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Chapter 1
    Booking the first holiday

It all started…….
     when we one evening looked out of the condensation covered window at the winter scene of pouring rain backlit by the street lamp at the end of the back garden. It was cold and wet and we were wondering if this was the setting for next summer!
     We decided that maybe we could go abroad for our holiday next year. I had never been abroad before and Debbie had only been once – to Malta.
     The next day in October 2000, Debbie brought some holiday brochures home from a quick trip earlier to the local town centre of Thetford, in Norfolk.
     After tea, we settled down to see what was on offer. It all looked very daunting! There were one week, two weeks, all inclusive, bed breakfast & evening meal, self catering – what did it all mean and which was the best choice for us?
     All of the holidays on offer obviously looked very nice. They are supposed to aren’t they! How could they be sold otherwise?
     After more investigating and leafing through the pages, we decided that we need to narrow down our choice to a country at least. Greece looks very inviting we thought. Why? So did the other countries. Greece looks very nice we thought again! Why? Oh no not again. We have to choose. Ok Greece it is.
     Little did we know what was lying ahead and that this was to be the best choice we ever made.
     We slept on it, had many more thoughts about our big adventure and decided to book a holiday in Greece.
     The next thing in our indecisive routine was where in Greece shall we go. As complete novices, we didn’t have a clue where in Greece was best or which island was popular or where the weather was best. After more confusion we realised that we have to have some guidelines. Ok we thought, what do we want and not want.
     Our criterion was not too exhaustive:
    Quiet, not too expensive, hot or at least warm, not too many clubbers. Surely this couldn’t be too difficult to find.
     We looked through the Thomas Cook Greece brochure and discounted the places that were always in the news like Corfu, Kos, Crete and Rhodes. These were probably great places too but hearing of the stereotypical lager louts and night clubbing and the English man with his England shirt on with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other sweating profusely didn’t really appeal to us. We now know and realise that all of the Greek destinations mentioned have good and bad areas like anywhere else, but we didn’t know that then and apologise in advance for our ignorance.
     We used a pin with our eyes closed and came up with Thassos. Great that’s it, Thassos.
     Little did we know what was lying ahead and that this was to be the best choice we ever made.
     Thassos, Thassos, Thassos. Great, but where in Thassos. Oh no, not again!
     We decided on the Ionnis Golden Club hotel in Golden Beach. The brochure mentioned that at the start of May the offer was two weeks for the price of one. Why? Is the weather not so nice then, or is everything closed then? No surely not. Let’s go for it.
     Little did we know what was lying ahead and that this was to be the best choice we ever made.
     The next step was to get it booked up so that we really know that we are going abroad next year. Maybe if we phoned the number on the brochure we might get a discount. Whether we did or didn’t we will never know but we were very happy with the outcome. I spoke to a man at Thomas Cook called Norman who was very friendly and helpful. He ran through all of the details and at the end came up with the price, but, he said that he would do a check and telephone us the next evening just in case he could do us a better deal.
     The news the next evening was that the deal was two weeks at the Ionnis Golden Club Hotel, Golden Beach, Thassos Island from May 2nd 2001 with Thomas Cook, flying from Gatwick Airport south terminal at 06:15 with a

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