There is nothing like waking up in your own bed... Especially after a mammoth journey to get to it.
Anyone who knows me, knows I am a terrible flyer. Terrible.
Tuesday saw me attempt to get home back to good old Blighty, just as Cape Town's sun returned, and England's freaky Winter heat wave ended.. I should've taken this as the first sign I should stay put!
Sufficiently anxious and tearful, I sat in the boarding lounge waiting to once again torture myself with what I can only describe (in my eyes) as a necessary evil... only to be jolted out of my daydream, by an announcement that the flight was delayed due to "Essential engineering works" which needed to be completed before we could take-off.
Whaaaaaaat?!?!
As a terrible flyer, all sorts of thoughts started going through my head... All rational quickly disappeared, leaving a highly strung and even more anxious & tearful person in its place. A dear little bird sacrificed his life to cause such disruption, jamming the landing gear, thus rendering the plane unsafe. Brilliant. Several hours later, after being told it was repaired & they were just waiting for "sign-off from Dubai", we were informed that they actually needed a new part to be flown down from Johannesburg (But they just told us it was repaired?!) and that it would not be taking off until the next day. Luckily they found me, and a few other London bound passengers, seats on a direct flight to London that night, although I didn't feel so lucky when the Captain announced that breakfast service may be interrupted due to turbulence. As someone who is pretty much petrified of turbulence (yes, I know I am perfectly safe) that was all that was needed to ensure I had a sleepless night ahead.
Touch down felt pretty amazing after all I had endured to reach my destination. I could even forgive the cold, grey weather. We trundled through customs towards the baggage claim. You know it - everyone who had suffered at the hands of the little birdy had to suffer a little more, not one of our cases had been loaded onto the aircraft. Did I mention it was cold in London? That my coat was in my case?! That bird is one angry ghost!!!
Anyway. Two days later, case and owner have been reacquainted and all can breathe a sigh of relief. Lets just hope the journey back to Cape Town is a little less eventful. Thats how I prefer it. Now, off to find my brolly....
