So we have arrived! After a lengthy 11 hour flight we arrived safe and sound in the beautiful city of Cape Town at lunchtime today. And it's great to be back! For those of you who don't know, I lived in South Africa for a year in 1993-4 (during the very exciting time of the first democratic elections) and have wanted to come back ever since, but somehow it's taken 14 years and a family wedding here to conspire to get me back. Finally I can show Brad the places I've longed to show him for the 12 years we've been together, which I'm really looking forward to.
The flight wasn't the most enjoyable experience really - initially due to a delay of 2 hours in taking off (during which we were shut in on the airplane in a really hot, airless atmosphere whilst they apparently dealt with a wheel that had fallen off and some dodgy brakes or something...least it was something reassuring along those lines....). Then once we finally got in the air I realised that the particular type of supplementary oxygen that Virgin give to passengers like me (who have to have it throughout the flight) was of a sort that meant it would only dispense if I made a significant effort to "sniff" on every breath. So basically if I started chatting, tried to relax or considered going off to sleep, the oxygen ceased to dispense at all. Having checked my oxygen sats whilst it wasn't dispensing and seen they were settling at about 90%, I decided it would not be wise to consider the sleep/relaxation option and as a result was forced to spend the entire nightflight awake and remembering to sniff constantly. Not the most useful way to spend 11 hours in the middle of the night with everyone else fast asleep...
Anyway, we arrived at lunchtime local time (2 hours ahead of UK time) and went to collect the baggage. At the point that everyone else had left the baggage carousel and there was only one solitary case going round and round, it became apparent that my Mum's suitcase had done a disappearing act. Now given that this suitcase contained everything other than the clothes she stood up in (including her entire outfit for my cousin's wedding), this provoked an ever-so-slightly stressed response in my Mum. Thankfully just after an airport official had said we needed to report it as lost, 2 random women came running over to us saying they had mistakenly taken said case and that theirs was in fact the (totally different looking one) still completing its lonely cycles around the carousel.
Got a taxi to the hotel which is a little place away from the main tourist areas of Cape Town and is a cracking little find, seeing as it has the air of a smart boutique hotel, but at Travel Inn prices. I was rather over-excited at the fact there was a roll-top bath in the bedroom and that the toilet and shower were in a separate ensuite composed entirely of smoked glass walls. On closer investigation it appears entirely possible that the glass panels may have been installed the wrong way round as from inside the bathroom you can't see anything at all in the bedroom but from the bed you have a perfect view of anyone sitting on the toilet completing their...errr...natural habits....
I staggered as far as the bed, collapsed onto it and fell fast alseep for several hours. We then woke up to the most fantastic news ever, concerning 2 people very special to us (which I will update more about in a few days) but which convinced us immediately that we had to head out to the Waterfront for a celebratory meal in their honour! A couple of hours later we were enjoying a gorgeous meal and bottle of wine overlooking one of the most beautiful backdrops imaginable. Heaven....
The flight wasn't the most enjoyable experience really - initially due to a delay of 2 hours in taking off (during which we were shut in on the airplane in a really hot, airless atmosphere whilst they apparently dealt with a wheel that had fallen off and some dodgy brakes or something...least it was something reassuring along those lines....). Then once we finally got in the air I realised that the particular type of supplementary oxygen that Virgin give to passengers like me (who have to have it throughout the flight) was of a sort that meant it would only dispense if I made a significant effort to "sniff" on every breath. So basically if I started chatting, tried to relax or considered going off to sleep, the oxygen ceased to dispense at all. Having checked my oxygen sats whilst it wasn't dispensing and seen they were settling at about 90%, I decided it would not be wise to consider the sleep/relaxation option and as a result was forced to spend the entire nightflight awake and remembering to sniff constantly. Not the most useful way to spend 11 hours in the middle of the night with everyone else fast asleep...
Anyway, we arrived at lunchtime local time (2 hours ahead of UK time) and went to collect the baggage. At the point that everyone else had left the baggage carousel and there was only one solitary case going round and round, it became apparent that my Mum's suitcase had done a disappearing act. Now given that this suitcase contained everything other than the clothes she stood up in (including her entire outfit for my cousin's wedding), this provoked an ever-so-slightly stressed response in my Mum. Thankfully just after an airport official had said we needed to report it as lost, 2 random women came running over to us saying they had mistakenly taken said case and that theirs was in fact the (totally different looking one) still completing its lonely cycles around the carousel.
Got a taxi to the hotel which is a little place away from the main tourist areas of Cape Town and is a cracking little find, seeing as it has the air of a smart boutique hotel, but at Travel Inn prices. I was rather over-excited at the fact there was a roll-top bath in the bedroom and that the toilet and shower were in a separate ensuite composed entirely of smoked glass walls. On closer investigation it appears entirely possible that the glass panels may have been installed the wrong way round as from inside the bathroom you can't see anything at all in the bedroom but from the bed you have a perfect view of anyone sitting on the toilet completing their...errr...natural habits....
I staggered as far as the bed, collapsed onto it and fell fast alseep for several hours. We then woke up to the most fantastic news ever, concerning 2 people very special to us (which I will update more about in a few days) but which convinced us immediately that we had to head out to the Waterfront for a celebratory meal in their honour! A couple of hours later we were enjoying a gorgeous meal and bottle of wine overlooking one of the most beautiful backdrops imaginable. Heaven....
Brad at the Waterfront with Table Mountain behind
Live music at Waterfront
Waterfront at night from restaurant
