Help for a tired old man? London - Paris

Last night I persuaded Jules to book a holiday in Iceland on our collective behalves.  This was a bit ingenious really, because it means I didn't make any mistakes with that process.  Once we had the date settled, I booked our Eurostar connections with the requisite amount of cursing as the stupid booking website would hang or reset itself at each step.  

I was actually so busy moaning at one stage that it had reset all the prices, that I didn't notice that it had also reset the direction of travel, so ended up with cheap non refundable (senior) seats which sadly were  in exactly the opposite direction to the one we wanted to travel.

So we went off to the station early today, hours before our departure time, with the hope of making a correction but expecting to have no success at all.  The conditions of the ticket are quite clear and we stood patiently in line watching as one by one others in front of us had their requests to make changes summarily dismissed.  The nice cashier listened politely as I confessed my mistake and then told us to phone internet support on her special red phone, but she didn't sound at all hopeful, more glad to have moved the problem along really.  

The lady on the other end of the phone was very kindly, however, and I could almost hear her thinking "oh no, you silly old thing, you really should leave the internet to the youngsters," as she started with "I'm sure we can do something dear, but I don't know if we'll be able to get senior's seats, let's have a look shall we?"

Bless!   I hadn't thought of playing the "doddery senior card" before, but if she's going to offer it, I'll take it just this once!

This sadly is not the first sign I have noticed that perhaps occasionally I have been seen as someone who is older than he feels.   Just a week or so ago I was having a pleasant chat with a delightful young lady in a shop when she ruined it all by exclaiming "yes, my dad says that too".  So it's come to that.   I am old enough to remind them of their fathers!

To make things worse though, today as we arrived in Paris, I was following the other of us as she struggled down a long set of stairs, each of us laden with our respective baggage.

A young lady offered to take my bag, not long after another gave up her seat on the Metro, (both of these offers I hasten to add I graciously passed to my beloved) and still another moved from her nice little corner so that I may wedge myself there for the duration of our journey.   Mistaking us for old people is an obvious example of the arrogance for which Parisians are famous!

With such courtesy abounding in the populace, we shall never have to ask a policeman for help.