26/10/03

*** 19th ***

sunday is family day. i woke up late, i read, i joined some of the other families in the building, watching some dude getting the crap beaten out of him on the sidewalk, by the police.

my mom and i went gift shopping at the flea market, and took some photo's with the new camera. we didn't really find too much of interest.

we went to the waterfront, still searching for gifts. we eventually ended up with some tourist-type books.
wow.

we got home, and found my cousins waiting for us. we spent about half an hour together, and i had the memorable experience of taking my cousin's little kid to the bathroom.
daddy-training.

my mom and i went to a guest-lodge in town, to check it out, and it was really nice. it's in tamboerskloof, which is a bit of an odd position for a holiday, if you ask me. but nice, nonetheless.

we moved on to my aunt's, for a quick goodbye-visit and some coffee, and then on to my cousins', for a goodbye-dinner.

we returned home rather late, to pack. my sister and her kids came by, and then dirk diggler paid us a visit, and then it was time for all those goodbye phone calls.

*** 20th ***

i'd totally forgotten that the 19th was sagirl's birthday! and birthday party! that totally sucked, i felt aweful, and there was no time to go...

i woke up at 5am. i had a shower, and some much-needed coffee, and i drove myself (with my mommy as passenger) to the airport.

on the way, as we came out of hospital bend, we found ourselves driving towards the most beautiful sunrise in the whole world. there was a light mist over the cape flats, and the shadow of the mountains behind, and the bright pink glow and some rays of the sun coming up behind them.
simply stunning.

i said goodbye to my mom outside the airport, and then had to stand in a queue for a really long time - there was a problem with the previous british airways flight, so we had to suffer.

eventually we got on the plane, and we were off!
except for the outrageously long taxi. we finally got in the air about an hour late.

when we landed, i almost ran from the plane to baggage claim, which didn't help as my stuff only came out after about fifteen minutes.
i then literally RAN from domestic arrivals to international departures, the two terminals farthest away from each other.

i got to the el-al check-in JUST in time to be told that i wouldn't be able to fly.
i argued.
i explained.
DENIED.

i ran to the british airways counter, and hurriedly explained my situation, and one of the people on duty ran back with me to speak to them.
DENIED.
back to the desk, for a lovely chat. eventually, i was directed to the british airways desk in domestic departures.

by this stage, i already knew that the earliest i'd arrive in israel was more than a day late, and i was pissed.

i walked up to the counter, and said something along the lines of "hello! i've come to make your day that little bit more miserable!". i have no idea why, but it seemed to work. the people on duty were most pleasant, and helpful. also, polite insistence gets you everywhere. i wasn't pushy, but i made my displeasure known, and they got us (three of us in the same situation) sorted out in surprisingly short time.

cute story: one of the girls at the desk said that i didn't look jewish. so i said, sarcastically, "thanks", but she missed the sarcasm. when pressed, i made a comment about jews and greeks having notoriously large noses. one of the other girls was greek (like i'd know that), and she took immediate offense and went to check her nose.

fortunately, i managed to explain my way out of that, and she ended up helping to organize us first class tickets - see the photo album.

i started talking to the other two, one a fighter pilot from be'er sheva, the other a northern suburbs boy, who'd recently discovered that his father lives in israel, and managed to make contact with him through the internet. nice guy, but absolutely no clue what he was in for... israel is a very special place.

we were provided a free meal in the spur. i ordered a steak, and salad. i only finished the salad - i was quickly reminded why i don't eat at spur. cold, raw meat is not healthy.

i managed a phone call to my mom, to let her know what was happening, and british airways allowed me one phone call to israel, so i phoned her to let her know i'd be late.

'burbs boy and i went through the airport looking for a telkom service spot-thingy, with no luck.

i did some stretching in the international departures hall, figuring that noone would recognize me. nobody did, but i had some really humourous experiences with airport security, who were quite impressed, and one of the trolley pushers, who walked up to me as i was doing a stretch kick, and ran away very fast.

i washed myself down in the bathrooms, which is not an ideal experience, and we went to sit outside the shebeen until our flight, to talk and read (i started on jane's ah-64d longbow's manual). we were both really tired, and were finding it hard to keep our eyes open, so we took shifts closing our eyes.

i think we checked in at around 18.00, and i checked my luggage straight through to tel-aviv. i wrote down in my physical journal something about 1-hour chewing gum, which hopefully i'll remember at some stage. i walked around checking out prices for duty-free scotch whiskey, and decided that it would be better to buy it on the plane, so as not to risk breaking the bottle on the way.

