The adventure starts

---

Leaving Home 21st July

Great news - we managed to complete and exchange on our flat at 15:15 on the day we flew out! Nothing like cutting it fine. We spent the entire trip around the M25 on the way to the airport canceling all the bills. We’re now officially homeless.

Arrival in SA Saturday 22nd July

Andrew and the kids were waiting for us at Johannesburg International after a relatively uneventful flight. We took off a little late and shortly thereafter a fire alarm in one of the toilets started up and didn’t stop until 6:00am, fortunately we were on the upper deck (which has a whole 3 inches of extra leg room - woo hoo!) so could only hear it faintly. The cabin crew tried everything to turn it off, including shutting down the entertainment system just as we finished watching our first film. They didn’t switch it on again for the rest of the flight so boredom was a major issue for those who can’t sleep on planes. We suspect the constant noise of the fire alarm prevented a whole lot of those people who can sleep on planes from doing so. At about 2am there was the old “Is there a doctor on board?” announcement which made us smile having watched Airplane for the umpteenth time just a few days previously. All in all there were a lot of pretty rough looking passengers coming off the flight that morning.

We had a great weekend with Andrew, Ella and the kids, ending with Sunday lunch at Casalinga, which we’re led to believe is owned by Gary Player’s daughter, which probably explains all the signed golfing memorabilia bolted to the walls in the Gents.

---