open.

The breakdown truck arrived slightly earlier than we were told. As expected, the mechanic didn’t know a word of English. I thought that would be ideal to practice my French. I probably would have, if I knew all technical terms. I didn’t even know what brakes are called. Anyway, the guy picked the car on his truck and asked us to go in the truck to the garage. I think that was the highlight of the day and my daughter loved travelling in a truck. We went to a garage in Boulogne-sur-mer. He met another colleague who had a computer to connect to the engine management system. They decided that it’s beyond their knowledge and learning that the car was under warranty, they said the work can only be done in an Opel garage. By that time we gave up our hope to get the car fixed that day because it was already nearly 6 pm. The mechanic said he’ll take us to their garage to keep the car overnight and we can arrange the taxi pick-up from the garage. We were offered a replacement car or stay in a hotel and get the car looked at the next morning. I was confident that it’ll just be resetting the alarm and we’ll be able to drive on. So we chose the hotel and waited at the garage. The taxi came around 6:30 pm to take us to the hotel in Boulogne.

Hardy Maurice garage Source: https://www.ville-stleonard.fr

Hotel ALexandra in Boulogne

The hotel was pleasant and it was located close to Boulogne city centre. We walked down to a square called Place Dalton and had a nice dinner, trying to forget the headache we’re about to have the following day. The following day we had nothing to do but wait for the updates from the breakdown company. So we were just cooped up in the room. About 9 am we received a call saying that the breakdown garage will take the car to the nearest Opel garage. I thought it would be done in minutes, so our hopes of having our holiday soared high again. But that state of euphoria didn’t last long as a follow up at 11 am confirmed that the car was still in the garage. The agent said she’ll call me back shortly. When she did, it was even worse news. Opel garage was fully booked and they wouldn’t be able to fix it before Wednesday or even Thursday. At that point, we thought we’d had enough and started thinking of cancelling the holiday and go back home. As a last ditch attempt, we demanded a replacement car. After waiting another 10 minutes for a callback, we were told that our only chance was if we left the hotel immediately because the car hire place they use will be shut from 12 pm. It was already getting towards 11:30 am. So we picked all our tonnes of luggage, waiting for the taxi. Then the taxi dropped us at the wrong place, which meant we had to drag all our luggage and a toddler across a busy junction without crossings. When we arrived at the Enterprise Cars office, there was only one employee, waiting for us. It took another half an hour to get sorted. But in the end, we had our car.

Boulogne Rue Adolph Thier

Boulogne Place Dalton

Boulogne Place Dalton

I wish our story could end here, but it wasn’t unfortunately. Our understanding of the breakdown cover was that we get the hire car until the time we are ready to return to Boulogne on our way back. On Wednesday afternoon, as we’re exploring the American war memorial in Colleville-sur-mer, I received a call from the breakdown company that our car was fixed and they want the hire car back. Shouting or swearing is normally my cup of tea, but if I lost my temper that day, I’d expect people would have sympathised with me. I kept my calm but said that they are expecting me to make a 600 km journey because they screwed up a breakdown repair. It also seemed like the day of our return, Saturday, is only for the Car buyers at the Opel garage and the repairs department is shut. I was told very sternly to go back on Friday to which I refused, agreeing to pay the difference for an additional day of car hire. Half an hour later, I received another call that the garage had been very understanding and made a very rare exception of opening the repair garage on Saturday.

With the good news that the car was fixed and that we can get on with rest of the holiday, we felt relaxed then and enjoyed the rest of the days. Except the fact that Normandy is where it rains most in France and it rained really bad the week we went there. Unlike previous caravan holidays, we opted for tent that time, and the floor was filled with water because of the leaks in the floor sheet. We spent most of our stay in the tents mopping the floor, wet feet, soaked trainers and a damp tent. Despite this little inconvenience, I felt the time in Normandy was much more enriching than in Paris. Just when we were about to enjoy the holiday, having lost nearly two days, it was over and it was time to come home.

We started with plenty of time in hand, thinking of collecting the car early so we could go to the cheap wine store in Calais. We got to the Enterprise Car place at about 12. But then we realised that they are shut in Saturdays and we needed to drop the keys at a hotel opposite the car hire place, past the big junction. Les Gens de Mer — the hotel looked quite nice as we browsed the lobby and menu while we waited for the taxi. The taxi arrived late, and we were on our way to the Opel garage near Outreau where our car was getting repaired. When we got there, the manager said everything was done and they are getting the car ready. It did surprise me a bit because the car was ready on Thursday. We waited nearly 45 minutes before we were given the keys. We were at the last minute rush again, trying to get cheap fuel from Carrefour and head for the ferry. That was the beginning of another nightmare journey.

Hotel Les Gens de Mer Source: Agoda.com

As we headed back to Calais, I noticed that the tyre pressure warning sign came on. I was not too worried at the beginning, because sometimes if one tyre had less pressure than the others, the sign came on. But as we went closer to Calais, I started to get more and more worried as the pressure kept on dropping. When the other tyres read 38 psi, the fourth tyre was at 25 psi. There must have been a leak, I thought. But where would that have happened? The car has always been at the breakdown garage or at the Opel garage. Did they just find out and handed me a car with a leak? Surely they can’t be that unscrupulous! But everything signed that way.

