JNB (Day 1)

My sis and bro's family sent me off on Saturday. Checked in and found out the plane is full, and I got an isle seat in the centre row on a Boeing 747-400. Crap! There goes my view! I walked around aimlessly at the satellite building, which I like to do, becoz I could gauge whether I could afford the items on sale. Apparently I'm not 'there' yet...

All shops closed around midnite, so it was getting boring. The only place I could hang out was the 'smoking room'. Plenty of eye candy there. Sent some goodbye messages to my family and the guys.

Boeing 747-400 is a huge plane, but the leg room is kinda small. I was hoping the plane's empty so I could lie down by pulling up the arm rests. That is not to be so becoz a Chinese gal decided to sit next to me becoz her seat can't recline. There goes my 9 hours beauty sleep.

The first meal was served an hour after take-off, which I took some 'Chicken and Potatoes in Tomato Gravy'. Not bad. Too bored to see the movies, as I was hoping there'd be 'Sepi' in the Asian movies listing. Put some zen and ammbient songs and went to sleep. The second meal was served 2 hours before arriving (around 3am), which I took 'Nasi Lemak', which was not as good as the first meal. Stewardess reminded me that Imsak was at 3.40am, and asked whether I wanted anything else. After almost 8 hours in the flight, all I want to do is to smoke a cigarette and jump around everywhere.

Touched down at OR Tambo International Airport at 5am, bout 40mins early apparently. Immigration was fast, though there's a long queue.

I had started to feel dizzy, cold, slight fever. So I went outside the airport, and lit my cigarette. There goes my fast.

My ride wasn't there yet, so I went to check out the money exchange, and changed some. Went back to the arrival hall, and saw a guy holding my name on an A4 paper. Is he for real? I've been reading some not-so-pleasant stories bout Johannesburg, so I got a little paranoid riding alone in foreign cabs.

The sun rises at 6am in Joburg. Temperature was at 8° Celcius. By this time, my fever and flu were getting worse. Arrived at the hotel, checked-in, took a hot shower, ate my flu pills, and slept till 3pm.

Off to the Sandton Convention Centre becoz I had to do a late registration. So far things were ok. But I'm expecting some major fuck-ups to happen when I checked out of the hotel soon. I better be ready when they bombard me with those company's credit card authorisation crap.

Went to the Shopping Mall next door, and they've all the major brands there. But everything is so expensive compared to KL. e.g: cK boxers at ZAR260 (RM130), Samsonite leather laptop backpack ZAR2295 (RM1150), McDonald's set meal ZAR22 (RM11), fridge magnets ZAR39.95 (RM20), cab from airport to hotel bout 30km away ZAR380 (RM190), cab from hotel to convention centre bout 3km away ZAR50 (RM25), mineral water 500ml ZAR7.95 (RM4), evian mineral water ZAR17.95 (RM9), red hard pack Marlboro ZAR21.90 (RM11). Daymnnnnn!!!!

There's Welcoming Cocktail for the participants, but since I don't drink, and still have fever, I went back to the hotel. Took the extra strong flu pills, then body went shut down till morning.