If you just tell me where we’re staying I will still be surprised

Aida Austin illustrates how unpredictable and yet comical travelling can be once the plans are out of your hands.

My husband has arranged a surprise trip to celebrate my birthday tomorrow. Right now, we’re en route to the airport. Certain major details have leaked out along the way, so at this point in time, I know we’re flying to Edinburgh and that my eldest daughter, sons and girlfriends are joining us there but beyond that, it all goes a bit... hazy.

So it would be more truthful to say that right now, I’m in a state of half-surprise, or to put it more truthfully stilI - that I’m in a state of foreboding: I’m nervous of “hazy,” in the context of my loved ones and planning.