Sunday
Dear Elsie,
Today I flew back to Cape Town and arrived home. Wow! Fish Hoek is a beautiful place and here is where my heart is. I arrived home on a very wet day. I thought it was possible our flight would be delayed due to the cold front sweeping over Cape Town, but we took off on time and landed in cool rainy weather. The landing was perfect. We descended through thick cloud and then about a minute before touching down we broke through the clouds, swept in over the N2 and landed smoothly on the run way.
I was off the plane quickly and Mike arrived to pick me up. How wonderful to see him! 9 nights apart is a super long time for us. So grateful to arrive home.
David was around too. He has had 5 exceptionally good days with the hope that the worst of this long Covid is behind him. Today however, was not as good as the previous days, but we hope tomorrow, he’ll pick up where he left off yesterday.
We had a hearty lunch and then I spent the rest of the afternoon resting and enjoying my happy place.
Back to work tomorrow, but I have had a great week off. Amazing memories made and places seen. It’s 3667km from Johannesburg to Saint Helena and 1226km from Johannesburg to Cape Town – so nearly 10000km return.
Just to wrap up a couple of the things that happened on the day we left. We were all in the departure lounge – a pretty small place but just enough space to squash all the passengers in at one time. There was a very smartly dressed and well presented “Saint’ who came in and ordered tea. She stood out from the regular Saints by being particularly nicely done up and she stood out in her well tailored blue jacket. A short while later, we noticed 2 security guards and two Saint Helena policemen come in. We were all the plane side of security, so it was unusual to see the police. They walked around a bit, and then finally made their way to this particular passenger. The policewoman had a calm and quiet conversation with her and then we saw here pick up all her hand luggage and leave the lounge with them. Whoa! We wondered what was going on. It was all very calmly done. About 15 minutes later, she reappeared and not long after that, it was time to board and off we went. In Johannesburg, the same passenger ended up right next to us at the luggage carousel. Julian couldn’t resist asking her what had happened. She explained she’s had a car accident the night before. Now, every car accident on the island has to be investigated even if no other car is involved and there are no injuries. This lady seems to have had her car hit something. She said she thought she had ‘got away with it’ when she got through security, but the police caught up with her to complete their investigation. She said she now lived in Scotland and wouldn’t be back for quite some time. In 2002 all the Saints got British citizenship and a lot of them left the island for the UK. She was one who made her home abroad.
The other thing we noticed after the incoming plane landed was after all the luggage and cargo was taken off, a hearse appeared, reversed up to the plane’s luggage conveyor belt and a temporary coffin was rolled out of the plane and into the hearse. Some Saint Helena ladies were sitting next to us and they said, ‘oh that must be DB – he went overseas for medical treatment and didn’t make it.’ Then the hearse drove right past the departure lounge and one of the ladies waved vociferously to try get the driver’s attention, as she knew him. That’s the thing when there are only 4000 people on an island. You get to know most people.
One of the best takeaways from my island experience is I can reduce the amount of screen time I have out of office hours. I don’t need to look incessantly at my cell phone or be on social media. Also, I enjoyed our siesta at lunch time. Just stopping activities and taking a break is a good option to try do in the weeks ahead. And, if possible, to try to schedule more mountain walks. Some of our highlights were the walks. Trying to get out into the mountains more will be wonderful. The big difference of course between Saint Helena and South Africa is safety. On the island, crime is close to non existent so you have no fear hiking in the mountains no matter how isolated or rural.
Thank you Julian for a wonderful week away. I’ll leave you with the video of us landing on Saint Helena Island on 15th April 2023. Voices from passengers around us.
Psalm 95:6-7
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care.
It’s not about now – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Gran xx 🙂