At Heathrow I met my son, Gareth, and his family, Naz and nearly three year old Cameron. After a marvelous chat and catch-up I left them to check in for my flight to Johannesburg on SwissAir, via Zurich. And that's when things fell apart. Heathrow had been fogged in all day and many domestic flights were cancelled from Europe and my flight to Zurich was not going to happen. I stood in the longest line to get an alternate routing to Johannesburg. The only options were BA or Virgin and I chose the latter because I already have some miles accrued on that airline. But when it came to checking in, the only seat available was in the middle of the centre section, way at the back of the plane. The thought of spending twelve hours in a middle seat almost reduced me to tears but I had to laugh at my one night in the lap of luxury and the next squashed into the smallest space imaginable. I was very lucky to be sitting between two of the nicest young 20-something-guys who kept me entertained with their fascinating life stories. Both from Johannesburg, one with a University of Cape Town Business Science degree who was teaching English in Korea because he couldn't bear to practice his major, Marketing, persuading people to buy things they really didn't need. The other young man left school after grade 10 and started his own business when he was seventeen. He now lives in London and is a techie whizz-kid earning a very respectable salary.
Another surprise awaited me on landing - only one of my two suitcases made it. I suppose I should have felt relieved, but I wasn't because I had very carefully packed winter clothes in one suitcase and summer in another and here I was in 30C South African summer with only a winter wardrobe. The reason I left home so early this year was to attend my sister's 70th birthday party the theme of which was Alice in Wonderland's Mad Hatter's Tea Party. As the last guests were leaving my suitcase arrived, regrettably too late for me to make an entrance in my carefully chosen hat and outfit!
A rocky start to an otherwise super family week. My daughter, Nan, her husband, Daniel, and two children Ayanda and Nathaniel were here for the party too and we've all been together staying in my sister's home with her family.
On Friday I will set off on another flight to join Gareth, Naz and Cameron for a winter Christmas holiday in the French Alps at Meribel.
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| Gillian McCabe, Queen of Hearts, photo by Daniel Raubenheimer |
