Day 1. Deepest darkest airport

Dear friends and family and diary 

Today is the first official day of my blog, my South African holiday and the rest of my life.

Tomorrow I leave for Africa ( deepest ,darkest etc) and will meet up with Paul in Cape Town.

Am I worried about the plane trip on my own?

No I am not........  as nothing could be as bad as my trip to Sydney today.

Started really well except that my phone is not working great and the gps in Paul's car is $&&@&$.

 Paul kindly organized valet parking at the airport and a night at rydges to prepare for the flight early tomorrow. 

 How easy does that sound?

I am now in the hotel, after one drink and feeling a lot better than I was a few hours ago as I circled the airport.  Not in a  plane but in my car as I could not find the $@@!. Valet parking. 

I got to the airport relatively easily but turned one turn too soon and ended up in the normal parking that said valet blah blah blah. As it turns out , WRONG turn. Fortunately I had rung the parking people the previous day and had their number saved on my handy but hardly working phone.  When I got through to a real person eventually, the kind lady confirmed I had taken the WRONG turn and to get back to the right place, I had to go through the the car park and exit and around again. 

How easy does that sound?

Started well but traffic was building and I could not see the signs so took a punt, took a left turn and headed back to Botany Bay I think.  WRONG turn.

Fortunately I had my hardly working but handy phone and mid driving put in the address again and tried to get the navigation going. A nasty man in a truck behind me honked me as I appeared to hesitate because I had no @&$?@ idea  where I was or where I needed to go. And the traffic was building. Many angry nasty truck drivers and drivers in general. Not nice.

Fortunately my phone provided the directions back to where I had started after at least 3 times around the airport.  I found domestic arrivals and departures as well as international freight and everywhere else except where I needed to be. Saw a lot of the M 5 . Stop, move on.

Finally I recognized the road I was on. Inside I cried.  Outside I maybe cried a bit too.

Determined to not turn too soon, I finally turned onto valet parking, the RIGHT turn and went through the gate and my bar code worked.  More tears inside and out.

I was met by a helpful person who did the official stuff after I finally parked. I couldn't see the lines..

Slight problem when she asked me for the ticket I received as I went through the gate. No worries I said as I was sure I had clutched it in my hand amongst the 3 pages of maps and other ticket $&@&$ and god knows what I then did with it in my joy to have found the RIGHT place. After what seemed like hours but was at least 20 minutes of searching for the $&@&$?@ ticket , I was ready to offer her money , anything, just let me out of here!!!

She insisted we had to find the ticket and eventually she found it down the side of the seat and middle thing in the @&$&@ car. OMG.

As I drink my wine and relax, I am looking forward to checking in tomorrow and taking off to South Africa finally.  Surely it won't be as bad as my last time checking in at an airport or as bad as today.  Surely not..........