Indeed my case (and my laundry) had been left in the capable hands of Prax, a lovely Zulu woman who had been at the heart of my niece’s family for more years than I can remember. To her my brother is “Grandad” and I am “Aunteeee”. Within minutes of my arriving in South Africa some three weeks earlier, she had restored my iPad cover, which quite frankly was disgusting, to its former pristine state and so I felt comfortable that she would work her magic on my case.We headed off to a place recommended to my niece called The Oaks at Byrne. It was a nice, if rather twee place, in the middle of nowhere. Our accommodation was fine. We were given two interlinking chalets where my brother and his wife had one place and my niece, her daughter and I had another. Apart from three men who were obviously overnighting on the first night because they were working in the area, we were the only ones staying there. There were plus and minuses - we were within earshot of the business area when we were in the lounge so we felt our conversations were overheard and the meal and bar times were set in stone. Indeed a bell called us to breakfast at 8am the first morning!!
(We negotiated a late breakfast the second morning). However, the barman sussed us out in three seconds flat and adjusted his times to suit us (and was well rewarded for it) The place had no wifi and indeed very limited internet access so we were thrown on our own resources and, as the weather was bad on our only full day we begged for a selection of board games and had the greatest fun. Sometimes it pays not to be connected. We certainly spent quality time together.Although we had been offered lunch before our departure we decided to forego this. I still had to pack and my niece’s husband had been in Jo’burg while we were away. His flight was due in around the time I was due to check in and so it all fitted in nicely, My niece would drop me off at the airport and collect her husband at the same time. Well that was the plan till we got back to her house!!
Or more accurately, the plan began to unravel on the journey home when her husband called to say that he was now on an earlier flight. No problem with that. We would go earlier than anticipated to the airport with maybe time for a quick drinkie before I went airside. Yes, that was a plan. We arrived at her home and I began to gather my things to pack when all of a sudden my phone sprang to life once more and with it an email from Emirates. My flight back to Dubai was delayed by one hour and would now arrive in Dubai at 6.30am the following day! My flight to Dublin was scheduled to depart at 7.00am. Eeek! No pressure there, then!! Fortunately it wasn’t one of those “donotreply” emails and attached was a phone number so I called only to learn that, as happens all too often, customer service doesn’t always mean that. 
The lady who answered the phone could not understand my dilemma and kept on assuring me that I would make the flight and even my insistence that that was unlikely even if my flight arrived at one adjacent to my departure, met with a total incomprehension. 
She was determined to remain upbeat and then assured me that they would hold back the Dublin flight. I don’t think so. 
I figured that, even though the recession has scattered my fellow citizens to the four corners of the world, South Africa was not in the forefront of countries to which they had emigrated and those that had were more likely to be in Cape Town or Johannesburg. I reckoned that I possibly was the only one on the flight with a connection to Dublin, and although from time to time I have an over-inflated opinion of myself, this was not one of those times; I am not a member of the ruling family in any of the Emirates, nor anywhere else in the world and although I may well have modest status here on V-Flyer, this would not carry me through in holding back a flight. And there is only one flight a day to Dublin. Desperate to help me, the agent announced that the flight to Dublin that morning had been delayed as well as the one to Durban but I pointed out through gritted teeth, that this did not automatically mean that tomorrow’s flight would be delayed. 
She conceded that this was the case (I later found out that there had been a rainstorm in Dubai which had the same effect in Dubai as three flakes of snow in London and the place had closed down! 
). Eventually she told me that I would be put on the following day’s flight to Dublin but I was insistent that I needed to be in Ireland before then. I felt I was in a war of attrition and, at my suggestion conceded that I could be put on a flight to LHR and thence on to Dublin. I had always felt this was a possibility but was really annoyed that I had to spell it out to her. 
I felt that was twenty minutes of my life that I would never get back again and that I should have gone with my first instinct and wait and see. However there was packing to be finished and lunch to be eaten.After lunch and a somewhat tearful farewell to my brother and sister-in-law (after all none of us is getting any younger
) we headed to the airport where my niece’s husband was waiting to greet us, his flight having arrived early. We had a very pleasant but brief interlude in catching up on events before heading up to check-in. We arrived at the Business Class to an empty line and I was checked in by as nice a young lady as you could wish. As she checked me and my bags all the way through to Dublin, I once more expressed my concern about the tight connection and she assured me that I would make it and that I would not have far to travel to my new gate. I was dubious about this as I had had to take a train between the A and C gates on my arrival, and my niece who had done this route earlier in the year, confirmed this was so. The agent seemed surprised by this but still seemed to be of the opinion that I would still make the flight and gave me my boarding passes as well as my lounge invite. Oh yes, the lounge invite! The airline lounges in Durban are situated in the Domestic departures area so one has to go through the domestic area and security to access them and then, when your flight is called, go back out through the screening arch and then cross over to the international departure where one by-passes any potential queues (there wasn’t one) and ID checks (it had already been done) before going through the security scan (which had already been done) Emirates uses the Premium Lounge in King Shaka airport which essentially is a Priority Pass lounge. It seems to have a smaller footprint than the one in Dublin but it was divided into distinct areas which made it look deceptively small. There was a desk of about five business areas complete with laptops and power points to be able to charge one’s devices. Three of these were empty when I entered and I was later sorry that I hadn’t snaffled one of them as later, when I wanted to charge my devices they were all in use (although one man was kind enough to let me use the outlet at his desk). There was also a bar but although it looked as if it should be manned, it was in fact self-service. The rest of the area was seating, albeit broken into smaller groupings but still the place was crowded - and looked it! There were also loos but I never found out where they were!.
