Notes from a fluffy

I made some notes while I was sitting on the plane yesterday

1. Why is the Angola Airlines 747 D2TEB still parked outside hangar 5 in the same place it was 8 days ago?
2. There's a mini swamp between the taxi way and runway 21R which houses 1 Sacred Ibis and 2 Hammerkops. (How do they sleep with all that noise? Do they request clearance for take-off?)
3. The mine dumps are gone. The little 737-400 climbed out over Bonaero Park and Soweto. No mine dumps. And Soweto is very neatly laid out.

I am partial to Boeings, the chap sitting next to me (a Zambian, would you believe) asked me if I was smiling so much because I was going on holiday. "No", I said, "it's this little jet, she waggles her bum then leaps into the sky"

We used to call them Fluffies (Funny Little Ugly Fellas)

Oh and this is my view as I write, there are some good things about business travel.




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Location:Main Rd,Cape Town,South Africa

Another airport...

For someone who is as uninspired by business travel as I am I seem to be spending an awful lot of time doing exactly that.
On my way to the fairest Cape again, Walter kindly dropped me off at an ungodly hour, he's flying down on Friday so we can take a long weekend in a cottage by the sea. Bliss

The children are house sitting...



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Location:Northern Perimeter Rd,Kempton Park,South Africa

Road user hierarchy

Given that I walk around the suburb quite often with my grandmother it has come to my attention that there is a subtle hierarchy of road-users:

1. Fully-kitted cyclists on bicycles that cost enough to settle the debt of a third-world country. These people usually ride 6 abreast and wear lycra outfits more appropriate to a 70's disco dance. The boys shave their legs.They are too important to greet other road users.
2. Anonymous long-distance runners built like strips of fat-free biltong. These people wear heart monitors, wraparound sunglasses and make a point of running into the middle of the road to overtake walkers. Sometimes they raise a hand in passing but this is never accompanied by any verbal greeting.
3. Mountain bikers. They usually ride two-abreast and are more often spotted at trendy coffee bars. Sometimes they shout a hearty "Morning!" as they overtake you (as long as it's not on a rise) on their way to the coffee bar where they've parked their urban SUV's.
4. Club runners. These people aspire to be long-distance runners but have not yet learned the code of silence. They usually wear old racing shirts and you can hear them coming a mile off. They look to the alpha runner for clues about whether to greet you or not. If he/she does then they all chime in immediately.
5. The stragglers. These people have not yet cracked the run-and-talk thing, they are usually spotted about 50m behind the Club Runners (who ignore them) and they often clutch at an imaginary stitch when they spot you so that you don't judge them. They usually greet you cheerily since you're lower down the hierarchy than they are. Sometimes they throw in a hobble for extra effect.
6. The speed walkers. These people are deadly serious about "technique" and always look ridiculous. No-one greets them.
7. Club walkers. Usually slightly overweight middle-aged women. The hockey captain is the alpha female, often already showing biltong-tendencies and wearing a peak cap, fitted designer top, pink lycra leggings and a fake tan. They greet you politely then go back to their skinnering about so-and-so's husband who's left her for a pilates instructor/personal trainer.
8. Social walkers. Usually in pairs. These people wear oversize T-shirts and leggings. They greet everyone (except the power walkers) My grandmother and I fall into this category
9. Dog walkers. The friendliest by far - they stop and chat to each other and exchange dog stories while their dogs either sniff each other or growl. Dog walkers greet everyone.They wear floppy-brimmed hats and crocs.
10. The paper-delivery chap. He smiles and waves at everyone, never tries for a "personal best" and usually rides an old clapped-out bike. If someone sponsored him he could probably win all the cycling races. He stops and smokes on the side of the road sometimes. His speed training consists of escaping from snappy-jawed rotweilers.

Bloemfontein to Cape Town

The amazing thing is that we actually took off on time. Sort of. Which is amazing because the plane hadn't actually even arrived 30 minutes before the scheduled take off time.

Grabbed this off the SA Express website because I didn't get around to buying a mik-en-druk. Mainly because they don't sell them at Bloemfontein airport. It's a Bombardier CRJ200 and can fly at 41,000 feet!

And can happily report that the extremely independent suitcase arrived at Cape Town on the same flight. Impressive. Although it's keeping quiet about where it spent the day.

Airports...

Bloemfontein airport is small enough to get around in 10 minutes flat. You can get off your flight and into your rental in about 15 minutes - if you don't stop to buy biltong at the stand near the exit. You can also spend an extremely boring 3 hours in the departures hall hoping that your suitcase (which you've booked through directly to Cape Town) makes it all the way to the same destination at the same time.

Big sky country. A little Dash waits for passengers.

Sneaking into the business lounge is not advised, but they do allow you to go back into the main building if you need to shop (the loosest possible description of shopping, you understand, with all of 3 kiosks to choose from) or get a bite at the restaurant. And it's air-conditioned, quite a blessing when you're all suited up for business meetings.

