I PREVIOUSLY mentioned that I had had quite a few unlucky experiences while travelling, regardless of the mode of transport.

However, I foolishly assumed my short domestic flight to Birmingham would be a piece of cake.

But I was wrong ...

My outward flight just happened to be the very day Storm Henry was at its most violent, so when I woke up and saw my wheelie bins fly past my kitchen window, well, I can safely say I was more than a little anxious.

“Where are you off too hen?” asked the local taxi driver.

“The airport,” I nervously replied.

“Eh,” he said.

“Yer no flying in this weather are you?”

And before I could answer.

He said: “You must be aff yer heid.”

And the touch of nerves I had before I got in the taxi had now almost escalated to a panic attack.

My flight was on schedule which made me think that perhaps the winds weren’t so bad.

After all everything still seemed to be running like clockwork.

I checked in my case and proceeded to security where I was told to put my belongings in a large plastic tray.

“Boots, belt and jewellery must go in the tray too,” was the command.

But this wasn’t an easy task as my slip-on, knee high boots were extremely difficult to come off, especially while standing.

But, bit by bit I finally eased them off while the long impatient queue behind me got bigger.

My necklace was another issue as I couldn’t open the catch, so all-in-all, I was rather flustered by the time I had taken off my belt, boots and jewellery, rustled in my bag for my iPod, mobile and make-up, and put everything into the plastic tray for scanning.

Everything went through the scanner no problem, and all was well until suddenly my tray went off in a different direction to the others.

A very tall young man directed me over to where my belongings were.

“I’m afraid this is no good whatsoever madam,” he scolded, as he pointed to the plastic bag containing various items of make-up, and sprays.

“It’s all in a plastic bag like it suggested on the airline website,” I said.

“Madam,” he smugly lifted a tiny 6 x 6 inch plastic bag.

“This is the size of bag you need to fit everything in.”

“No way,” I exclaimed, as I had just filled a large see-through food bag assuming I could use any size.

“We either get your goods in this bag,” he nipped.

“Or they will be discarded.”

“But…”

“No buts madam, rules are rules.”

And there we stood for what seemed like ages trying to squeeze various items into the tiny bag.

“Throw away the lids,” I attempted to assist the growingly impatient young man.

“It still won’t all fit in so what are we binning here madam?”

“The lipstick or the dry shampoo?”

“But I need both.”

“Your choice.”

I was raging and reluctantly binned a few of my must-have items before putting my belt back on and my boots.

“Excuse me,” I yelled as the young man walked away from me.

“I’ve only got one boot.”

The plastic tray was now empty.

“You can’t have,” he argued.

“I’m telling you I only have one boot,” I stood lop-sided and pointed to my feet.

“And I can’t travel with only one boot on.”

I imagined the shame and humiliation of hobbling down the stairs of the aircraft with a boot missing.

After a quick search, the missing boot was found wedged between the conveyor belt and a cupboard.

"Yes, I’m fine.”

I finally had time to call my daughter.

“Apart from having some expensive makeup binned, nearly losing a boot, and the fact that I’m scared stiff boarding this plane,” I sarcastically drawled.

And sure enough the plane rocked from side to side on the tarmac as Storm Henry did its best to scare the living daylights out of me.

On top of all that, it turned out that I had weighed my suitcase the previous night, and after paying £25 to check in a bag, I actually emptied most of my items back out of the case because I thought I was well over the weight limit.

How, I hear you ask was that possible?

Well, apparently I looked at the kilos and not the pounds and discovered that I only took 8 pounds in weight instead of the 22 I was entitled to.

“You could have fitted that in your handbag,” my daughter laughed.

But I wasn’t laughing.

How could so many things go wrong on such a very short trip, I wondered?