What makes good customer service?

The man on the desk at the car hire centre had no idea what type of day I'd had. He didn't know a simple 90 minute journey took almost 5 hours after the closure of the M40, that I had the start of a headache and that I was only collecting car hire because the one I currently had wanted to charge me over £500 to extend my hire for 5 days.

On arrival in the office I was greeted with 'You don't have your passport, there's nothing we can do' and that was the end of the conversation. So I turned my attention to another member of staff and said calmly 'Help me please, it's 7pm I'm now stranded in Birmingham with no way of getting back to South Wales, I'm not angry, cross or even upset, I just NEED your help'

Well the issue was resolved and an hour later I left with the new car hire (I was able to recall log in details for my electricity account to provide proof of address).

But it all could've gone so horribly wrong and I don't mean just not getting a car hired, but the whole experience could've descended into a full on shouting match as I've seen quite often, when people have had long flights, company booked car hire and driver doesn't have a credit card to secure the deposit or the car has been booked in the wrong name etc.

What makes good customer service for me, is when the member of staff can sense that there may be other issues going on and is intelligent enough to apply the same principal of how other peoples jobs may work differently to theirs.

For example if I was a Doctor, I wouldn't need the Doctor's advice on whether I should take antibiotics or need to get my foot seen at the local hospital or just rest it for a few days. You see I'm not a Doctor and the Doctor will assume I have no medical knowledge, therefore they will ask the right questions to get to the bottom of the matter, they don't just sit there and say 'computer says no'

When I go to bank and ask if something is possible and the teller tells me no with no further explanation, or the restaurant staff show me to a table but don't bring a menu or I go to the post office and don't see the ticket machine to take my turn, there's no need to shout at me or just stare blankly at me as I don't work there, I don't know the procedure or guess what? I'd be actually doing it and not asking for help and assistance. BTW I also don't know how your establishment works, if I did I wouldn't be there asking questions, which I don't know how to word anyway as guess what? I don't actually work there.

Poor customer service is something I've experienced living in both South Africa and Dubai. I start all conversations in unfamiliar settings with 'I'm a foreigner, I didn't grow up here, I have no idea how things work in these parts. I'm also finding myself saying this more and more back in the UK 'I haven't lived here for 8 years, I've no idea how things work here anymore'

Last week I was greeted with this

I just wanted to pee and I was desperate but had to ask for help to work it. I was met with a sigh, a smirk and then without me seeing how they just did it. Now I was at this building for 3 hours, I wasn't rude but I was firm as I said 'Don't laugh at me, I've never used one of these before, I suspect there are many things I can do that you can't, can you drive a car? Do you know how my laptop works? No, so how would you feel if I laughed at you when you were trying something new?'

One Daily Positive - Week 42

My last full week in the UK before I fly home on Monday. I had the benefit of car hire for the rest of my trip so spent it catching up and saying goodbyes, dropping off Christmas, Birthday gifts and cards as I won't be back until mid February.

287 Sunday Spent the morning shopping for food for Thing 1's birthday on Monday. Finished wrapping gifts and writing cards. Popped into say bye to my niece Mini Me as I won't see her again until February. Child 2 and 2a came for dinner and we popped into the pub to see child 3.

288 Monday Off to visit child 1 and onto meet Sarah (Mumof3World) for a coffee and catch up. Visited Thing 1 for his 5th birthday for tea and cake.

289 Tuesday Coffee in Ross-on-Wye with instagram friend Alison (rubbishwife) posted a couple of parcels and complained to the local specsavers about them using the private car park as their own.

290 Wednesday Spent the afternoon with child 5 in Cirencester. Had to return the car hire to Birmingham and collect a new one. It was £127 for 2 weeks, but they wanted to charge me £524 to extend for an extra 5 days. So I booked new car hire for £71 plus the cost of fuel to get up and down from Monmouth. Popped into a friends in the evening on the way home.

291 Thursday Took mum to Newport for the morning, had dinner with a friend at her home in the evening.

292 Friday Visited child 2 and 2a's friends in a near by town as they invited me over for a cuppa. Lunch with child 3. Afternoon spent cleaning the flat preparing it for winter.

293 Saturday Spent the morning cleaning the flat some more and after a coffee called in to see ex MIL and niece, then headed off to the local coffee shop to blog and called into see child 2 and 2a who live nearby also. Child 5 flew out to the US this morning for a week with work. I'm so proud of all the children, their achievements, places they've visited and their future ahead.

