SA Holiday. End.

The Good Fairy who has been looking after us -avoiding torrential rain all along the SA coast, making sure we didn’t lose bags (I left mine on the floor where we’d been sitting in Port Elizabeth airport), phones (twice - JR on the beach trip, me on the tray at security in Jo’berg) and we didn’t get ill, has sadly abandoned us.

As we sat enjoying our last breakfast on the deck at Oceana, (French toast for me) not only did a cheeky monkey steal my muffin, but the two young folk we’ve been chatting to and are on the same London flight, came to say cheerio - they had a car to return so had to leave early - but looked rather stricken. Had her dog died? (It had a stroke a couple of days ago). No, the dog was ok, but our communal London flight was now delayed till the following morning! I had had no emails about it! BA have handled the whole episode very poorly: Not communicating what was going on, and when they did, often several emails at the same time, the information was often contradictory. Even to the last minute, listed on the boards as we went to the gate - and indeed, the tickets - the departure time today was 21.20!! And any online flight info updates had that info too.

I texted Trailfinders help, and they told us to report to the BA help desk in Jo’berg - BA would handle the ‘change of plan’. A small crowd of us waited nearly an hour for the BA staff to organise a hotel. Some folk had booked a hotel themselves when they got the bad news, but Trailfinders advised us to let BA sort out accommodation. I think the first group got an hour or so more sleep than the second group.

We got to the hotel after 10pm, with a pickup time of 4.30am. Fortunately, for the first time ever, I had requested airport assistance. I am SO glad I did, because it’s a HUGE airport, miles to the gate. AND we had a LONG walk from where we were deposited from the bus, dragging heavy suitcases, but we were allowed to join a shorter check-in queue, and the ‘staff and assisted passengers’ security queue. MUCH easier! It’s the first time EVER that I haven’t set alarms off on the X-ray machine!! Perhaps it wasn’t switched on…

We’re flying on one of those huge double decker aeroplanes (how on earth does that get into the air…) and there’s plenty of spare seats in Premier, with a newfangled entertainment system - but I still can’t find any film I want to watch! I listened to a Maria Callas playlist (we saw her house when in Italy this summer), and then a few episodes of the BBC series about Agatha Christie.

This collage sums up the day, (though not technically correct): A blissful morning (we were able to hang around Oceana all morning), followed by a stressful afternoon and night (but the date on the ticket is the 3rd).