It's 10.30am on Wednesday morning and a news alert flashes up on my phone.

It's one I've read so much this Summer that I'm beginning to wonder whether there's a fault in the news service I'm signed up to which means it keeps sending the same thing over and over again.

"Gatwick cancels flights at last minute due to sickness," it reads, as yet another flight is cancelled leading to holiday misery for dozens of passengers.

Closer to home we've been reporting on similar problems at Norwich International Airport, where staff shortages have seen flights delayed, diverted and even sent to Belfast just to pick up someone for the start of their shift!

Our city's airport isn't without its critics and it must be so frustrating for bosses to see its reputation further hit by a problem that is largely the fault of TUI, it's main service provider.

One of our friends was directly impacted by the chaos, ending up having to wait around for 40 hours before she and her family we're able to make their flight to sunny climes abroad.

At the same time my family and I headed south to the New Forest to spend a wonderful week enjoying the sun-kissed beach, the swimming pool and sunset walks, the only inconvenience being a 20-minute delay on the M25 and two increasingly impatient children in the back seat.

I know which of the two I'd rather have contended with.

One of the few positives of lockdown and restrictions on flights was that it forced us all to look closer to home for days out and holidays.

Many of us will have grown used to hearing people say they 'hadn't appreciated what was close to home' or pledging to 'make more of what's on their doorstep'.

However, as we have come out of the pandemic, some seem to have forgotten this pledge and been desperate to hop on a plane for a week or two by a pool or beach abroad.

And whilst I'm not condemning those who chose to do this, as I'm sure at some point that will be something my family and I plump for, perhaps a lesson from this year's travel woes is that a balance of the two types of trips is the best way forward.

If we all pledged to make a little bit more of attractions closer to home and perhaps take one or two fewer trips abroad, there would be obvious benefits to the local economy, as well as the planet as a whole.

Too many inconsistencies in court sentencing

This newspaper cover dozens of court cases every week and I'm often left bemused by some of the apparent inconsistencies in sentencing by the powers that be.

So often some crimes seem to lead to a jail term, while others, which on the face of it appear much more serious, sees the offenders walk free from court or given a disproportionate sentence.

This week, for instance, I was surprised to see rogue trader Kyle Muir jailed for 33 months after conning his customers out of £133,000 for shoddy building work, much of which he never finished.

That's roughly the same sentence handed out to Aidan Stolworthy earlier this year for carrying out six-years of abuse, brutal violence and coercive control against his partner.

Meanwhile, barely a week goes past when someone behind a violent crime, whether it's an attack in the street or domestic abuse, walks free from court with a suspended sentence.

For the record, I'm not saying that Muir was treated too harshly, this type of crime is horrible and often causes the victim untold stress and worry.

However, violent crimes such as domestic abuse, of which we are sadly seeing more of, also cause an awful lot of emotional trauma, as well as the physical hurt of the attack itself, and should be treated just as seriously as crimes like Muir's.