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Travelling from Cape Town to Johannesburg

Saturday, 29th April 2006

I (Robert) woke up just before 8am, just after Angelina (our maid) had arrived. I went through my usual morning routine, and wondered how I would be able to do my arm curls when on holiday. I suggested to Karen that we pack the two 12.5kg weights! I got through my packing fairly rapidly - my strategy being to travel light, and purchase a few items overseas and come back heavy. It quickly became apparent that Karen thought my light was too light! Karen is a very good packer and very thorough. It didn't go unnoticed that the old slops I had taken out had been exchanged for a different newer pair...hmmmm...is this valuable input or am I losing control of my wardrobe!? I decided not to ponder over such weighty issues and set off to the ATM to draw some money to pay Angelina.

On getting back from the Caltex store in Milnerton, I made the big decision not to pack my GPS receiver...the GPS map of the USA is a bit expensive ($130) for the minimal use I'll be making of it (probably only in Los Angeles, when we have a car).

Table Mountain on the early morning of 29 April 2006 Table Mountain

Victor was right on time, picking us up at our pad in Century City (Milnerton) at 1400 and taking us to Cape Town International. Vic and Clare were also so kind as to give us a bag full of magazines and sweets. We flew on Kulula.com (cheapest flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg), flight number MN116 which left Cape Town International pretty much on time at 1530 for Johannesburg. The highlight of the Kulula flights are the humorous pre-flight announcements - cracks like "there are many ways to leave your mother-in-law's lunch, but only 8 ways off this plane" and the "hidden cameras in the toilets" to try to catch smokers. I managed to polish off a bag of Vic's sugary sour sweets on the flight....and Kulula left their best one for last, after we'd landed and were completing a looooong taxi to the terminal - "We keep the costs down by flying halfway and driving the other half".

There was some confusion in the arrivals hall, with ACSA incorrectly identifying where another flight's luggage was coming out (fortunately ours came out from the right spot, but it did take 20 minutes for them to get it there....grrrrr....).

Karen & Robert on 24th April 2006 (Karen's real birthday)
Robert & Karen on Karen's birthday
Karen's birthday party

We celebrated Karen's birthday in the evening in Glen Austin, Johannesburg, with the two Mikes & Donna & Kim, Hans, Heidi, Jenny, Cherry, Paul, Chris & Lorna. I'm starting to worry about my waistline, after the delicious asparagus quiche, followed by a generous slice of cake.


Travelling light


Kulula.com


Jenny & Cherry


Hans, Karen & Heidi


Donna & Mike


Chris & Paul


Karen & Heidi


The cake


Cake


Cake


Kim & Karen


Lorna cutting cake


Lorna & Karen



Mike & Kim