[Closed] Stupidity - I blame myself.

I've turned up at the airport 24 hours early on the way back home from somewhere, Brussels I think it was.

Done it.

Heading to Bristol from London on a train, phoned a colleague and asked what he was arriving and he told me "tomorrow".

Had to get off at Swindoom and head back.

Me and 5 colleagues turned up, with all our kit, a whole calendar month too early for an event at the Birmingham ICC. 'June' and 'July' had somehow got transposed somewhere along the line. I feel I should emphasise that I wasn't in charge though - so I blame myself for trusting them..

Back in '92, I took a train from Wirral to Lancaster University for what I thought was the department open day for prospective A-Level entrants. I arrived at the station, there were special coaches laid on to take us the to the uni, so all looked good.

Only to discover that the department open day for the courses I was interested in, something related to Biochemistry, were the week before! Thankfully, the staff were very sympathetic and gave me a personal tour. 😆

I blame you too.

Pfft, a day early, amateurs.

Many moons ago, we had gig tickets which meant going all the way across London to Wenbley. Mate, who was in charge of the tickets, insisted we set off early to get there on time, which meant a mad dash scramble straight from work, hopping off tubes and trains, and legging it to get there on time.....only to arrive at at a dark and deserted Wembley Stadium.

"Paul, what date is on the ticket"

"Oh" he said, sheepishly looking again a bit more carefully. "It's the same date... but next month"

Prat

So, yesterday I get up early, drive to Birmingham (85 miles each way) for a meeting. When I arrive 10 mins early there is nobody around, check the confirmation e-mail and find the meeting is for today. I have arrived 24 hours and 10 mins early.

Just to check. Are you in Birmingham now?

Missed our flight home from Crete last year, arriving at airport with plenty of time to watch our flight take off. I'd put all the check-in times into my phone back in the UK, not realising that the phone had then helpfully corrected them to local time. I'd not bothered to read the details on the booking form once there... I lost a lot of brownie points that day.

We have a family trait for this. I managed to miss an event at the Olympics by arriving a day late! And this year my wife took me to Wimbledon a week early (first Friday, rather than second Friday as per the tickets). Somehow we managed to get into the ground before realising!!

I know a lot of people who've turned up on the wrong date for a flight. I also know one person who booked a hotel in their layover location, but had the wrong country.

just last month i emailed saying "can you change this flight ticket from tonight for 1 months time "

- err not easily - it left last night .

but some how they managed it for only a small fee 😀

Slightly different, but a few years ago (when office colour scanner/printers were just becoming popular) I had tickets to an Oasis gig in Manchester - the first of two nights they were doing.

Anyway, I scanned the ticket in then doctored the date, printed it out then went as far as carefully scoring perforations into it so it looked just like a real ticket.

When we got to the gig I gave my mate the fake ticket then pretended I had f&^%$d up and gone on the wrong night.

Well, it was funny at the time 🙂

I've turned up 3 days early for a meeting before now, to compound the error when I arrived to be told the guy I meeting had gone out to lunch being young arrogant and stupid I made a bit of a fuss of having my time wasted and his boss came to see me and we chatted things over and he apologised etc - got the job done, happy days.

Then the guy I was meant to be meeting got back from lunch, heard what had happened, heard his boss (or boss's boss to be exact) had been dragged into see me etc and had a panic, then checked and strolled in with a smile and called me a dickhead, which I deserved, made me look a bit stupid, which I was and it got so bad I burst into laughter. I've changed jobs 3 times but still meet the guy now and again and he always reminds me of it.

I traveled 200 miles each way to survey a building for works and found a big hole in the ground, I'd not looked at the completion date properly and was a year early.

Pulled up at the Eurotunnel, presented our ticket and was told by the kiosk guy that the ticket was for the same day the following week. 450 € for another ticket.

In the early days of my consulting job I was due to go to Nottingham for a couple of days at the end of a week. I booked a hotel and the whole family drove up so they could have a couple of days mini holiday. Last minute I called my manager to check who I was meeting and she told me that they'd just rearranged to the following week. That's when I learned not to book travel until everything is all fully confirmed and authorised... Expensive one night city break in Nottingham that was.

Well, I've never gone in to work on a Bank Holiday.

Oh, hang on, yes I did. Luckily it was for a local council so at least there was absolutely nobody there to witness my shame.

