At the end of August, an air traffic control problem in the UK saw over 100 people sleeping overnight at Dublin airport.

At the time I was supposed to be travelling with a colleague to Italy, to meet up with our research group from The Whole Health Medicine Course, Class of 2014. At first we were invited to go home and rebook. But then we were told that our flight, originally scheduled to leave at 2.40pm, was delayed to 11:30pm. Five gate changes followed as Dublin airport began to heave with stranded people. A few flights did get away avoiding UK airspace, but many were not so fortunate.

Thankfully I love people watching, and as we joined up with a few others due to be on the same flight, it’s fair to say we had rather a jolly time. As we reassembled for the fourth time at yet another new gate, one of our companions cheerfully suggested we would “be like family by the time the day is out!”

Luckily our flight took off after three and a half hours of shenanigans. We arrived in Naples at 10:30pm and we drove silently through the night to Sorrento, collapsing into our beds at 1:30am. Thankfully our planned research meeting in Sorrento was not disrupted in any way. This was our third in-person meeting, and our small group of five has kept in touch progressing this work in our individual fields since 2014. Each research meeting feels like a reunion.

A couple of days later, we coincidentally bumped into our new friends from the Dublin airport queue. We excitedly exchanged news and wished each other well, joking that we were indeed like family by that point!