Icelandic Dust Cloud.

As I read somewhere, Iceland must have misunderstood when we told them we wanted our cash back and sent us ash. I suppose it got lost in the translation.

Joking aside it's been a very tense few days for some families and some of the stories of profiteering abroad are disgusting. I hope that some of the people affected will now think twice before booking holidays abroad.

I know everybody is entitled to a holiday, and if they choose to take it abroad the that is their business. But the stories I heard about the banks refusing emergency loans and overdrafts to some stranded people set me thinking.

What are people doing spending a couple of thousand pounds on a holiday abroad when they obviously have no reserves in their account for emergencies like this. The banks obviously thought them a bad risk to refuse them because borrowing money in personal accounts is one of the easiest things in the world to do at the moment. I get at least three begging letters a month from my bank begging me to borrow money.

No this is one time I don't blame the banks. If a holiday was going to leave me skint, I wouldn't have the holiday.

Phil

I think in reality a lot ofpeople will have holidays that leave them skint.

In our much younger days we would do this kind of thing because otherwise we would have done very little in terms of travel.

We would have the holiday and then go to mum and Dad for something to eat and a sub LOL

Now we are older and much more boring LOL

Denise

I have gone to London for the weekend with ten bob in my pocket with no bus or train fare and had a great time. But I didn't have a family to look after. Things are so much different today, if you haven't got a little money put by then you are just asking for trouble.

When I had a young family I just couldn't in all honesty waste money on a holiday knowing when I came back that I would be skint.

Phil

Phil,when our kids were younger we were always skint as paying a mortgage always took most of what we had.We invested in a tent and every year off to Dorset or simular.Sandy meals on the beach and one drink each at the pub each evening and off to bed early .

My kids still talk about these holidays as we used to have a great time.Kids and dog all asleep on the back seat as we used to travel overnight.Very simple bucket and spade hols,as I look back we were blessed with eternal sunshine on those hols.

We could hardly afford what we did and my mum and Dad always gave us a buffer till next pay day LOL.

Denise

Yes, you were having a holiday that you could afford, I'm not saying that those short of money should not have holidays and enjoy themselves. What I am saying is that a couple of weeks abroad has got to cost in the region of a couple of thousand pounds.

If this much is spent and it leaves your bank account empty then you should not think of going abroad if you have a young family.

If you then get in to trouble through no fault of your own, don't expect the banks to bail you out. As I said they must have thought these people were bad risks.

Phil

Yes you are prob right Phil however my heart went out to them .They were in an awful situation.

Denise

I also felt sorry for them and yes they did have a hard time, but I think these foreign holidays are more for adults than the children. I know which holidays that my grandchildren enjoy the most. Apart from Disney in Miami and that is a good old fashioned sea side holiday in this country.

They have been all over the world but when asked where they want to go the answer is always "Skegness with Nannie & Granddad" My son gets quite irritated because he spends thousands every year and they just don't like it.

Phil

They say travel broadens the mind and I quite agree, but I didn't get to go abroad until I was 18 and that was independent of my parents.
People who take young children abroad are doing it for entirely selfish reasons and deserve absolutely no help in doing so.
The kids should get a good grounding in travelling their own country before they venture further.

The main things I like about foreign places are the people, the language, the towns, the food and the wine. Not neccesarily in that order.
Most kids simply don't get any long term benefit from any of those things so it's just a wasted trip for them. A beach is a beach wherever it is.
And that's another gripe, seeing little kids out in the sun getting cooked. Why does a two year old need a sun tan? Don't ask me, ask his dumb parents.

I do of course have an intense personal dislike of kids, especially on aircraft.
Babies suffer terribly with air pressure changes and scream their sticky little heads off during ascents and descents and their stupid parents haven't got a clue what's happening.
Toddlers run around uncontrolled or sit kicking seats and throwing food and vomit about while the rest of us have to suffer, yet if adults behaved in the same way we would be refused travel in the future at the very least.
None of these ungrateful little sods have any idea of where they are going or why.

I'll shut up now cos' I'm getting quite annoyed.
VM

Voltman,
My sentiments exactly, I go abroad, after seeing nearly all of this country, and I don't go to lie on beaches,(sad B***s), I mix with the locals and get to grips with their way of life.

I love kids, I grew up with them !

I agree I love kids as well. When you come across ill behaved ill mannered children. Don't blame the children blame the parents.

None of my children or grandchildren would behave as described in public. I'm not saying they were or are little angels far from it in fact. But one thing they do know and that is to behave in public.

Phil