On our way to Malta

This trip was planned to be my daughter's 21st birthday present - and now i'm on disability benefits it could well be the last holiday I can afford.

The day did not begin well. I left the house with my suitcase and carry-on - taking a bus to the nearest train station - only to realise I had left my phone behind! Argh. I had to get a taxi back to the house to pick up the phone and back to the railway station in order to be in London on time to meet my daughter. Stress!

Made it on to a train at Waterloo but by now did not have time to get an Uber so jumped in a black cab to get me to her flat as we were hopping on a bus right outside her flat to get to the airport.

I arrived at the allotted departure time for her to tell me the coach had left, grr.... but 10 minutes late a coach turned up and it turned out to be the one we were supposed to be on and was running late so on we hopped to get to the flight. At this point I could relax as we had acres of time at the other end - I hate travelling in a rush. I'd also booked special assistance as somedays it can be a struggle and using budget airlines means you are always at the last gate.

Airport wheelchairs are not great - very uncomfortable. Staff member at RyanAir was very rude when I asked him about special assistance and if i could go in the fast track queue - just pointed vaguely behind me.

When I did get to the gate I tried to explain that I can't stand in a queue waiting to board as that can cause me a huge back ache and then make the flight very uncomfortable, and was advised to wait until the end of priority boarding (which we had booked hoping it would help and on advice from the RyanAir customer service) - fortunately this did mean only standing for 5 minutes instead of 15 but not ideal.

For such a beautiful girl, my daughter is surprisingly camera shy for candid shots but I did manage to get this one at Stansted Airport

And there's always an airport selfie - what else to do whilst you are waiting?

And she came loaded with new make up for me - clever girl actually found blue and purple lip liners to go with my crazy lipsticks - the mascara is turquoise because who doesn't need to return to the 1980s?