The Story of Midori: Japan's Flower

This is the beginning of a Great Trilogy of Novels written by a good friend of mine, James George Constantine Crofts. However, being an eccentric author, Only answers to the name Chocolate. I hope you enjoy the story of Midori as much as I have.....

Author of The Story of Midori: James George Constantine Crofts

Here begins the story of Midori: Japan's Flower.

Chapter Zero.

Once upon a time in the land of Japan, lived a family by the name of Kaiho. The Father, Azuma and the Mother, Sugihara had a little boy called Midori. Midori was an interesting child as he was born with a tree growing out of his neck. Midori's grandfather, Taro said that this was for good luck – but this was not the case. At the age of four, Midori started to exhibit strange personality traits. Much like a puppy, Midori started to experiment with his toys. Much to Azuma and Sugihara's dismay, this persisted for over a year. At five years old, Midori didn't leave for school like the other children – but began his journey as a tree in the garden. Midori was very, very angry at this. He wondered why he should waste his days alone in the wilderness, with nothing other than the other trees to converse with, though they were not much good at this as there were no other tree children in Japan. Every evening, Midori would return from the forests of Japan and delve straight into the depths of despair. He wondered why he was different to every other child. Why couldn't he go to school, he would ask his parents to which he received nothing but a silent response. Around the age of six, Midori's mother, Sugihara died in childbirth. Though this was such an unfortunate event, Azuma was still blessed with a new child, a beautiful baby girl called Tami. As Tami grew up, Midori was unable to fulfil a successful role as a brother, due to his time outside and so decided to embark upon an epic adventure...

Having read all about the Barbarians in the tribe on the south east coast of Japan in, Hiroshima. About how Witch Doctors were able to cure people of their deformities. Midori decided then one afternoon to leave Tami and Azuma behind and set out for the forests of Hiroshima.

If you would like to read more about Midori's adventures, feel free to leave a comment! 

Alternative Airlines: The Best Flight Comparison and Booking Site in the World

Recently, while browsing the internet, I came across and ad for airline ticket booking website named Alternative Airlines, as I was in the market for a plane ticket, I thought, why not? I had already scoured cheapoair, cheapflights, kayak, travelocity, expedia, skyscanner and many other for their best deals, but they all seemed too expensive. £800 for a Zhengzhou to Heathrow return. As it turned out, Alternative Airlines weren’t a whole lot better, I bought my ticket for £749.

The first thing that struck me about Alternative Airlines, was the kind of, well, rubbish website. Don't get me wrong, it was informative and functional, you could say it offers more functions than its competitors, but, it still looks rubbish.

I'ts Grim Up North. The Henan Agricultural University, in the North of Zhengzhou, China. My Current Residence.

This worried me. Before I booked, I looked around for reviews, I needed to make sure they were legit, sure they had an IATA logo, but I didn’t even know what the IATA was. Besides, anyone with a brain could cut and paste a bit of HTML code. But, to my surprise, I found that they were indeed a real travel agency and I took the plunge (well, it was hardly a plunge).

I was to travel on a China Southern Airlines and KLM code-share, the cheapest way of travelling between Zhengzhou and Heathrow, through the hub of nightmares, Beijing Capital Airport.

My flight to the UK went swimmingly, except for the hot dog of death on China Southern (A Hot Dog of death which I've now come to expect). It was only 3 days before my return to China before my troubles began.

My China Southern Airlines Plane. Notice the smog in the background, Yuck!

Halfway through watching Neighbours on 5* I got a call from a man from Alternative Airlines, he rang bearing good news!

"I'm sorry to say that China Southern Airlines have decided to reschedule one of your flights"

"Oh!", I replied,

"Your 19:45 from Beijing to Zhengzhou will now be leaving at 13:25", laughed the man.

"Ooook", I said, not really understanding the implications.

"Well this means that you're going to arrive in Beijing 3 hours late for your connection", he explained simplisticly for me.

"Ah."

The Penny Dropped.

I was furious, how can an airline just change their schedule like this? They've sold me a ticket!!! They have to keep to their Schedule now! Aaaaaaaaah!

(I'm sorry for the rushed and, lets face it, terrible quality of writing in this article. I wrote this in a hurry!)

I rang China Southern Airlines and demanded an explanation, they told me that the small print allowed them to do this and that if I missed my connection that was down to my own stupidity.  No amount of arguing could change this.

The next day, the man from Alternative Airlines rang me to say,

"Everything is sorted, I've booked you on an earlier flight from Amsterdam, you'll now get to Zhengzhou 3 hours earlier than you would have, you just have less time waiting. I'll email you your new ticket within the hour".

Even if they have a rubbish website, Alternative Airlines saved my journey from the jaws of the Evil China Southern Airlines!

I hate to degrade my blog by writing a post to reminiscent of an advert, but, fair play to Alternative Airlines, they stood up to China Southern Airlines (the world's worst airline) for me and saved me money when most other Travel Agencies wouldn’t have even bothered to tell me.

So credit where credit's due, if you want to check out Alternative Airlines to book your plane tickets, here's a link.