I'm increasingly counting myself lucky to have managed to get back from last week's press trip with Lemken in northern Germany.
It was one of those mornings last Thursday, pretty much everyone had a slight hangover (except me and a certain other magazine's joint editor) and as news started to filter through of some sort of volcano ash issue we all thought April 1st had come a little late to the inhabitants of Alpen.
But, after a quick phone call to my Dad (who, at 6am was unsure what I was on about) I shortly got a comprehensive email update from Mum telling me that it was likely that all flights to the UK would be cancelled throughout the day.
Now, usually, if it had been a Friday - this wouldn't have filled me with dread, but as I had organised two of JDs latest 8R tractors, a 12m Vaderstad Carrier and some land that was due to be drilled with linseed, it was a little more worrying than usual.
As the day went on, and we had a tour of Lemken's newest kit (which you can see in action here) and the factory (check out this robotic plough share gadget below), it became increasingly obvious that our 6.30pm flight would no longer be departing Dusseldorf.
A slightly hungover group of journalists (I'm sure there's a collective noun for this - maybe a gaggle?) and Lemken's UK GM Mark Ormond on the end keeping us all in order.
Alternative plans had to be made, luckily enough not by me thank goodness, but by Lemken (the lovely chaps and chapesses). The Eurostar website kept crashing, train bookings were full and it was looking pretty bleak for a while. Thank goodness for the motorcar in a situation like this. We ended up hiring a car and driving to Calais, then getting the ferry over to Dover.
We abandoned the car outside the terminal at about 8.30, saying politely to Europcar that it was in a safe place outside somewhere, and headed to the 'with tickets' queue. We waited patiently for only about half an hour, and luckily the lovely lady at the final check-in desk didn't turn us away after pointing out that we should have checked in at another desk (and one which had a good 200 people standing at).
On the ferry, we found out that a group of 140 farmers were also waiting patiently (?!?) at Calais having been on a Claas trip also to Germany. It would have been a fun (and well-lubricated) crossing with them!
There were no hire cars at Dover, but we'd been fortunate enough to book a taxi to take us from Dover to Stansted and then onto Birmingham - where my and another colleague's car was stranded.
We got to Stansted about 12.30ish, then to Birmingham about 2.30 (although by the time I had wandered around for half an hour trying to remember where I had left my car - and yes I did write it down - it was a bit later).
I eventually got home about 4.30am - which by anyone's standards is pretty good going in light of the disastrous stories we're still hearing about nearly a week after the event.
Thank you Lemken (who paid and sorted it all out!), and to those on the trip who made it more enjoyable!
Oh, and I managed to make the test at 8am the next morning - just don't be too judgemental when you read it in a couple of weeks!
The person who I felt most sorry for was general manager of Lemken UK, Mark Ormond, who set off with Richard Relph, Richard Dixon and a supporter on the Saturday (17 April) on a mammoth 730-mile bike ride from Cornwall to Aberdeenshire to raise money for the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK.
Why not track their progress and make a donation by logging on to www.lemkenchallenge.co.uk The person who makes the largest single donation can win one of the three Trek 1.2 bikes, worth £650.
Good luck guys!
