Somewhere I can relax on a beach with a good book. That’s the last thing I said to Flora before we set foot in our local travel agency over 20 years ago.
We had been very last minute with our last-minute getaway, and not the lastminute.com we have now. The actual last minute where you take what you’re given. Almost a bit like a life roulette — leave your decisions at the door and let Lady Luck work her magic.
Placing our £200 budget on the table, our next destination was in the hands of our travel agent. She began tapping away frantically at her keyboard; her eyes anxiously scanning the screen left to right, trying to find something.
“Ibiza or Turkey?” she concluded.
My thoughts immediately turned to Ibiza. It sounded fun, but didn’t strike me as a place I could read a book on the beach in peace.
I gazed up at the lively, colourful, ‘look at me’ world map on the wall behind the travel agent’s desk. My eyes danced around the countries, remembering all the sights I’d been daydreaming about when scanning through the travel brochures.
It was then I focused in on Turkey, as if for the first time.
I turned to look at Flora. We’d been friends for so long I knew exactly what she was thinking. She wanted us to go to Turkey.
And so it was.
Ruth’s trip to Turkey proved to be her sliding doors moment. Read her real-life story here.
