Goodbye Cape Town......Movin On

I'm on the move again. Left B & B in Green Point 4:30 this morning for a 6:30 flight to Johannesburg. Hard to believe I travel fairly frequently but the first mishap of the day started at the airport. The 3 budget airlines here have exotic names : 1Time, Kulula and Mango and as my flight number was MN100, I "assumed" I was travelling with Mango. I have travelled with them quite a few times recently. The poor guy at check-in couldn't find my booking until we discovered I was really flying with Kulula. And then to highlight the difficulties one has with old age, I left my computer bag on the plane when dis-embarking at Jo'berg. I did manage to get back through all the security checks unnoticed back to the plane to be informed my bag had just been taken down to the baggage office.

This is my 7th time in OR Tambo, Jo'berg's airport in the last 6 months, waiting for my flight to Abu Dhabi. The Etihad plane has just arrived in from Cape Town. After a layover of about 8 hours, it's on to Heathrow and then with Alitalia to Trieste in northern Italy with a change of plane in Rome.

I really enjoyed my time back in Cape Town. Remember I spent 3 years working here at the end of last century. I met lots of new people, both as part of my travel excursions outside of Cape Town and during what I can call my "real life" tourist experiences. I will write about some of those I met in later posts.

During my last few days, polished up the apartment to gain a "immaculate" condition report from the letting agent and then arranged to change surplus cash back into US$. South Africa has currency controls so not so easy as elsewhere. Weather has been cold and often overcast...sure signs to be moving on. I then spent time going around with the goodbyes. Highly likely I will be back in Cape Town next summer so any friends could start making plans if they want "free accommodation".

I have written in the past that when in Africa, patience is not only a virtue, but an absolute necessity. Nothing goes right 1st time but from the midst of chaos, a solution is found. You just need to be able to wait and not get agitated. The difficulties in closing my Telkom telephone and internet accounts were nearly as great as getting connected last year. Though difficulties with landlines did force me to join the cell phone world with my very 1st one and the subsequent frequent use of SMS messages.

But it is not only Africa. As you know I had many problems with my new Dell laptop when leaving Australia and these continued. I still have substandard speakers. Problems developed with the keypad and getting this fixed ( eventually replaced ) was not easy. As they don't appear to sell products in South Africa, I think I was dealing with someone from the UK and the poms are not famous for service levels. Dell products and services have certainly deteriorated over the last few years and I urge anyone considering purchasing a Dell product to think very carefully.