TRUE STORY

A Christmas Story

In which I make a questionable financial decision

Not this house: this was one I got later, but at least it is Christmassy and thus fits in with the story — photo by the author.

It was 1989, and we lived in a run-down house complete with lead pipes and holes in the carpet. I inherited some money, and I am sure the bank manager was quite delighted for the hour or so it remained in my account.

I should probably have thought about what to spend it on for a little longer, but maybe I had lead poisoning.

I had seen this flyer in 1988 and kept it:

A photo of the actual flyer I had kept.

Within an hour of the inheritance money landing in my account, I was on the phone to find that, yes, they were repeating the Flight of Fantasy that year, and yes, they had availability.

On December 23rd, I woke three sleepy children at 5am to tell them we were going on an adventure and that we all needed to dress in warm clothes. The guessing games began.

“Are we going to see Granny?”

“Well, it is colder in Manchester than here in London, but no — somewhere even colder …

“Scotland?”