apr 06 2005

have you checked the oil?

i've been in jo'burg for a couple of days. i had thursday, friday, monday and tuesday off in order to go to a friend's wedding and meet alot of the family i've never met and say hi to the ones i have met!

ed and i flew with kulula.com and the cape town leg of our journey was pretty 'exciting'. 30 mins into the flight the captain came over on the intercom and announced that we were turning back to cape town because there seems to be a problem with the engine, he's sure it's nothing but he wants to make sure. we will be able to land safely if it stops working, yadda yadda. ed doesn't hear the announcement and only when we're turning around does he ask whats going on. i tell him: the captain said there might be something wrong with the engine but we'll land fine if it stops working, not to worry. what! oops maybe it's not such a cool thing then, but the captain sounded so calm about it that it didn't seem like a major thing to me.

anyway, there were a few emergency vehicles chasing after the plane when we landed in cape town. that was kind of spooky and scary. 1 hour of flying and 1 hour of sitting on the ground later we finally headed out to jo'burg, arriving 2 hours late.

we got 3 different explanations for the 'problem': 1. the captain's instruments indicate no oil in the one engine, but the maintainence instruments show there is oil. 2. there is no oil in the engine, the maintainence instruments are wrong (didn't check the dipstick i guess?) 3. there was oil in the engine all along, we would've made it jo'burg fine we are told.

um, who really wants to fly on plane with faulty instruments? we had no choice though, get off the plane and pay for another ticket was the scenario. we did get vouchers when we landed in jo'burg though, sort of a leap-of-faith thing.

spent thursday at my sister-in-law, checking the progress of the baby (due in may/june), met the sperm donator aswell.

friday we spent with mom and dad-in-law, saw the groom, gave him some tips etc.

saturday we got lost (only a little) on the way to wedding, it started at 9am and we got there at about 9:10am. hung out with some of ed's old chommies and drank a little too much. missed seeing some other friends and ended up spending another night at my sister-in-laws spot.

sunday we had a braai in the rain (under a lapa might i add), later we met up with louis and ursula and then retired at kenneth's spot (the groom, he sponsored his place while he was away on honeymoon) for some much needed rest.

monday we met up with rene and got some sound advice for ed's business, we reckoned we could've left that evening because we'd pretty much covered all the bases.

on tuesday we left, not before we quizzed one of the flight attendants about the oil in the engines. exciting stuff i tell you!

surprising stuff i noticed about jo'burg (and it's people):
- they check your car ignition at some shopping malls / centres, to see if you're driving with the keys in it or not. we had keys in our ignition, so the boom attendant let us through
- i even saw a watch tower at one of the shopping centres
- people apologise when you show them that you're cross that they're driving like a 'nana, some even pull over and let you pass
- one person didn't bother much when we drove into his mirror after failing to stop lekker in the wet weather (ed's a bloody good driver by the way)
- there is so much space for parking at places
- traffic jams on highways on sundays
- well organised roads
update:
- roadside diners
- security... lots of it

i'll add more as i think of them, and the photo's are here!

Posted by sarah | personal, chillin'