The beauty of the little red book, being the British Passport, is that it means very little consideration has to be given to travels plans including routing and destination. Most importantly, NO VISAS!
My original plan was to fly from Johannesburg to Tirana via an Istanbul layover. Admittedly this was purely out of habit as this is the way I have travelled before. And that’s they way Puccino travelled before. Something clicked in my head the day I was buying the ticket, which happened to be a few days before flying, and I checked other airlines and other routes. Well blow me down and feed me biscuits! I was expecting to pay roughly $1400 on Turkish Airlines which included a crappy layover in Istanbul. I was pleasantly shocked to see Virgin Atlantic with a direct flight to London at $590. Way less than half the price! London, here I come! With the British passport, the gates just open! Hello world!
I was an idiot! I thought that it would be really kewl to try and slum it into town along with the other young travelling backpackers on the trains and tubes etc. Perhaps in a way trying to regain my youth if not for more than just a fleeting moment. I repeat, I was an idiot! What a stupid idea! Heavy bags, rush hour on the trains, delays, tickets which ended up costing me more than I bargained for and the fact that I actually hadn’t slept properly for about a week trying to sort my life out. It ended up costing me about 20 quid and 4 hours of my life let alone the pain in my back, neck and shoulders from lugging my crap up and down a million stairs. When I asked a mini cab how much a Heathrow pickup was he said about 35 quid. For the sake of 3 or 4 pints! Arrgghhhh! NEXT TIME!!!
It was fabulous to see all the old faces. Well not old but you know what I mean. Happy Bean and Katz, Knackers and Puddle Duck, Mildew, Fairlane and J9, Stu and Hawks, Syko and of course Shazza who was kind enough to offer me a bed for 2 nights. It was awesome to be back. I say that tentatively cos I have always felt that London is a great place to visit. I stand firm in the belief that the warm and fuzzy feeling would wear off quite soon and it would be a drag to live in again!
I got some shopping done. Some drinking. Some more drinking. A little more shopping. And mostly more drinking. It was a very necessary trip career wise as well as I managed the opportunity to catch up with an old boss and discuss future possibilities! Always a good beer when money is discussed.
I knew it was going to be a fleeting trip and that is exactly what it was. I achieved a hell of a lot in 2 days and then it was time to go.
Thanks everyone for such a good time!
I have given it a bit of thought and have decided to shut down, or should I say, just leave dormant, Off The Hoox. At least for now. At least for a while.