Read the picolax thread... That'll make you feel better about being early!!

I turned up a day late to a Cotic demo day. 😳 Sent an apology email and got a reply of "we did wonder where you were, you seemed really keen when you booked it".

Also booked a hotel in Bangkok for a month later than I thought. That one wasn't my fault though*! I was about to click to book for the 14th of X month when a popup appeared saying "Check our special rates, this room may be available for less". So I clicked it, and it took me to another page with a date drop down still on the 14th for one night, with a lower price for a non-refundable stay. I was already in the city, just wanted a nice place to stay for my last night, so booked it.

Turned out it was an advance rate that had to be booked at least a month in advance, so the day had stayed the same but the month picker had rolled over to the next month. Still, they moved the booking and didn't charge any idiot tax, which was nice of them (Pullman Bangkok King Power, recommended).

*okay, maybe a bit my fault

A few months ago I went to Birmingham (from Bristol but it's my manager's base office) for my annual review, couldn't find my manager when I got there so called him and turns out he'd booked the meeting in Bridgend (we have an office there he was also doing some reviews in of people based there). Fortunately he saw the funny side of it but I blame us having so many offices starting with B (not the fact I only half checked the meeting invite info and made an assumption...).

Was wandering down the Strand on the way to an afternoon meeting (after a pleasant relaxed lunch with a friend). Spotted my fellow attendees walking the other way, and queried where they were going. Turns out the meeting was in the morning (to be fair, all the previous ones had been afternoon).

I was flying from Montreal to Saskatoon. Mrs SR was picking me up, and between the two hour difference in time zone, and the fact that she was 3 hours away by car from the airport - and so already on the road - meant that there was no way of communicating with her the fact that I had given her the wrong day.

Just so that she wasn't stuck in Saskatoon, I paid a colossal penalty with our non-existent money, and took the flight I showed up for instead of the one I had booked.

Mrs SR was not pleased.

Few years ago I was asked last minute to join a trip to the Nurburgring for work the following day. It was mainly senior managers going and it had all been booked for weeks.

Got my travel documents mid afternoon on the day of travel, flight was due to land in Germany at 10pm that night.
Look at the documents and saw we were booked in the Park Inn. Now, having been to the Ring numerous times I have never seen a Park Inn. Looked at the address to see how far we were due to travel in the morning to see it was booked in Nuremberg, just 400km away. So we ended up getting on the flight with no hotels booked whilst they tried to find us a hotel, a bit closer!

Was almost disappointed I got invited as none of the 5 senior managers who were going had noticed, and would have loved to have heard how they dealt with it!

Flew from London to Milan a week late for a meeting! Was embarrassing to say the least.

I turned up for this thread yesterday. Been waiting a loooong time....

I booked a hotel an entire year in advance. 🙁

Turned up at Zip world Velocity on our summer hols with the kids, all booked up and having driven for nearly 2 hours to get there.... For the day before. Oops. They were very good though and sorted it out so we could still do it then. Embarrassed dad!

I turned up 6 days too early (or one day too late!) for a once a week ferry crossing whilst on tour in Greece. I just lost rack of what day it was. Didn't really matter though.

Got a train to Stansted to get my flight which left from Gatwick

Done the turning up on a bank holiday before. Even turned up an hour early. So the empty carpark wasn't unusual. Security asked me where I was going (not that unusual either, seeing as it was 6:30 in the morning).

Got into the office to find about a dozen people in absolute panic mode as a customer had flagged up a faulty batch of parts the night before. Spent about 48 hours straight working on it. 😕

Then 14-16 hour days for the next 10 days.

I wasn't meant to even be working on that project. But it netted me about 3 grand over and above my normal contact......... 8)

Probably spent it on food.

Reading some of these I don't feel quite so daft having turning up at a pub a week early to meet an old friend a few months back.

Drove the 50 miles to the office. Arrived early as the traffic was light and dived into a design brief. Mentally surfacing about 11.00 I rang a colleague to ask where he was. Turns out that he had other plans for a Saturday morning...

I'm just going to check my flight tickets for next week. At least I think it's next week. Now worried.

Turned up at 8pm for an 8am flight from Reyjavik to Glasgow. Somehow we convinced the airline it was their fault and they booked us on the next flight home for free.

