SA1348 DUR-PLZ 13 NOV 13 (ECONOMY)
Posted: 09 Dec 2013, 18:29Well satisfied with our experiences, Chris and I headed back to Durban and to a typical HL disaster!! Did I hear someone say “Oh, goody goody!”? I thought so. Have you no pity for me? Do you think I create these events solely for your entertainment? I’ve a good mind not to tell you what happened. *sulk* Oh, all right then. You win.
To put this into context, my sister-in-law loves cats. Now those of you who know me, know that I like cats; that I have my own beloved Puss and that I feed a number of feral cats in my garden who reward me by controlling the vermin population in the overgrown gardens that surround my house. Yes, I like cats but my sister-in-law’s love of them borders on obsession. Seeing a cat on the street sends her into transports of delight; a picture of a cat on a wall in a place that she is visiting has the same effect and her three cats are allowed to roam unfettered through the house. In fact, the amazing thing is that she has only three cats - on previous visits she has had five or six. Now don’t get me wrong. I love her to bits. She is warm-hearted and funny and frequently has us in stitches by her observations and she has been a good wife and mother but she does drive us all mad with her cat obsession! OK, you get the picture so on with my tale of woe.
Before we headed off to the game reserve, I decided that I need not bring all my luggage. After all we were returning for one last night before heading down to Port Elizabeth and the Garden Route. So, borrowing a small case from the said sister-in-law, I packed enough for two nights and headed off. Two days later we returned full of our adventures and ready for the next leg of our trip on the morrow. Molly, one of the cats was curled up on top of my case but she posed no threat to me - well until I removed her to get out fresh jammies to go to bed. She, or one of the other cats (or perhaps all of them) had peed all over my case
and it stank of cat pee! 
What was worse, it had seeped through the soft top of the case to the contents. Fortunately the first things encountered were shoes encased in VS shoe bags which acted as a bit of a barrier, but some of the clothes lower down had also copped it! They were easily dealt with as they were transported immediately to the washing machine but to say I was like an anti-Christ was the understatement of the year. 
My case was a Samsonite but what was more important, it had been given to me as a retirement present by one of my teams who knew of my love of travel and had huge sentimental value to me. However there was no use in losing my rag. What was done was done but I really was upset - especially as the smell of cat pee is so pervasive. I had visions of me travelling around South Africa in a cloud of cat pee! 
My sister-in-law helped to minimise the damage with coming out with the disinfectant bleating that she did not think that Molly had done it. Quite frankly, I didn’t give a sugar who had done it - it didn’t alter the fact that my case stank! And my clothes! And the smell was firmly lodged in my nostrils so that even the headiest of perfumes could not supplant it! Febreze was an unknown brand name to her but fortunately there was baking soda in the house so my case was dredged with that to try and rid the smell! The following day started up hazy but I was able to dry my clothes and also try and rid my case of the smell as the sun beamed down on us. However when I packed I was not entirely convinced that the smell had gone and I had visions of people giving me a wide berth as I approached drenched as I was in Parfum de Chat! We headed off to King Shaka airport for our flight and on arrival found that it had been delayed by 40 minutes.
The inbound was due to arrive ten minutes before our scheduled departure. However we checked in without any problems, except for a delicate wrinkling of the nose from the check-in agent as she processed my bag. From there it was a short hop to security where we were quickly through with the exception of the delicate wrinkling of the nose of the security lady. The machine beeped as I went through but I was hustled away with a swift “That’s OK ma’am”. We headed to the Rhapsody lounge which isn’t a lounge in the full sense of the word but a bar, where we ordered drinks, found that they had free wifi and then decided, because of the delay, to eat dinner rather than wait till we got to PE. It was a good decision. The food was good and reasonably priced and we surfed away to our hearts’ content, catching up with all that had happened in cyberspace because my brother does not have wifi In the fullness of time our plane arrived and we were boarded swiftly. Our boarding was very reminiscent of a flight in Laos a couple of years ago when we were loaded on to a bus and then driven 50 metres to our awaiting plane! Our flight was designated variously as SAA Express or Airlink. It didn’t really matter what it was called but the aircraft was a CRJ which was fine by me with its 2-2 configuration. Once on board, the safety demo was given and we pushed back after an apology from the captain. There had been fog in the morning which had delayed all flights and they were still playing catch-up. We took off and soon the cabin crew came round with snack-boxes which we had come to expect in SE Asia two years ago and in Argentina last year. The contents were a bag of crisps, a bag of mixed nuts and a bag of Filippino mix which Chris appropriated. The crew then came round with beverages and I rather cheekily asked for wine, expecting to have to pay for it. No, I was offered a Cab Sauv or a Merlot and the Merlot was handed over with a glass and without a murmur.
The flight, in essence was no longer than a Cork-LHR flight - in other words, less than an hour. We landed in PLZ and the airport reminded me of the old Cork Airport where passengers could easily board the wrong plane. We trudged to the Arrivals area, mingling with passengers leaving the Departures area for a flight to JNB thinking how easy it would be to sneak on board. However neither of us wanted to go to JNB so we stayed on the main course, grabbed our bags and collected our car rental to get to our hotel for the night.
We arrived at the Radisson Blu in PE where we were checked in by the nicest agent you could wish to meet who imperceptibly wrinkled her nose as I went by.
- I think the cats in question must have travelled on the Northern Line at some point!