tuxette's Journal: home sweet home... [edited]

Not quite sure how I feel right now... this was probably the best holiday I've ever had, and at the same time it's kind of nice being back here. We'll see how I (and RoF) feel after getting up at 6 am to go to the g-y-m, with the following return-to-work routine, the rest of the t-r-a-i-n-i-n-g routine, the d-i-e-t (damn, the food there was so good, and the portions were so huge! And don't get me started on the wine!)...

We almost didn't make it back today at all. We were supposed to fly from Cape Town to Johannesburg and then to London and Oslo, starting Saturday afternoon. But shortly after we checked in, we got a message saying that the flight from Johannesburg to London was delayed by 24 hours! And this message was via SMS on boyfriend of tuxette's mobile... apparently they tried to page us but we didn't hear anything (of course it has nothing to do with the fact we were sitting in a noisy sports pub drinking wine and watching the rugby)... and then they tried to call him on his mobile but he couldn't hear anything... and finally the SMS...

Panic set in and we were running back and forth between the domestic and international terminals to the various British Air desks, and we were finally told that we were rebooked on a flight out of Cape Town that night and that we just had to collect our luggage and re-check them in. We got boarding cards for Cape Town to London and were good to go...

*whew*

As much as I loved it in the Cape Town region, and as much as I would like to see Johannesburg, I really can't afford to arrive later than expected and have to miss a day of work. And being stuck in transit like that sucks no matter what... urgh...

When we got to London, we had less than an hour to get to our gate, and of course they only had ONE security lane open and tons of people going through the security check to catch a flight IN THE SAME FUCKING TERMINAL... and of course they were stopping people with hand luggage full of cosmetics, perfumes, gels, liquids, and other shit... and of course all these people didn't know about the ban (after being exposed to poster after poster, sign after sign telling about the ban - you can't fucking miss them. They're all over the fucking place!)... And let's not get started with the people who were asked "do you have a laptop in your bag?", only to stare back blankly, and then having to take their fucking laptop out of their bag after it went through the x-ray once, delaying everyone...

So nice that some people have hours before their next flight...

Poor boyfriend of tuxette was targeted for a random search of his rucksack, behind all the idiots of course... I only got frisked by an ugly woman... what a downer... :-P

But now we're finally home. We're relaxing and listening to one of our last-minute purchases now. Beautiful Creatures. We found out about this CD series (Beautiful Creatures, More Beautiful Creatures, Even More Beautiful Creatures) kind of randomly - while driving the rental car back to the airport, there was a reportage about it on the radio. It sounded kind of fun and charming (it's actually targeted for children) so we looked for it at the airport and found it! Too bad we didn't know about it earlier, as we could have gotten it for much cheaper at a regular CD shop in town. Oh well... :-P The song that "sold" us is called "Harry the Hungry Hadeda", which is on the More Beautiful Creatures CD ;-)

(Looks like you might be able to listen to it here - haven't tested it. Let me know if it works or not if you try it.)

I'll write a proper trip journal and get the pictures set up later on, and use a separate forum to do this, as the report will be quite long. I will write some of the highlights/teasers here. Later on of course ;-)

Ooops - forgot to mention that our luggage didn't make it from London to Oslo. I hope it gets here tonight. If it doesn't, I'll probably have to work from home tomorrow, in case they send it here during the day, and I would rather go to the office. And I want my (and boyfriend of tuxette's) 8 bottes of wine! :-)

Greetings

[bettiwettiwoo]

Thanks for the postcard. It's funny: I haven't really read slashdot for a while and totally forgotten that you were going to South Africa ... and today is your post about your trip home & in my mailbox is a postcard. Ha! It's obviously arranged by your flying spaghetti monster.

PS. I hope your luggage arrives safely & asap; losing one's luggage sucks big time - happened to me when going to Australia once: 24 hours can be a very long & sweaty time without one's clothes.

Re:

[tuxette]

Hey! I'm glad you got the card! And we did get our luggage last night, with all the wine bottles intact. It's a good thing this happened while going home where we have lots of clean clothes; it would have really sucked to not have our luggage when going over (even though I did have clean underwear and a t-shirt in my carryon)...

the short straw

[Tsunayoshi]

I only got frisked by an ugly woman... what a downer

Sometimes you draw the short straw.