Johannesburg, South Africa

Dear Dorothy

0445 am - Johannesburg, South Africa

Well so much for sleep. My body thinks it is 6:45 pm. I got to bed around 1130 and slept until 0330. My body says its 530 pm and I should be not napping even though I was 30 hours between beds.

The flights weren't too bad. No middle seats at least. Sea to AMS I had both seats to myself and AMS to JHB I had three seats to myself, until Broomhilda shuffled a middle seat passenger in another row into one of MY empty seats... I was hoping on the whole row to get some sleep but all I got was the occasional zombie like cat nap.



No major problems along the way. I did get into a "Well you calm down too!!" discussion with the Dutch TSA agent. No one was putting out the liquids and I didn't see the computers coming out of the bag. Well I guess Dutch liquids are fine but not Japanese computers. All worked out in the end but there was a tense interaction between Broomhilda's sister and me.

The hotel is nice enough. Big room, not quite $200 a night plush. But it is better than sleeping on the street. I did forget to do an important thing though. I didn't print out all the vouchers the tour agent emailed to me. I kinda assumed that computers took care of all of that these days. Guess I'll have to find a business center and plug my thumb drive into it and print out the documents.

Most hotels I've stayed in lately have the toilet paper end finished into a nice pointed end, because most of us are too stupid to figure out how to operate a toilet paper roll. Sometimes the toilet seat is "Sanitized for your protection" as well with a germ proof biohazard strip of paper. Well here the toilet paper was in the expected point and then... it had a little sticker stuck onto the point I assume sealing THAT for my protection. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to operate the toilet paper roll. I think I got it.

At 1130 pm it was 75 degrees and my greeter was complaining about the cold weather. I did feel rather exclusive when I got to the meeting lounge and there was someone holding a placard (sp?) with my name on it though.

Off to the shower and morning ablutions.

Next stop Zambia and Victoria Falls.