London is calling - Luanda - Portugal and hopefully England.

The flight was approximately 3 hours to Luanda on board TAAG Airlines. Now you have to understand the joy that was in my heart at the fact that we were now in the air. Because of the stress of the situation I was suddenly hot and my heart was truly racing. I was so thankful to Jesse for staying at the airport and for taking charge when I basically melted. 

My fear and trembling was by no means over as we had now the prospect of problems in Luanda to face. In my mind I could not relax and all the thoughts about possible arrest flooded my mind. We were however on the flight and that was a positive start. 

Now TAAG was an interesting flight, it was clearly an older plane and my excitement of being in the air was rather dampened a bit at the realisation that this plane was old. The seats were broken and the TV's were not working. Only Jason seemed to have any form of a movie playing. The hosts and hostesses tried in vain to help out but just threw their hands in the air. The food was okay, Debbie and Jason would disagree but to me its food and I was hungry and stressed. Leg room was a problem but I did not care. I got up a lot and walked a lot. Sleep was not on the cards as it was a short flight.

Coming into Luanda was fantastic, the opportunity to see a different part of Africa was truly exciting. It just seemed so surreal to land in another part of Africa and to feel the energy of the place. Getting off the plane I was just looking for the words TRANSIT area, my radar was working overtime. All was good. It was a very rustic airport. We could not buy anything to drink as we needed Dollars even though they had card machines there.  Me thinks the counter hands were trying to make some extra bucks under the counter. Not one of the 20 or so shops accepted cards. We sat quietly for a few hours while waiting to board.

One of the joys of being in the transit lounge was that you did not have to go through passport control and for that I was thankful. When the time came we were up first and the first ones down the stairs. Well guess what, at the bottom of the stairs was PASSPORT CONTROL. My shattered nerves. We stood there nervously right at the front of the queue, my heart sank. If I opened my legs I would've fallen out of asshole that's how frustrated I suddenly was. I stood back as I could feel the tears well up inside of me. The passport agents asked the obvious question, WHERE IS YOUR PORTUGUESE PASSPORT.  The answer was obvious. Debbie stepped up to the plate and spoke very calmly to the gentlemen. They would not let us through. Debbie explained what happened and that the TAAG representative had advised us that we could go through.  The queue behind us was now getting longer but we were not budging at all. We needed to get onto this plane. Eventually the guy said JUST GO. YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. YYYYYEEEEESSSS man we were through. HOWEVER at the flight check-in we realised that TAAG CPT had not issued a boarding pass for Jason but had issued 2 in my name. That asshole thing suddenly came to mind again. The lady shook her head, re-booked us on different seats again but we were on the bus.  Before boarding the bus however we were not allowed off and sat on the bus staring at the plane waiting for some dignitaries to board first. 45 minutes felt like 3 hours in the heat of Africa. Getting on the plane and realising that it was a brand new airplane was the best thing ever. Large screen TV's that worked, no broken chairs and hopefully a different menu was exciting. We got 2 out of the 3, the food was exactly the same. We had better legroom BUT WE WERE ON OUR WAY TO PORTUGAL. 6 hours of travel time before we landed. I had left my insulin pen at home so I had to pee quite a lot. Every time I would try and fall asleep I would need the toilet and water. My sugar levels were struggling and I was tired. I had to pee twice an hour, I was exhausted by the time we got to Portugal. Getting off the plane, my radar was again looking for TRANSIT area.  We got through and had a 4 hour layover. It was an expensive exercise as far as food was concerned. 3 sandwiches and 3 drinks set us back R500 a time. I could not wait to get on the flight to London. BUSINESS CLASS ON BRITISH AIRWAYS beckoned and we were so excited. Bottomless drinks, G&T's for Africa or should i say London and a 3 course meal was suddenly so awesome. I ate myself to a standstill even asked for seconds the food was so good. First world country here we come, if the food was this good then trip was going to be awesome. Because we were BUSINESS Class we went through the express queue at Customs. That was painless and easy. Coming through the arrivals gate and seeing my sister was certainly like manna from heaven. Hugging my sister felt so good and so surreal. It was wedding time nothing made me happier. We were eagerly awaiting our luggage which arrived with Jesse and Ashleigh the next day. My underpants was feeling rather solid at this point. 

I almost kissed the ground in excitement and travelling to her house was so much fun looking at the sights and sounds of the place. I wanted to meet my nieces and to take a shower. LETS DO THIS FAMILY. WE ARE IN LONDON.

Coming into Lisbon.

Jessica and Emily at the wedding.