like *i* was meant to know that the prices change.

we had just enough money between us for hot chocolate, so that's what we did. it took forever (damn airport newscafe), and was crap.

we boarded. i was on the right side of the left aisle. i had almost three seats to myself, and the guy i shared them with was most fair about it.

some guy in front of me had leashed his child to his seat, and until taxi this toddler was crawling all over the place - really, really cute.

we had good food (meat and potatoes) on the flight, which i almost missed because i'd passed out before take-off. i couldn't get any more sleep after that, though, so i went to stretch at the back of the plane.

*** 21st ***

after that amazing initial sleep, the rest of the flight proved to be one of the most uncomfortable, painful flights i've ever had. i was totally wrecked by the time we disembarked, and i proceeded to get lost in all the tunnels from the plane.

i eventually made my way to the right place, where there was an ENORMOUS queue (it was heathrow airport). i was about halfway into the queue when i realized that i had about ten minutes till boarding time, and i freaked! i was sure i'd miss another flight.

i was promptly informed of the one hour time-difference...

when i got into the airport proper, i went looking for a post-box, as i'd promised my mom i'd mail something for her. it's the last thing i expected: postman pat was exactly right - the post-boxes really look like that!

i found the first-class lounge (british - airways - first - class - heathrow - airport. WOW.) with no trouble. i found the spa. they have a spa. i put my name down, was warned of a potentially long waiting period, they handed me a beeper, and i went off in search of something to drink.
i drank bitter lemon, while reading the paper - just chilled. i got some interesting stares from the other passengers... i had a beard, and i was wearing a tracksuit with my taekwondo jacket. and crappy shoes.

the beeper went off.
after only five / ten minutes.

i found myself standing in a bathroom, about six paces long, and four wide. with clean towels, an enormous sink, and space to put all my clothing and my handluggage. in the one corner, there was a decent toilet, and in the other, an enormous shower, with five showerheads that can only be referred to as a contraption, with three spray-types, and levers for each one.
oh, and everything had just been cleaned.

i had about half an hour. i stood in the shower for about fifteen minutes, massaging sore muscles, and feeling deep-cleaned - and SO much better.

i got dressed, brushed my teeth, and sadly left the spa.

i looked at my watch, heard the last call for my flight, and RAN down the terminal looking for my gate. i didn't have to run very far, and, in fact, i didn't have to run at all - if i'd known that i obviously wouldn't have gotten all sweaty again... i'd been so clean :(

the first thing that i saw as i sat myself down in the second row, was one of the most fake smiles i've ever received (stewardess), and i was immediately bothered. 'burbs boy was totally excited, telling everyone he could how he'd gotten into first class, and annoying the stewards...

i watched in anticipation out the window as we took off, but there wasn't much to see. the english countryside is really pretty, but not very exciting.

i read quite a bit, until lunch, which was most pretentious, and quite average in taste.
i laugh at people who pay for first-class.
the only thing really worthwhile, was being able to sleep completely flat. in fact, in combination with the spa, it almost made the day's delay worth it.

more listing:

customs queue interrogation, the rose is legal, running into punching-bag, pickup, home to the niece, meeting our brit, coffee and chocolate *** 22nd ***

banking, cable search, falaffel, food shopping, grootbek's sad attempt at vindication (ie bullshit), an orange experience, cousin's farewell dinner, petrol and the storyteller, a long walk through a short street

*** 23rd ***

her arrival, sleep, minhal hastudentim, idc, kiwi-litchi-granadilla, shopping and coffee, home to shower and unpack, farewell, (something else?) and sleepover

*** 24th ***

babysitting instead of coffee

*** 25th ***

wake up 07.30, bust pc, washing, a mission to the mall (birthday shopping), lunch and more babysitting, driving to petrol, character creation, meeting the others, my first vampire session, lift home, on to sammy's, back to her place, driving back to mine, family time

*** 26th ***

breakfast, driving to sha'ar ha'ir, driving to ramat hasharon, the #@$%ing parking fine, real breakfast, on to university, our first maths lesson, a great big lunch, arbing around (email check), hot walk home, movin' the pc, fixin' the pc, movin' the pc (sore arms), playing (this log), the bus ride - torn pants, 2.5 hours of tkd talk, back for brit talk, grootbek talk, invader zim introduction, sleep