More travel

I took a photo of my parking spot when I parked at OR Tambo this morning. This is so that i can remember which part of the rabbit warren to head for when I get home. While I was taking the picture my grandmother sms'ed to ask if we were walking, despite the fact that I told her I'd be away this week. So I'm hoping I remembered to lock the car before starting the 7-hour cross-country trek to the departures terminal.
Of course I forgot my sunglasses, that'll happen when you get to the airport before sunrise. I do, however, have a brand new suitcase (hopefully burst-proof) which has shiny locks to deter the thieving bastards in baggage-handling.
I am also hoping I can remember the numbers for the combination when I finally check into the hotel in Cape Town tonight.
In-between is a day in Bloemfontein, I must say the Free State is looking the prettiest I have ever seen it, all rampant greenery, flowing rivers and fluffy clouds. And 29deg heat (no sunglasses)
A little meerkat stood solemn guard on the edge of the runway as we taxied in (Bombardier Dash 8) I almost expected him to salute as we went past.
I really must buy a camera for those moments when the phone has to be off, just a little mik-en-druk should do the trick.

Oh and my work password expired yesterday so I'm effectively locked out of my email for now. Quite liberating really.



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Location:D F Malherbe Ave,Bloemfontein,South Africa

Is it a bird, is it a plane?

Last night was the moon's perigee (when it's closest to earth and appears larger than usual)
Being a Cancerian from time to time (ie: when it suits me) I was looking forward to seeing my "guiding planet" up close and personal, so to speak.
Of course it rained.
So I was reduced to looking at photographs

This one, from mooncollection.com shows how the moon would look at the apogee (farthest point from earth) and the perigee, using the same lens

 This beauty (Gordon Gillet, ESO) was on the SAWDIS site and shows the moon rising over Chile

There's a gorgeous shot of the moon rising over Manhattan on Flickr - well worth heading over there to take a look.

In fact, Flickr has a whole section devoted to last night's moon shots. You'll find it here. Thanks to Darren Smith, a Johannesburg-based photographer of note.

I didn't see any werewolves

Escaping

Walter and I decided we are too old to deal with the madness that is a 20th birthday party. Our decision (based on experience, naturally) was to leave them to it. So we gave child no 2 strict instructions about turning off the music at midnight, not burning down the house, feeding the dogs, locked away the good alcohol and left.
Fortunately we have friends who own a guesthouse in Lonehill (just up the road) so I called and booked a room.We had a good few glasses of wine (didn't have to drive home) and hit the sack early, hoping not to have 2am calls from irate neighbours.

Max, the border collie, came to give us a wake up call....

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

We had a work function this week at the beautiful Fairlawns Boutique Hotel

The most beautiful cakes and decorations - quite amazing how a little imagination and patience, combined with a great deal of talent, can bring things to life

The Cheshire Cat

21 years

My mother died 21 years ago today, she was 57 years old. She battled through 9 months of suffering after having spinal fusion surgery to relieve back ache. The doctors had no answers for us, other than to say her brain had slowly liquefied and had she eaten calves brains at any time? Perhaps, they said, it was Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Later we came to know this as Mad Cow's disease.

Milestones

Seems like yesterday that I was watching out for new teeth, rolling over and first steps. And then suddenly the boychild turned 20 on Wednesday and we no longer have any teenagers in the house.

How cute was this? 
And the first day of school, and the endless homework / dog-feeding / room-tidying / jersey-finding *ahem* "discussions" have gone.

And suddenly we have people around. A lazy Sunday afternoon lunch with a glass of wine and good conversation-type people.

And I know it won't last forever, so I'm enjoying it while I can

My awesome kids. Great people.

Of course, it's not ALL bad

I stayed in a good hotel which has a gym that opens at 5am. It was a beautiful morning

Although the cleaning staff looked at me a little strangely. All became clear when I got back to my room and discovered I had my top on inside-out.

Not ideal weather

So given my love of business travel I have come to expect the worst. The heat wave in London last July, the effects of the humidity on my body in the tube, the monsoon in Mumbai and so on.
But this was Cape Town - how bad could it be?

I gathered up my clothes from the conveyor belt, stuffed them back into the broken suitcase and headed out the door. And stopped dead. Oh yay, a heatwave combined with multiple meetings and a premenstrual GPS.
Business travel is definitely over-rated.

The joys of business travel

Business travel is vastly over-rated in my opinion, and should be avoided at all costs.
Having travelled extensively in my youth as SAA cabin crew (all five star hotels and meal allowances) my brain is wired for work on the plane and relaxation/frantic sight-seeing on the other side.
This means I can't sleep on planes and, like Pavlov's dog, I leap up at the sound of the bell used to summon a crew member. The latter tends to upset the sumo wrestler seated next to me (why am I always seated next to the sumo wrestler?)
Having started a new job requiring a fair amount of travel I realised that the old suitcase (held together with various bits of string, covered in cat fur and bearing stickers from countries that no longer exist) wouldn't cut it. I headed off to the store to buy a cabin-sized suitcase - surely sufficient for a master-packer such as myself. I wanted a hard one (too easy for the slimy sods at the airport to slit open the soft ones and help themselves to my belongings)
It was perfect. The nylon zips were the only possible downside but there is a guarantee, after all.
Filled with confidence I decided to book it into the hold - there was more than enough time on the other side to pick up the luggage AND the rental and get to the first appointment.
So much for planning. My suitcase came out speedily enough, just not closed. Collecting assorted bits of clothing from the conveyor belt AND trying to stuff them back into the broken-zipped suitcase may not be the best way to start the trip.