Group of friends invite stranger to go away with them

A recent local story caught my attention this week about a group of friends who had booked to go abroad and celebrate a 30th birthday. All sounds pretty straight forward? We  it is until Joe McGrath pulls out at the last minute as is unable to go. What is interesting about this story is the friends then take to Facebook to search for another Joe McGrath to travel in his place. I can feel a film coming on…

The resourceful friends send a message on facebook to a complete strangers saying. Hi Joe would you like to come on a paid for all inclusive holiday with nine strangers.

Unbelievably the new Joe who works for a local radio station in Manchester decided to grab the bull by the horns, you only live once attitude and take them up on the offer. He first met them at Bristol Airport to begin the three day trip. Thankfully it all worked out well and the group had a brilliant time. No doubt Joe McGrath has now nine friends for life. I do enjoy a happy ending. With all the bad stuff that is going on in the world it is good to read some nice news for once.

This got me thinking to into other disaster stories I have heard over the years around family holidays. The most popular one is people who can’t find their passports. Don’t know about you, but I know where my families passports are at all times. I can remember working in the Travel Agents and a customer coming in saying ‘I’m suppose to be on a flight now, but can’t find my passport!’ Not really a lot we can do about that. Another family where due to go to Disneyland Paris and didn’t realise the passport had expired and didn’t go. Can you imagine the disappointment, it would be unbearable. I think the worst I heard was a family were due to fly to Turkey in the morning and came down in the morning to find the dog had chewed all the brand new passports up and eaten the travel money. I would be devastated. I do expect these people learn from their mistakes in a big way and a huge cost.

Has any of this ever happened to you? Let me know.

Emily