Week 29 - One Daily Positive Off to Germany

It's important to me that people know I haven't just spent the last 8 years living abroad in Dubai. prior to that we lived in South Africa for 4 years, it was a completely different experience than Dubai. As I'm spending week 30 in Germany I thought I'd provide a little context to the reason for my visit.

I'm staying with friends outside Munich. I first met Dirk in 2011 when he took me and a woman called Janet and her mother in a battered old Golf, off roading to a township in Pretoria, to visit a children living in poverty to see how we could help and support them with their educational needs. I'd met Janet a few weeks earlier when we both dropped off a Santa Shoebox at a charity. 7 years on, I'm still actively involved in the charity in South Africa and as well as Peter and I now living in Dubai, Janet and her wife Nicky and 2 boys are now living in Ireland and Dirk and his husband Jacques are living in Germany. We've all remained very close. Sadly Janets mother died on Friday, we often talk about that day when we first all met one another.

196 Sunday Struggled with a hangover, had breakfast and said goodbye to the Bride and Groom from yesterday's wedding. Took child 1 out to Cheltenham, then home to watch the World Cup final. the evening was spent in, eating chocolate and drinking tea. This photo of the 3 stooges is Peter and his two golfing buddies who have been friends since the mid 80's.

197 Monday Visited my MIL and spent the day in Bath In the evening child 2 and 2a came to Monmouth for dinner.

198 Tuesday Collected child 5 from Cirencester and took a drive out to Cheltenham. Called in to see a friend in town and left with our dinner to cook in the flat as it was late.

199 Wednesday Collected child 1 from Gloucester for the day and in the evening went for dinner with Saturday's Bride and Groom and friends.

200 Thursday We drove Mum to Blackpool where she's staying for the week with her brother and sister in law, we had a little paddle in the sea and then we then drove back to Manchester before going to visit one of Peter's old friends.

201 Friday Arrived at the airport at 7.30am and took 2 hours and 40 minutes to reach the gate for Peter who flew to Istanbul for the weekend and me to Munich for the week. Peter's flight was at 10.25am, mine was at 1.35pm. I spent the time uploading names onto a data base for this years recipients for the Santa Shoeboxes. The evening was spent catching up on our adventures since we last saw one another.

202 Saturday I woke early but it was 10am before we headed off for a drive to visit a castle and a Christmas village, it's Christmas all year round there in the shops. We ate dinner out then chilled out for the evening. if the rain stops we'll head off to watch some fireworks in the village.

Either my Daughter in Law or DIL's to be are just too polite or they're using my son's to get their message across, either way, I think I may have nailed this 'How to be a good Mother in Law'

My Sunday Photo - The Best Man and Me

My top 7 tips on how to get the cheapest flight

I once entered a travel agents in Swindon as they had flights to Luxor 'from £99'. I asked the travel agent to book me that flight, they asked when I wanted to go, I replied 'when the £99 flight is' it apparently wasn't as simple as that, it depended on the departure point and date and time I wanted to fly. Having repeated several times I wanted the £99 flight and I didn't mind what time/date/location, I left emptied handed and never got the £99 deal.

My next trip to the UK will be for Christmas. I've started looking for flights now. I found a flight for R10,098.00 December 17th to January 4th to Birmingham but with a 24 hour stop over. I change the destination to Manchester, change the date to return a day later and I find a flight for R9520 with only a 2 hour stop over. It takes some time but it's worth it to set aside a day or 2 to get not only the best price, but the best route and stop over.

A direct flight will cost me R14,851 and I have the inconvenience and cost of getting to and from Heathrow.

My top 7 tips for finding a cheap flight

• I can tell you to avoid peak times such as Christmas and school holidays but you're not stupid, you've probably worked that one out by now.

• I can tell you to be flexible with your dates, routes, time etc, etc, etc, but you've probably worked that one out also.

• I can tell you to search for deals with budget airlines first....yeah...now you think I'm patronising you.

• Google 'cheapest flights from (insert departure) to (insert arrival)' then enter a variety of dates, times and routes and probably spend the best part of a day doing this.

• Change your arrival airport if possible....for example it's cheaper to fly into Birmingham or Manchester than it is into the London airports.

• Look for flights where you have a stop over...it is cheaper to fly with a stop over than direct to the UK from South Africa.

• Don't be fooled by the initial price you see....all prices should state whether this includes taxes or not, but please remember that some search/booking sites show you the price for each leg of the journey.

How to survive airport travel

I’m not a good flyer, it’s the take off and landing I’m not keen on. I need to sit by a window so I can keep my eye on the wing and the ground and make sense of what’s happening. The actual flight is ok, It’s probably the only time I sit and watch a movie.