My wife has a habit of booking flights/hotels for the wrong days, so she normally leaves it to me do. Which if fine, until coming back from Hols this year, arrived in Gatwick after a transatlantic flight for our next leg back to Guernsey, only the flight had left the previous day. Last minute one way flights for 4 to Guernsey aren't cheap.

In my defence the transatlantic flight was an overnight flight....

I'm sure she's never going to remind me of this.

Some classics on here but think Fanatic278 edges it!

Flew from London to Milan a week late for a meeting! Was embarrassing to say the least.

I have turned up a day early for appointments at least twice, but fortunately not too far away!

I was catching a flight from Heathrow to Ireland a few years back to go on a surfing holiday with an old mate of mine who had moved over there. Got caught in traffic on the M25 and only just got to Heathrow in time. Pulled surfboard out of car in car park, shoved it on the bus to to the terminal - 10 mins to checkin. Just about enough time. Off the bus, wrestled my 8ft piece of baggage across to the lovely-looking lady on the BA welcome desk and asked if I was in the right terminal.
"Oh, you are in the right terminal sir. Just the wrong airport".

Well, I've never gone in to work on a Bank Holiday.

Oh, hang on, yes I did.

I arrived at art college one morning to find everyone milling about outside. This wasn't unusual as it was before the advent of safer processes like non-toxic printmaking. Smoking while working with (and soaked in) solvents was pretty much the norm. We set the fire alarms off [i]a lot[/i]. But I thought we'd done pretty well to have evacuated the building before 8.15.

Turns out it was the May bank holiday. The staff all knew this (which is why the building was locked) but seeming non of the students had got the memo so pretty much the whole course had turned up. We stood around for a while not really knowing what to do. Then decided the solution was 'picnic and baseball in the park'. So we all went to the supermarket and off license and the boy who would become Johnny Vegas went home to get a baseball bat and a ball. It then took him ages to reappear again, by which time we we're all pretty shitfaced - he'd apparently had a lengthy standoff with his dad who wouldn't let him back out of the house with the bat because he thought he was 'going out on a rumble'.

It wasn't far from the truth. The park was on a slope and with us all too full of fizzy lager and tongue sandwiches to run there was a change of tactics, mid-game, from chasing the ball to prevent a home run to chasing the batsman. And the invention of a new fielding position, between third and forth base, of 'linebacker'.

Turned up at a hotel a day early. On two separate occasions.

Thanks - makes me feel much better, anyway the rescheduled meeting is now in Birmingham on Monday - that's Monday the 12th, I have even printed the e-mail confirming it off.

Definitely going on Monday 😆

My Colleague famously flew to a meeting in Budapest, and was somewhat surprised on arrival that the pre-arrange transport was not there to collect him. Ah, yes, thats because the taxi is at Bucharest sir. DOH!

In my junior days I arranged for some fairly prestigious clients from the Far East to meet us at Chestfield in Kent. Sorted flights, hotels, trains etc.

They were late. Very late. So I phoned them.

They were in Chesterfield. And suprrising OK about it.

They were in Chesterfield. And suprrising OK about it.

reminds me of a story in the papers here about an [url= http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12436117.Oops__Thought_you_said_Fort_William/ ]Eight Hour Cab Ride[/url]

About 10 years ago, I drove from Bolton to somewhere in Birmingham for a rolling road day only to find the place locked as it was the day before.

Not me, but many years ago we had a technician turn up at Berwick Signalbox in East Sussex for the "renewals job". After much investigating it turned out the tech was supposed to be at Berwick upon Tweed!

A few years ago Xmas was mid week and there were quite a few people on hols. I was walking out Fri night and someone I knew by sight came over to shake hands and say happy Xmas and all that. I asked if they were finishing today and they said yes we all are the place is closing for Xmas

That was close

I was stood behind a guy in the security queue at porton down when he was informed his interview was actually at portsdown west. I guess he didn't get the job.

Went to a meeting an hour early this week but that was in boardroom, and the boardroom is upstairs

I accidentally booked a hire car for a year rather than a day...they were genuinely surprised when I returned it the next morning.

Woke up after a very successful vodka fuelled night at a girls house 12 miles away from mine. Realising I had to be at work in 2 hours time and was still in my evening attire and stank of vodka I decided to run home (before the days of mobile phones so couldn't call in sick, plus my boss has seen me out).
Ran non stop home, change, showered and ran down to work to find it closed. Yep it was a bank holiday.
Don't think I could run 1.2 miles these days!

