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My trip home from Miami was far from simple. A one-hour boarding delay at Miami, due to a thunder storm, was followed by a two-hour weather closure of Washington Dulles. With Dulles closed we weren't allowed to take off.

Meanwhile another thunder storm passed over Miami and made for entertaining viewing while we remained seat-bound and earth-bound. The 747 alongside us took repeated lightning hits and the wind got so strong that our plane started rocking from side to side.

I finally got to Dulles three hours late and had missed my connection, with the next available seat two days later. Yikes! I was placed on the standby list, with around 50 other people, for the 10pm flight.

I was nowhere near the top of that list but they finally called my name only to then discovered that the plane was full. Either that or they just wanted to mess with my emotions. They then closed the flight and I thought it had actually gone when the gate was reopened because they had found one empty seat. That would be mine then!

I landed in London only four hours later than planned and even managed to sleep for a few hours en route, probably due to nervous exhaustion.

My bags weren't so lucky and are currently missing in action.