So we went back to Carrefour, filled the tank and put some air in the faulty tyre thinking it might have some problem that’s going to fix itself. When we boarded the ferry, I left the car with 35 psi on the tyre and hoping that it should stay like that when we reached the UK. 90 minutes later when we came down to the deck, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The tyre was completely flat. And we had landed as well, so we didn’t have any time to change the tyre. It was a Saturday afternoon and most of the garages would have been shut by 4 pm.

Now I made a faux pas at that moment. I had the option to come off the ferry and get the tyre changed with the spare tyre. We could have then driven home because our spare tyre is a full spec one and there is no speed restriction. Silly me, I didn’t remember that at the moment of madness when I thought if I take too long changing the tyre, and something else is wrong, I might lose the last chance to get home that night. So I decided to drive on to the next open garage, which was Kwik-fit. As I drove on the alloy wheel, the sharp and annoying screeching deafened our ears despite the windows were up. I was worried that there will be damage to the wheel as well but it was a relief that there wasn’t.

Kwik-fit changed the tyre straight away and we also got another tyre which was getting towards the legal limit. After that, we hit the road, hoping to get some dinner at Bluewater or Lakeside, places that we used to visit often but missed a lot when we moved. After a filling dinner, with our daughter falling asleep in the car, we finally felt that after all this, the holiday is coming to an end. But there are more twist in the tale that one can imagine. Just because everything had to go wrong on that trip, as we were on M6 nearing Coventry, my daughter woke up and started crying. We didn’t want to stop, being so close at home, and as I tried to accelerate harder, BANG! The engine warning light came back on and the car won’t speed beyond 50 mph. The sting in the tail that was waiting for us before we reached home. So all that fuss at the Opel garage, did they do sod all apart from puncture the tyre? Nevertheless, my daughter’s incessant crying made me carry on rather than stop and ask for another breakdown. I just pushed the pedal down and used the downward slopes on the road to speed up and use the momentum to drive the car at a higher speed as the road became flat or went up. Without much difficulty, we reached home, bringing a close to the worst travel experiences we ever had.

Like many stories have an epilogue to the end, the tale of our misfortunes does not end there. I had to take many days off as I was unable to commute to work while getting the car fixed. Back then, I was doing a commute of 300 miles! During next few days, the car was repaired, and the fault reappeared almost immediately at times. In the end, it took a call to their grievance line to report the issue to get the technical team involved, who sorted the problem. One of those days when the car was broken down, I had to hire a car to go to a meeting in London. There, as I was trying to get on the Hammersmith bridge, I was caught at the box junction and was fined £70. Now the car belonging to the hire company, they received the fine notice first. By the time I received it, I couldn’t appeal online, so I had to send it over email. I then got the email address wrong and was then facing a court action since the first notice was received much earlier and the normal 2 weeks response window had gone. This dragged on until November. So nearly 5 months after that week in June, we put an end to the dreadful journey, but before that end, I had to pay out the final amount which had since doubled.

So, there we are, our story ends here. Terrible experience to sum it up. And I believe we won’t forget it very soon. Yet, the good memories will last longer. Visit to Utah, Omaha and Juno beaches, our daughter’s excited walk in the sand, the American war memorial and its deafening silence at Colleville-Sur-mer, the Bayeux tapestry, Caen, beautiful village of Beauvron-en-auge, riviera of the north Deauville and Trouville-Sur-mer, surreal grace of Lisieux abbey, sunrise over the trees at our site in the middle of nowhere at Château Le Brévedent, the quaint villages Le Pin and Blangy-le-château near our campsite, the bridge at Le Havre — the memories are countless and one day, if not already, they will outweigh the dreadful experience about the journey.

Just as I finished this with a positive spin, I remembered to add one last note about our holiday from hell. The year this happened was 2016, and I guess we all know what happened that year between 20th and 25th June. Yes, Brexit. That happened while we were on this holiday as well. Before we left, we were all confident that it was just a paper exercise to finish off UKIP, and in fact felt smug to see the smiles disappear from the leavers’ faces. On 24th when the results came out, we were going to Trouville-sur-mer. The entire day was spent in disbelief, then frustration and then anger, as all the lies started to surface. Brexit was the pinnacle of the catastrophes that week and I believe it was symbolised by everything that went wrong with the car. It was a nightmare, getting a simple thing done took forever, service on both sides of the border was equally appalling, and above all, since it happened, things were never the same. You live in fear that things will go wrong again, and so it did. The car proved my premonitions, and Brexit will go the same way. I think there will be a time in future where all good and terrible memories will fade away, and we will remember the journey just as our own Brexit disaster. I think that should say it all.

Holiday from hell — journal of a misadventure I seldom write about travel, and when I do, it’s only about spectacular experiences. I have never written about misadventures that caused so much anxiety and grief that I wonder why we carried on when things started to go wrong.

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