There are always things that go well and things
that don't in daily life and a holiday is no exception! So now I am back from
my wonderful Spanish break, I thought that I would share some of the very good
(Bouquets) and the very bad (Brickbats) with you!
And the first Bouquet goes to my daughter
Catherine for organising our entire trip! She booked the tickets, booked us
online and organised boarding passes and seat allocation. She took my arm
firmly as she steered me through passport control, up and down escalators and
made sure that when I flew home again, her brother took over the elbow steering
duties! (She flew home before me.)
I drove out of here with my little Hire Car at
just after 8 in the morning on Friday 5 August. I packed my suitcase on
Thursday afternoon and Rob and I tried to weigh it on the bathroom scale, with
it standing alone! That didn't work as it kept wobbling and it covered the
actual dial, so after trying to kneel down to see the weight (and having to
crawl to the nearest chair so I could heave myself up), I stood (gingerly) on
the scale and Rob handed me the suitcase! My baggage allowance was 23 kg and my
case was well within the limit at just on 20 kg. So, even allowing for dodgy
scale-accuracy, I was within the limit!
Catherine was ready and waiting, so she took over
the driving and we headed to Cape Town Airport! Time we had in plenty, so after
handing in our cases we went off to the Slow Lounge (I was her guest!) and had
lunch and wine! How very civilised! Another Bouquet for the peace and
tranquillity and chilled wine.
We flew to Johannesburg and repeated the baggage
and lounge and wine routine before we lined up at the gate for our Iberia
flight!
And this is where we met Brickbat Number
1.........
The organisation to get us from the terminal (sounds so final doesn't it!) and
onto the plane was shocking! We gathered at the gate well before time, along
with our fellow passengers. Time to board and we were all ready and waiting.
Six or seven men in uniform (not ACCSA uniforms or Iberia actually) were
fussing about moving a wooden pulpit-looking-stand from one place to another.
And back again. And forward. And back again. Looking official but failing to
actually do anything. Finally the crowd became restless as we realised that if
we didn't get on the plane, we would never get off the ground. A queue formed,
we all moved slowly forward and by sheer force of numbers, boarding began.
Brickbat Number 2 has to go to Iberia for the
worst coffee that I have ever tasted! The rest of the Iberia experience was great,
so they deserve a Bouquet for taking off and landing dead on time! I have never
experienced an airline so punctual, it puts many of its competitors to shame!
My next Bouquet goes to my Spanish family! Andrew
was at the airport and after the usual hugs, kisses and tears, we drove north (I think) just out of Madrid to their home. Even their cat greeted us! I had three weeks of eating, drinking
and getting to know the children. (We had great fun putting the animal cards
into the albums and swiping the cards through the sound machine). We visited
some old villages, we sampled wine and olives and jamon whenever we could. We
braaied and we ate out and we simply enjoyed it all.
