I'm BAAA-AAACK!!

Hellooo from Walvis Bay, Namibia! It has been such a surreal experience to be back in this land. Wow… as if I never left. The people and places are generally the same, and I am able to jump right in as if this is my second home away from home. Haha… and in a way, it is.

So, this time around, I have made a personal vow to improve my blogging skills. Haha… they were cut pretty short last summer when I was here, but that’s a different story (refer to last year’s post, if you please). So here goes…

Friday the 13th of June... dun-dUN-DUN! I finished packing less than one hour before I had to leave to catch my Sky Shuttle to the airport. No surprise there… I was actually impressed I was finished packing so early! Heehee… ;-p Made my phone calls, said my goodbyes, then I was off to catch the shuttle. Just as I was locking the door of my house, Mr. Garth Prinsonsky messaged me. Haha… what impeccable timing. I swear he must have a spy cam on me or something… or shall we call it lovers’ instincts? Eish… sappy, nevermind. Still, it was a sweet moment to know that I will get to see him and everyone else very soon. =)

Waiting at the Westin Hotel for my ride, out of the corner of my eye I saw Ruth Stubbings from choir last year! Crazy nuts! I totally didn’t expect that. I haven’t seen her for a while since she moved back to Regina, but now she’s here, so cool. It was such a pleasure to catch up with her. Then my friend Nicole from school came to say buh-bye too. At the airport, I yakked it up with Trina, before I entered the Departure gates. I also called my mom again to tell her that , “This time, I’m REALLY going to be off now.” I could tell she was holding back tears. Haha… oh Mama loves me too much… acting as if I won’t come back or something. Don’t be a worry wart. I’ll miss you and see you again soon, Ma.

On the flight from Edmonton to London, I had my own two-seater row yo… by the Exit too, which meant more leg room! I thought, “SWEET! Now I can really stretch and fly easy!” That is until the Flight Attendant moved a gentleman to sit by me. There went my happy bubble. But hey, then I found out this guy was coincidentally from Halifax of all places. Chuck was his name. Kokopelli just finished an East Coast tour too, so I was all up with that! We just chatted about places on the East Coast for a few hours. Haha… small talk. Then I chatted up a storm with a random lady who was a world-traveling teacher (so cool) whilst waiting in the line-up for the washroom, watched Jumper (cool movie) and Mad Money (amusing movie) and had some crappy aero food (go figure), and then fell asleep… sort of. Sheesh, those who know me, knows that I can fall asleep ANYTIME, ANYWHERE... thanks to my Asian genes, according to Jenica. But for some reason, I was having a heck of a time dozing off on this Air Canada flight. THAT was strange for me. Am I losing my flow yo?? Sigh… eventually, I think I was able to get 4 hours shut-eye or so. Shocking indeed. =O

Blah blah blah… so now I’ve arrived at the London Heathrow airport. I acted all cool and knowing, telling my plane buddy from Halifax that I’ve been here before and am quite familiar with the airport. After a few turns in circles trying to find our next departure gates, did I realize that I was talking about the London Gatwick airport the whole time! Oy vey… I’ve never even been to the Heathrow one. What a silly goofball I was. So, he and I were airport newbies together. WOOT! We ate at Pret a Manger (neat food-to-go chain in London), chatted, and killed time. This Chuck from Halifax had the wild idea of playing cards. Haha… of course the first question that popped out of my mouth was, “Do you know how to play Dutch Blitz?!!” because… HELLoOo… it’s the bestest card game ever!! A fact! Ask my fellow choir Dutch Blitz playing posse yo! They’ll tell you how it is. ;-p Of course, being the age of my dad that he was, he taught me how to play Crib instead, which he spent hours learning from his Grandma apparently. Do I hear fun, fun, fun seasons in the sun?! Haha… it wasn’t so bad though. I enjoyed learning a new game and it did pass the time. I lost, of course, but he said I was really good for a beginning Crib player. Go me!

K, so it was time to go our own ways now. He offered to pay for my meal, and I felt it was weird to accept that gesture from a stranger after all, so I gave him an Afroshine single in return. Haha… thanks Garthy! No need to bust out London poundage when I didn’t have to. ;-)

Aight! Now I was on my own. Got through a terminal and was ready to go when I realize that the info on my ticket didn’t match the flight schedule on display. What the?! But they let me through Security and everything already, so that was weird. I asked around and they realize that I was actually in the wrong terminal. YIKES! So the lady who let me pass Security got in trouble for being so careless (sorry lady, didn’t mean to get you into caca) and I got redirected to the correct departure gate. Good thing I gauged my time so that I had plenty of it for unforeseen booboos like this. Boy was it a good thing ‘cause let’s just say I had good exercise trekking across the Heathrow airport yo. Phew!
Otay. Next flight… London to Johannesburg… 11 hours… on South African Airways (reknowned for its little leg space)… NUF SED! Boy was I looking forward to this stretch of the trip. BLEH!