I had a glass of white wine and a bag of crisps as I caught up with what had happened in cyberspace but given I had already caught up at my niece’s there was little movement there! I was really there too soon. In the CH I would have said I was not there soon enough but the place was stuffy and cramped and so, well ahead of my flight, I left the lounge and headed towards the international departures, I had to pass the Rhapsody Bar which we had visited on our trip to Port Elizabeth. It was light and airy and uncluttered and I was sorry I hadn’t gone there to buy a drink and perhaps a snack while using their free wifi. It says a lot when a bar/lounge is infinitely preferable to an airline lounge. I went through what was a bit of a farce of exiting the domestic departure area and dodging under a tensa barrier (at the instruction of the security guys
) to go through security at the international area. From there it was a looooong trek to gate A20. There was little on offer for international passengers compared with the domestic area apart from a small Duty Free area. I had intended buying some ciggies in Dubai for my friend’s hubby but given the tight schedule it was going to be a non-starter so I got them there. (What is it about buying ciggies, especially as a non-smoker? I always feel grubby doing it) I made my way there to find the place absolutely chock-a-block and with passengers queueing up way down the corridor leading to the gate. Mind you the air there was much fresher than in the gate area and also the facilities were nearby. I chose to go to the Ladies and about 10 minutes later realised I had left the aforementioned ciggies in there. They were still there when I went back. Nice, honest people. However there was little-to-none seating and also much to my disappointment, no plugs that one could use to give the iPad/iPhone/laptops and extra boost before the flight. It has always been possible to find them in Cork and LHR - well at least the ROI area, as I have usually charged everything in the CH.Eventually the time for boarding came…… and went!
And honey lamb’s blood pressure rose a notch or three. Then the new scheduled time for the flight came and went with the same result! However before it could rise to dangerous levels, boarding was announced and Business Class was invited to use Gate A21 while Economy boarded via A20. Skywards Gold and Silver members were also allowed to board with Business but halfway along the route to the jet way there was a staff member there to divert those in Economy along another corridor where they were able to board ahead of the rest of the Economy passengers. At the door I was welcomed on board (I can’t remember whether by name or not) and directed to my seat in 5K, the same seat I had occupied on the inbound journey before changing to accommodate an Emirati and her husband. Because boarding was taking place through two doors, the champagne was offered very quickly and what is more, replenished.
The doors closed and I was delighted to realise that the seat next to me was vacant. Bliss! Absolute bliss! I was delighted. Apart from the space issue, my experience on the other flights (and my BA ones in CW) is that my need to visit the loo increases exponentially according to the grumpiness of my seat mate or the person over whose legs I need to climb. I need not worry on this occasion.Although we took off about 15 minutes later than our re-scheduled time the captain came on to say that he hoped that we would be arriving at 6am. Well, that gave me a bit of a leeway but I couldn’t help thinking that if we had left when we were supposed to I’d have had an extra fifteen minutes or so to connect.
We took off, with me using the forward camera to watch it and later turning to the downward one till we were too high to see anything of note except for clouds. While this was happening, the crew came round for drinks and dinner orders. One of the starters was crayfish and I had decided I would choose that but when the crew arrived at my seat she told me that the crayfish had gone. 
I expressed disappointment and she said she would see what she could do. Bless her, minutes later she popped her head round the corner with a thumbs up sign, saying that it was OK. After a second G&T, dinner was served and the crayfish was delicious washed down with more of the champagne. For main course I had salmon but it was rather dry and in any case I was still rather full from lunch so I really couldn’t finish it. I can’t remember if I had dessert or not - well of course, it was nearly a month ago and so much has happened since. Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you - just after take-off, a member of the cabin crew fetched up beside me and with a polite “Madame” gave me an amenity kit.
It was a BVLGARI one and I’m sure it had been loaded by mistake as there were no amenity kits offered on either of the inbound ones. It was lovely with a range of hand cream, face cream, toothpaste and toothbrush, hairbrush, tissues, refreshing towel and perfume. It reminded me of the glory days of VS when they had amenity kits that really meant something. Oh and at some time later the equivalent of the FSM came to sit beside me and re-assure me about my connection.After the meal, I decided to bed down for the night to try and get as much sleep as I could. The business seats on the medium haul Emirates flights are sleeperettes rather than lie-flat beds. They are on a par with the PE offering on VS and try as I might I could not get comfortable. It seemed as if my back was arched whichever way I lay and eventually I gave up trying to sleep.
Returning my seat back to a reclining position I looked at the map which constantly showed an arrival time of 6am and my hopes remained that I would still make my connection. The cabin crew, aware that I was awake offered me some orange juice followed by coffee and later, as the cabin awoke, a continental breakfast was served. As we were beginning our descent a cabin crew came to the FSM (or whatever he is called on Emirates) to ask if a passenger in Economy could be moved forward to the seat beside me as he had a tight connection. Permission was granted and for the last twenty minutes or so, I had a seat mate. I asked him about the time of his connection. He was booked on to a 6.55am flight to Riyadh so I felt we could squirm together as we agonised over our connections.
The arrival time had changed to 5.50am but agonisingly went back to 6am. The list of connecting gates flashed up on the IFE but there was no sign of Dublin but at the very end of the list it said to check in the terminal along with two other destinations. Messages flashed up that check-in closed 45 minutes before departure (well I was checked in, so I was OK then) and the gate closed 20 minutes before departure. Hmmm, still a possibility and I can move if need be! We landed at exactly 6am and taxied to………..……. a remote stand!!!
So what happened next?
Well you’ll just have to wait and see.