On the blog this week:

A walk round the Forest of Dean in search of the stain glass window on the Sculpture Trail
A book review with Clever Tykes
What are they building now in Dubai?

An InLinkz Link-up

How to avoid car hire pitfalls

When I travel to the UK I hire a car. I tend to use the same car hire search engine, rentalcars.com mainly because it offers me air miles when I book through them, additional insurance at a competitive price which I can add at time of booking and guarantees if there is a problem when I return the car at the end of the hire that my deposit will be refunded to me in full. I've also found that even when I shop around, I really can't beat the prices that they offer and occasionally they have additional offers such as additional driver at no extra cost or free upgrades.

I've been more than satisfied using this company, however, I've been caught out a couple of times with the actual car hire company itself and here are some of the experiences I've had that can save you time and money if you know what you're doing.

Before you actually book, check the following:

Check the location on google maps of the car hire before booking and whether they run a shuttle service. After a 7+ hour flight from Dubai, I had to on one occasion travel quite some distance with a 30kg case to collect my vehicle as 'conveniently located near Birmingham Airport' was NOT the case.

It's worth paying a little extra for unlimited mileage. Most car hire is limited to 95 miles a day, they are not always clear about how much additional mileage costs, but average 25p inc vat per mile. The longer the period you book for the less likely you are to have limited mileage, so call or email and check first.

Additional drivers must be present with their licence at time of collection and it's not possible to add them just for a few days, so when my husband flies over to join me, it's often financial viable to return the car in my name and rebook for the duration of his stay. Additional drivers cost around £10 extra a day.

If hiring with a British driving licence you need to register online and obtain a licence check code in advance by visiting the DVLA which is only valid for 21 days.

Most car hire companies charge extra or won't allow bookings online if you are under 25 or over 75.

You will need a credit card in the drivers name to collect the car hire. Average amount blocked on your card as a deposit is £400, which will be retained regardless of how small any damage is to your vehicle. I have had £1,200 held on one occasion.

The basic insurance does not cover windscreen, tyre or wheel damage, nor does it provide breakdown and recovery services in the majority of cases. It's worth paying for full protection. This is also available to purchase when you collect your hire car but in my experience it's more costly.

If you get a parking or speeding fine, there is up to £95 charge for processing these.

On collecting your car hire:

From experience most car hire companies will complete the paperwork with you, give you the keys, explain the fuel policy and tell you where your car is located. Often they will mark existing damage on the paperwork, but before you even get in the car, check the vehicle yourself, because when you return the car hire, the company will do a thorough inspection and will attempt to charge you for any minor bit of damage that wasn't recorded.
Mark the damage on the sheet and return to the car hire for them to agree and sign.

Don't let them talk you into doing you a favour by upgrading your car hire for a small fee, it's often due to the fact that the car size you've hired is not available due to being returned late, explain politely that they can use the late return fee to pay for your upgrade, they'll soon find you your vehicle.

Take up the offer of paying for the fuel in the tank and returning the vehicle empty, it's often cheaper. Petrol stations near airports are difficult to get to and add stress trying to fill up before returning the car.

Check the sills of the vehicle for stone chips.
Open the boot and check for damage where cases are put in and out the vehicle.
Make note of the general tidiness and cleanest of the interior and exterior.
Check for damage to wheels.
Check the mileage and the fuel levels match up.
Take photos.

On returning your car hire:

Queues for collecting car hire are often long so when you're returning yours, let them know rather than stand in line. Return the car at the agreed time or you'll be charged for late returns.

If there is damage to the vehicle that has occurred under your possession, make sure you take photo's, in case it is disputed. The full deposit WILL be taken regardless of the amount of damage caused. If you've taken Full Protection this will be refunded in 72 hours. If not then you will have to dispute the difference with the car hire company directly.

Always take a photo of the paper you and the car hire company sign when you hand the car back over.

If you are a smoker, don't ever smoke anywhere near the vehicle when you return it. The last car hire I returned, on seeing me smoking, declared they would have to charge me a £95 valeting fee to clean the car. I asked for another guy to come and check the car, he said there was no evidence of cigarette ash in the back seats or footwell or along the door trim. The first guy was just trying his luck.

Additional things to note/or in other words my ranting:

Nearly every time I collect car hire there is damage to it, in one case I had a wing mirror taped onto the vehicle and I've NEVER collected a vehicle that has been clean inside and/or outside, including on one occasion a carrier bag full of rubbish which I collected and returned to the car hire desk and wet mud in the foot wells. I'm assuming that the deposit has been retained and valeting fees charged and I'm incensed as to where this money is used as it certainly hasn't been used by the car hire companies to repair the damage or clean the vehicles.

