21 October 2007

Wot's all this then?!


The actual flying part of my trip to Zambia took only (!!) 17 hours, but of course, there is the requisite, painfully long layover. My options – 8 hours in Jo’burg, 13 hours in Addis Ababa, or 10 hours in London. I went with London because of the opportunity to once again see my long-lost, New Zealand sister Esther (there she is in the picture to the right).

After an hour and a half on the tube (should that have a capital T?), during which I fell asleep and woke up to find an older gentlemen sitting across from me and staring like his life depended on it, I met up with Esther at her workplace. Esther works at some big French bank, which has two imposing security people in double-breasted suits standing just inside the entrance, but was able to take two hours from her very important job to eat Italian food with me.

I was able to stay awake on the trip back to Heathrow due to the copious amounts of sugar in my Marks & Spencer custard roll (mmm… yummy) and arrived with only four hours to spare before my flight to Lusaka. Thankfully, I made the flight (on which every seat had on-demand entertainment and 13 channels of movies, TV, and music videos!) and arrived in Lusaka at 0615 the next morning.

And finally, my Real Africa adventure began…

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