Nigel,
How exactly do you think it was off-loaded and loaded without a Main Deck Loader? Were they launched into space to be caught on a lower deck? Perhaps parachuted off onto a revolving train of dollies?
I hope your "snouts" were rather better informed in the past than the one you have now.
Nor was it 4 hours late, it was on the ground for 4 hours, with 40,000 kgs off-loaded and 40,000 kgs loaded, not a bad effort for a first A300 with little facilities.(and a bloody miracle without a Main-Deck!).