Just checked my holiday tickets to make sure they are 2016!

I managed to book a hotel for completely the wrong date because the booking system used American dates rather than English ones. Something like 4 march instead of 3 April. (The hotel was in the UK but an American chain).

I turned up for a flight a day early. Got my boarding pass and the luggage got on the plane. Only at the boarding gate did we find out!

Arrived a day late for a ferry back from France once - they took pity and got us on the next crossing for free.
Arrived in London for a meeting a week early - that included a flight from Edinburgh.
And I think I'm actually pretty good at being in right place at the right time, on the whole.

University I work for has 3 scottish campuses- 2 in the mainland, 1 in orkney. Every year without fail at least one student will turn up in Edinburgh for a postgrad and discover they're going to spend the next year sitting on a rock in the middle of the north sea eating seagulls.

But that all got overshadowed, when we opened the campuses in Dubai and Malaysia... Sorry sir, you are 8,400 miles away from where you need to be and your first class is in 2 hours.

On a similar theme I once turned up for a meeting at the council offices. I was deputising for my manager so wasn't really clued up as to exactly what it was about. I was just told it was related to our organisation (NHS) possibly becoming involved in supporting or delivering the council staff flu campaign and I was to attend to find out more detail. I also had a new team member just join us so decided to take them with me for some experience.

I wasn't given a contact name so when we turned up at reception and said we were here for a meeting about vaccinations, the receptionist checked a list and directed me to a room. Got there to find this grand looking oak panelled door and although I was on time, it was closed and I could hear voices. I thought that the meeting must've got going a bit early so knocked and got called in. There were about a dozen people around a big oval table with a couple of spaces free opposite each other. From the looks on their faces we didn't appear expected but I guessed that this was because they were expecting my manager. I introduced us and my colleague and I took our seats opposite each other.

The meeting carried on and although it was a vaccination meeting, it soon became clear that it wasn't the vaccination meeting we were supposed to attend! It was some public health England meeting that by the worst coincidence happened to be going on at the same time. My colleague and I started exchanging knowing looks as it dawned on us what had happened and we were silently trying to read each other for a clue as what to do. Own up to being complete bellend imposters, get up, apologise and walk out in shame..., or sit tight, blag it and ride it out like that dude did on the news that time. With no way of talking it out, the status quo prevailed and we rode it out before bailing at the first opportunity. I don't think I've ever been as embarrassed in my life. We were then obviously also massively late for the real meeting. More embarrassment as I then had to blag further excuses for that. After everything, it turned out that they had no funds for us to provide the service so the whole thing was a waste of time!

A mate checked in for a return flight on the right day but at the (later) time of the outbound flight on the confirmation email. To make things worse, he was leading a school trip with twelve fifth grade kids and had to phone all their parents, sleep in the airport, and pay for their flights the next day (had to phone his wife to pay on her cc after his maxed out).

When I was 18 or so, drove overnight with three mates across France from Calais to a little town called St Hilaire. However, between driver changes during the night, we arrived at dawn in the wrong St Hilaire, some 800km away from the one we wanted.

I've got two:

1) I arrived a day early to the start of my first year at university. Embarrassing as I had made a big fuss of being grown up enough to sort my own travel there by bus, clearly I wasn't. Extra humiliation points as the accommodation wasn't unlocked and I had to get what seemed like half the entire university housing staff out of the office to sort the keys out.

2) whilst at Uni I used to occasionally do early morning swim training. It started at 6am and like most students I was crap at getting out of bed. One night I went out on the beers after swearing I'd be there the next morning. Cue paranoid nights sleep. At the appointed time I got up, had a quick breakfast, jumped on my bike and pedalled the 2 miles to the pool. I made the following assumptions on the way: 1) the clock on the huge clock tower has broken, it strangely read 2:50, not 5:50. 2) the student bars must have had a special night on as people were still coming home at 5:50 when normally they would have been kicked out around 3 am. 3) it was dark, in the summer it's normally light at 5.50 and 4) my watch was also broken.

In retrospect I'm amazed I didn't twig.

To be fair though, once the penny dropped (I stood outside the pool for 10 min waiting for everyone to turn up) I went home, got back into bed then got up again at the proper time. I was a bit tired though.