The Lilliputians had their first flight in July. Yes, it is now much later, but a first experience should be documented. I took them to go and visit my folks in the Eastern Cape. The Engineer stayed behind to watch the labs, the house and the budget. I had the first flight with my Lilliputians. It is very different than just worrying about yourself. And remember I am a professional worry-er.
We had that extremely early morning flight (6:15) from OR Tambo on a Saturday morning. I don’t really know what I was thinking when booking this flight. It was probably much cheaper. I had what my colleagues refer to as my cupcake folder with me. This usually contains my travel documents for work but on this day it had the birth certificates of the Lilliputians in. Lisa named it the “koekiekoevert”, (yes, my mind also went to all those places when this word came out of her mouth), because it was her self-assigned job to make sure that wherever we go we have 3 backpacks and 3 suitcases. Yes, I do not travel light.
I was convinced that I would be able to purchase coffee on the airport because we have LOOOAAAADS of time. Turns out if you have to navigate your nervous self together with two six-year-olds there will be no time, cause someone forever has to go to the bathroom, which means that everyone goes to the bathroom.
Do you remember getting on the plane for the first time. I was five when I flew for the first time in the days where you still dressed up to do so. At that time my father was a frequent flyer and I remember being so impressed with him knowing exactly where to go and what to do. I do not think my kids had exactly the same experience with their frazzled mother, but at least we got on the plane in one piece.
We originally landed in the queue for the priority boarding, because I had not been caffeinated yet, and then we had to move to the other much longer queue. Lisa asked what the difference is and I simply explained that we did not get the “fancy tickets”. The young man queuing in front of us smiled saying “yes, we had all been born into poverty”.
It had been predetermined that I would sit in the middle, Hannes at the window and Lisa in the aisle, but by the time I had stowed away my laptop Hannes had settled by the window and Lisa was in the middle. I got the aisle.
Now also bear in mind that Hannes likes to talk. About everything. It’s like he needs to voice everything that goes on in his little mind… and apparently there is A LOT of movement in there. So there was a lot of “what is this”es and “look at that”s and fiddling with things that can go up and down. On the other hand we have my daughter. Who is not a morning person… and she gets this little trait from her mother. So in the row sits two bebliksemde females and Mr excited. Lisa strapped in in the middle with her hands over her ears to block out the continuous commentary from her brother. I try to explain to them what it is going to feel like when we take off. All my wordy attempts were unsuccessful. Hannes loved it, Lisa indicated that her tummy had stayed behind somewhere on the runway.
The gentlemen sitting behind me quietly asked “tell me he has never flown before without telling me he has never flown before?”. Hannes quickly enquires “will there be room service”. I think by the time we took off, everyone knew that Hannes was off to Oupa Gawie, and not even aware that Lisa was even there.
Along came the snack trolley. You cannot order alcohol at 6:30 in the morning, which is a shame. But at least now I got coffee. The twins were each issued with juice and chips. Breakfast of champions. I promptly burnt my mouth. This cheered Lisa up immensely. “Mamma het haar bekkie gebrand”. At least she offered me a sip of her juice to put out the flames.
When you land in Port Elizabeth, the plane comes in over the ocean. This caused such amazement from the window seat that Lisa wanted to change seats with me.
The Port Elizabeth airport is the size of a postage stamp. I love flying there. There is NO WAY to get lost. When we stepped off the plane, however, the Lilliputians all needed a bathroom. This all ended up taking so long that ours’ were the last suitcases left on the luggage carrousel. Luckily our driver kept waiting for us.
Now this gentleman was a treat. We booked online with Jbay Cabs. If you are ever in need of a shuttle service. These guys are efficient and friendly and will wait for you and your hooligans to use the bathroom. Our driver was a talker! And as you know I am familiar with talkers. So in the little over an hour’s commute from Port Elizabeth to Humansdorp, I had learnt all about his studies, his family, his girlfriend, issues with Lebola and when he is going to propose. The excitement tuckered the Lilliputians out, so they were snoring in the back seat.
Oh and the soundtrack! So he quickly informed me that he likes love songs. What and fantastic playlist. We had “My girl” from the Temptations, some Beach Boys, “Nothing even matters” and also some Ed Sheeran. There was Fleetwood Mac and there was Katy Perry. And there was my driver, singing along to everything in between telling me his life story.
We were safely delivered to my folks in Humansdorp who were waiting at the petrol station. We had a week filled with Hertzoggies and oxtail and walks on the beach – with no one in site. It was cold, but the wind was not blowing which is the beauty of a winter holiday in the Eastern Cape. We even saw whales which we usually do not see in the Summer holidays. We built puzzles and we played cards. There was no TV, but there was a fire every night. My dad also wanted to attend my Skype meetings. Asking things like: “who are we talking to?” and “can we at least put on the camera?”. I am starting to figure out where Hannes gets it from.
On our flight back, Hannes had gotten it in his head that there is a whale in the clouds and you have to be on the lookout for it when you descend through them. He was feeling miserable because he was now sitting in the middle so basically ended up on top of his sister. He was so excited that all the rows around us were also looking for this whale. He was so exhausting that the gentleman behind me bought me a glass of wine – samaritans do exist and sometimes they give you alcohol!
As we were disembarking and I was stressing about keeping everyone together and the escalator and the luggage collection, a lady who is probably my own mother’s age fell in next to us and said: “You are an awesome mother, making this such an adventure for them”. I then realised that I must have also talked non-stop on the flight. I am a nervous flyer, I too needed a distraction of sorts.
The review from the Lilliputians about their first flight was mixed:
- The snack trolley should come past again
- Complaints about not coming in over the ocean when landing in Johannesburg
- We do not like escalators… none of us… ever.
- Every single person has better-looking luggage that we do
- Why can we not just take any bag (which is a good and valid point – they check everything 17 times, at every turn, but nobody worries about the bag you take)
- They should do something about the take-off and landing so that your “tummy does not feel so weird”
- It may be much faster but we cannot take all our stuff
All in all, I have to admit that I am quite proud of myself for this trip as well. Everyone who knows me, knows that I do not even want to take the Lilliputians to the grocery store, because there are just too many moving parts.
So it was a first time for everyone. There is something in seeing things through the eyes of an excited 6 year old.