It's a little before 12 in the morning, James has just finished work; the cases are packed and we're loading them into the car. Jacqui has just completed the forth circuit of the house checking the windows are locked and there are no plugs still in their sockets: strange how the fridge is trusted, along with the other kitchen appliances.
First stop petrol. Knew I should of done this earlier, only 3 if the 5 pumps are working. 15 minutes later and we're off properly. Get as far as M25 junction and the traffic stops at the slip road; will we make it to the airport on time. Brain wave, let's go to the next junction and join M25 from other side; stress levels in car increase by one point! Queue before next junction, perhaps brain wave not such a good - another notch on stress level monitor. Safely navigate around queue and proceed back to M25 - turns out brain wave was ok. Rest of journey uneventful and get to Gatwick with plenty of time to spare. Excitement level increased by one notch as planes flying over top of car park bus stop on way to runway.
We get to the airport and join huge queue for Germania Airlines(surely they're not all going to Kefalonia, they haven't got a big enough plane. After 1 and a half hours we get to checkin desk to find we're not all sitting together despite pay for this. Exaggerated Jessica, James and Emily's flying nerves and managed to get seating sorted, sadly could do nothing for the 2 hour delay. Quick McD's in the departure lounge then off to duty free. Shopping sorted it's now a mad dash to gate 32 and we're the first there! Then first in plane yippee!!!!!
Now we're on the runway and about to take off but James is desperately trying to stop the blood getting to my fingers in his hope of us making a safe take off.
After a fairly uneventful flight apart from realising we can still see the Dome when we take off from Gatwick, we make an almost perfect landing in Kefalonia, Emily spots her case on the carousel early as she cunningly tied her Slash bandana to the handle but mine and Jacqu's Suitcase seems to be the last off the plane.
It's now just approaching midnight, we're sitting in the coach,day one of our holiday is almost over. Where we should have been at the resort eating Souvlaki we're stuck on a sweaty coach, tired and a little fed up..... Only another 40 minutes to go and we'll be there.