Stuck in South Africa.

After trying to program the GPS today, circling around the train station to find the entrance, traveling on the train, waiting in line after line and eating in a rush we've wound up right back where we started.

Let me explain,


We had some issues with the TomTom and its abilities to navigate us to the train station, although finally it began to function and we arrived at the right intersection, passing the station once but making our way back, it was the first goodbye.

Mother dearest and I made our way to the ticket man and got our one ways to the airport, lovely new train system they have, clean, efficient, and quick. After our arrival at the airport we made our way to the first ticket agent and waited in line for about two hours in anticipation, hoping that they would change our present tickets traveling to London into tickets traveling to New York, a flight that was departing with space. After befriending a man behind us who had missed his first flight because of the line up he was in at the time and was now going to miss the next flight because of the present line up, we made some new friends. A couple that had been stuck in South Africa for the past night and would be stuck until the 23rd, their flight cancelled. As we waited in line it was evident that there were some rude individuals butting in line, including a Brazilian travel group who had just been to Abu Dhabi for some event of some sort? Anyways, they were SO obnoxiously loud and annoying. They stood in front of the entire length of the desk, they yelled, so I yelled, they were running around chasing members of the group, so I helped by yelling to point them out. Finally after about 2 ish hours we were at the front of the line and failed in our attempts to get on a flight to New York, on to the next line up.

We moved from our failed attempt over to the South African check-in desk to get ourselves listed on the one outgoing flight to London Heathrow. We didn’t wait as long this time and the woman listed us right away, not that we would be going anywhere due to the backlog of the past days cancellations and the cancelations of that day.

After dealing with South African we wandered over to "Terminal A" (which is just the other half of the airport) to get in line at British Airways and list ourselves on their flight. The line up must have taken about an hour and a half, and we stood right behind these modern day hippies, who hadn’t showered in a couple days, not a pleasant time. When we finally arrived at the desk we re-listed and were asked if we wanted to standby for the outgoing flight, but we knew there was no point, so we just listed ourselves for the 23rd? I think?

After getting ourselves listed on both flights, as well as trying to get onto the wide open New York flight we moved to a restaurant to get ourselves something to eat and drink as we realized that throughout the day all we had eaten was a piece of toast with Cheesy Marmite and some crisps while in the airport. We sat down at about 720 pm ordered our drinks and food, coffee and a sandwich for mama and a latte and chicken burger for myself. Now, over the 4 or 5 hours I had spent in the airport I noticed a few things; line ups, angry customers, not a single seating area, crying children, some angry and some happy agents, and best of all, lots of cute boys. None of the boys were actually worthy of my time to talk to, but they were nice to look at in my hours of waiting.

After we ate we ran back to Terminal B to check with the South African agent to see if we had received seats on the flight to London, no luck, as expected. We then made our way back to Terminal A to catch the train back to Sandton station where we would be picked up. We had to re load our cards with money so we asked the woman and she did so, although I went through the gate a little prematurely and managed to forget my bag, whoops! Thankfully Shirley called me out on it and the woman helped me get it through the wheelchair gate.

On the train home we were two of four in our car and mother and I listened to some well needed Sara Bareilles. We got to the station, got into the elevator and somewhere up the ride an emergency signal went off, I’m fairly certain that my backpack accidentally pressed the button, my bad. We scanned our cards to get out and went upstairs and outside to meet Dean and Steve, our chauffeurs for the night. After arriving back at home I made my phone call to work making them aware that the chances of me being back in London Ontario for my shift on the 24th were not very good. And then having a lovely chat with Kati about her final exam followed by a conversation with Robert about the options we have and how to deal with the situation.

It looks like we're stuck in South Africa until at least the 23rd, but another 2 or 3 flights were cancelled tonight, so that may mean more like departure on MAYBE the 24th. Although the next issue is even if we do get out of South Africa on the 23 or 24th we then have the issues of traveling from London Heathrow to North America somewhere, preferably Toronto, but the Toronto flight we won’t be able to get a seat on until the am of the 26th, with arrival into Toronto Pearson at about 4pm on the 26th, JUST enough time to get ready for Mau5, obviously my largest concern right now, but another issue is the fact that Darryl (older brother) is coming home for Christmas, from Wednesday(tomorrow) until the 26th, I would like to see him for more than 12 hours like the last time he came home!

I am still hoping that somehow we manage to get our tickets switched from London to New York because the flight to New York every day is open, meaning I could be home as soon as tomorrow. I know that Robert is doing everything he can, and I am also aware that Shirley isn't overly concerned due to the fact that she is with her Brother and Sister, which is great and I totally understand that, it would just be nice to get home to MY brothers, sister, father and friends.

As for South Africa, well today the weather was lovely until about 3 or 4? When it started to rain, we went out to lunch and then I read and napped outside. Ashley and I have JUST started "Home Alone 2 - Lost in New York City" and we will watch this until dinner.

Tomorrow calls for some shopping, and all those gifts that I didn't manage to get in the first two weeks of being here, well I guess the third week holds gifts galore, not to mention a letter to Santa asking him for a trip home as my only gift this year.