As an expat I make regular trips between South Africa and the UK, preferring the Dubai route as I get to build up my air miles, use the Emirates lounge and it has the most leg room and more importantly, proper cutlery, not plastic forks that always snap. I’ve flown with various airlines, direct and with stopovers. Despite the Dubai route involving an 8 hour flight, 2 hour stop over and another 7 hour flight, plus the travel time to and from the airport, making it in total a 20+ hour journey, it has the most generous legroom in economy, checked in baggage is 30kg and trust me it’s not possible to get more than 30kgs in a suitcase. This disadvantage is the hand luggage allowance is only 7kg and as an expat and flying out of OR Tambo airport I carry all the paper work I need to sort out when I’m back in the UK and all valuables as theft from baggage is a high risk. Other airlines have a more generous hand luggage allowance of 10kg and purchase of an additional 23kg weight starts from around £45 where as Emirates charge £140 for up to 5 kilos.

It’s not just the ticket price you need to check when booking, how important is the luggage allowance? Is the cost of baggage wrapping included in your ticket price? What’s the charge for changing your ticket? Is insurance included in the price?

Top tips for travelling.

Check in online. I never print a boarding pass as from experience they prefer to issue you with one, but be warned, some airlines do charge for printing a boarding pass at check in.

When selecting a seat, you’ve more chance of having a spare seat next to you if you book an aisle seat; it is common practice for the airline to fill up the aisle seats first.

Avoid seats with extra legroom unless you’re particularly tall, the reason being these seats have fixed armrests, so if the seat next to you is empty you can’t stretch into it.  Also passengers will congregate on long haul flights near the exit doors whilst queuing for the toilets or they are near the galley where the cabin crew sit and passengers will stand and chat.

If flying from OR Tambo airport check with your airline to find out if baggage wrapping is included in the cost of your ticket. If not make sure you arrive in plenty of time not only for check in and clearing customs but for queuing to get your baggage wrapped.

After going through passport control, check the boards for your gate and locate it, it could be anything up to 30 minutes away and involve a train or a bus. It’s quite common for the gate to be changed, don’t just rely on your boarding card.

Once you’ve located your gate, grab a coffee, locate the smoking room and buy your duty free.

If travelling via another country, even if you are in transit, check what you can and can’t take through in regards to liquids. Best to buy your duty free once you’ve cleared security when you stop over, as they will not let you take liquids through, even though you haven’t left the airport.

Dubai airport have showers available at no charge. I always pack a hand towel so not to take up too much space/weight in hand luggage.

On arrival the first thing I do is activate my sim card, top up and message family and friends to say I’m here, this is my number, I’ll contact you again when I’ve reached my first overnight stop.

Coffee…any chance to purchase a coffee.

Train travel in the UK

Although I approached The Trainline for sponsorship, they declined, but I wanted to share my experience.

By booking in advance, you can save lots of money, however you are then restricted to using that ticket not only on that day, but at the time stated also. A bonus is I was able to book a seat for every part of my journey at no extra cost, but I did have to pay a £1.50 booking fee so I booked as many tickets together as I could.

 

But how do you find the cheapest fare? What happens if your train runs late and you miss your connecting train? If you turn up early can you catch an earlier one? What is the cheapest route?

How much time do you have? It was not easy, thankfully I’m was born in the UK and lived here for 39 years before moving to South Africa, so I know the geography of the country, I’ve lived in Wales, the north east and the south west, travelled with work both alone and with hubby to London and the north west, but still it wasn’t an easy route to plan.

So to get to Leeds from Newport the cheapest way to travel is via Manchester, however this involved a 2 hour wait for my train to Leeds, then the following day Leeds to Manchester another 2 hour wait, then the train to Watford with a change at Milton Keynes another change at Watford and on St Albans (collected from station)

Travel in and out of London for the next 4 days was purchased daily as I didn’t know how long I was going to stay and where I was going to be. I was then dropped at Reading for the train home.

Total journey costs including booking fees with The trainline       £158.90

Total journey costs without using The Trainline                               £175.40

Total cost if I’d travelled by road                                                          £ (car size and fuel dependant plus

                                                                                                                         tolls and parking)

 Total savings                                                                                             £ 16.50

If I’d been able to plan the whole journey a week or 2 in advance with The Trainline It would have cost                                                                                                    £115.00

I don’t know what would’ve happened if I’d missed a train, probably had to have paid full price for a new ticket. All I know is when I asked if I could catch an earlier train as I’d sensibly planned for at least a 90 minute break between stops, to allow for late arrivals, I was informed that wasn’t possible unless I purchased a new ticket.

It was a bit of a flaff to be honest just to save £16.50 but you can see if if I'd booked 2 weeks ahead my savings would've been £43.90