Nins' Travelog

After a couple of weeks of uncertainty, and two days before our date to go, we decided to cancel everything booking we made on traveling to Scotland, from car hire, hotel booking to the photographer, except the airline booking. We accept that it could be some loss as well as some booking would charge us a nominal amount for cancelation.

This bloody volcanic ash, was really annoying, as we were forced to cancel everything; the deciding factor was that even though there would be a slim change that the airport might open during the day of our planned trip, but we might not be able to travel back. Worst of all, we were forced to canceled our wedding which means to tell our guests who come from different places in Europe as well as Doha itself.

Our flight was schedule to leave at almost midnight of the 21^st April. After we canceled almost every booking (except the flight) on the evening of the 20^th, the news that we were following said that there could be a change that Heathrow is in operation tomorrow, for long haul flights and that will include our flight from Doha. But as we could not afford to be stranded in UK after our scheduled holiday, we decided to call off the wedding and reschedule it sometimes in the future. Things getting complicated when it’s not easy to reschedule everything, as it all related to everybody’s (the guest of honor’s) schedule as well.

foto debu dari gunung berapi di Islandia diambil dari BBC

Saya masih berharap-harap cemas tentang rencana pernikahan kami yang akan berlangsung di Scotland (baca: Britain is Grounded dan Gretna Green) yang sudah kami rencanakan beberapa bulan yang lalu. Semua persiapan rasanya sudah beres semua (baca: Mungkin kan semua berjalan dengan Lancar?). Kopor sudah tinggal di angkat masuk mobil dan menunggu saatnya untuk ke airport. Mentalpun sudah siap. Rasanya tidak mungkin ada yang meleset dari rencana.

Tapi seperti kata pepatah: “Manusia boleh merencanakan, tapi Tuhan juga yang menentukan”. Dan pepatah itu sampai sekarang masih berlaku.

Tepat seminggu sebelum kami seharusnya tiba di Scotland, TV Inggris memberitakan bahwa semua airport di Inggris Raya di  tutup, Continue reading

Volcano ashes of Iceliand - image courtesy of skynews

Ever since my relationship with Keith I have been visiting UK for several times now. The first time was by myself. I found it’s strange that it seems from time to time the UK airport had something to tell.

The first time was a bomb thread. I was in London, and that was just a day before my departure back to Doha, almost 4 years ago. This time, it’s the airspace havoc that cause by Iceland’s volcano ashes.

Yes, we are now still in Doha, nothing to worry about, but in 6 days time, Continue reading

Ever heard of Gretna Green? It’s a small village in Scotland, UK with a unique tradition or rather myth – I don’t know which one comes first. Anyway, today this small town in the border between England and Scotland was made famous of couple’s destination to get married.

The tradition begun when in 1712 a young couple from England runaway to get married in Gretna Green as it was the first village in Scotland at the border between England and Scotland, and as the marriage act in Scotland allowed”irregular marriages”, which means that if a declaration was made before two witnesses, almost anybody had the authority to conduct the marriage ceremony. Thus even the black smith in Gretna Green allowed to marry young couple. On top of that, young couple as young as 16 could get married without parental consent; whilst in England the regulation was 16 with consent and 18 without consent.

But what attract Scotland more Continue reading