I've not been paid nor am I affiliated with rentalcars.com but I've received excellent service from them and can highly recommend them. The issues I've had have been with the car hire companies directly and rental cars.com, when asked, have resolved any issues immediately.

Days out with Kids - A visit to Birmingham airport.

My husband flew back to Dubai from Birmingham the last day of the Easter holidays. Our 6 year old niece knows we live a long way away and have to go on an aeroplane to get home and that it takes all night for us to travel. We've shown her our home in Dubai on google earth, plotted the journey on a map, shown her pictures and videos of us taking off and landing in planes, but she had no idea of what getting on a plane involves, so we decided to take her along for a visit to Birmingham airport.

After an hour of ispy and 'this is boring' (it was a 90 minute car journey), we neared the airport and asked O to help us navigate. This involved finding the picture of the plane, the junction number and knowing our left and rights. This is a trip we make on a regular basis and know the route like the back of our hands, but we let O believe she was in charge.

My sister had already warned me not to use the sat nav as O will argue with the woman on there.

We had to return the car hire in Peter's name and made the short walk to the airport terminal.

Stopping to look at the aeroplanes and holding Uncle Peter's hand really tightly as she didn't want him to leave.

After checking the departure board, O declared where we needed to be to get the ticket from.

 O watched with interest and asked questions until she was satisfied the check in staff would get Uncle Peter's case on the aeroplane.

 As we were early, we took a walk around the terminal and took a trip or 3 on the monorail, purely for entertainment.

 O was really sad she didn't have a ticket, but asked Uncle Peter if she could come next time and saw this picture of Dubai and recognised it from our face book photos.

 After saying goodbye to Uncle Peter and a few tears and way too many questions as to why O couldn't go on the plane to say further goodbyes, we wandered off to find the viewing platform as we had 2 hours before the next car hire was ready. (I was carrying the car seat the entire time).

The viewing area is no longer available, which is a shame and the only place to see the aircraft is now the tiny gap at arrivals, which was crammed with people awaiting their loved ones. So it was back on the monorail, we explored the NEC, ate our pack lunch, bought a cup of tea in a cafe and sat in the car rental office for 30 minutes doing some colouring in.

After an uneventful journey back to South Wales and more ispy, O finally fell asleep and when we got back we checked the app to see where Uncle Peter was.

We paid a visit to the park, to let off some energy after the car journey home and then there were tears at bedtime because she really hadn't wanted Uncle Peter to go home.

This was a whole new experience for O , she sees us only once or twice a year and was actually born the month after we moved from the UK, but she is a big part of our lives and us of hers. O is happy just to spend time with us, she doesn't need entertaining by throwing expensive gifts at her (that's our need, not hers) she just wants to be with us, doing the normal day to day stuff. We'd love to give her the ill experience and surprise her with a trip to Dubai, but sadly she is epileptic and my sister's health currently prevents her from travelling out to Dubai.

8 important questions to ask when booking car hire

We've often used a family members car when we've visited the UK, but as we usually fly into Heathrow or more often Birmingham, it's one heck of a trip getting to South Wales or Bath to collect the vehicle and with family and friends living all over the UK, it's been easier on our last few trips to book car hire.

We've used one of the larger search engines to find the best deals, but there have been a few hiccups and often the place where we've had to collect the car from has involved a train, bus trip or walk to reach it. Service has often been slow and poor and not fun when you've just got off a long haul flight, lugging a 30kg suitcase and hand luggage.

On both the last two occasions, when we returned the vehicles there was some minor damage to the paint work, scuff marks and stone chips.

We took out Collision Waiver Damage, CWD, which almost doubled the initial costs advertised on the website with the booking company.

CWD means that any accident, theft or damage to the vehicle is covered fully, but it also means you lose your deposit to the actual car hire company and then you have to provide receipts which you forward to the booking company for a full refund.

Having your car hire and insurance with different companies worked well for us the first time and the £400 deposit was returned to our credit card before the payment was due.

However on the last trip, the deposit was £1200 and was retained by the car hire company, for 2 stone chips and a scuff mark that could've easily T cut out had I had the car cleaned before returning it. Receipts were forwarded as before, but this time I waited 3 months before the deposit was refunded, meaning I had to pay the credit card bill off in full. I only got my deposit returned after I threatened the booking company with the ombudsman. The delay was due to the car hire company not providing evidence of the cost of repairs, meaning I had to wait for them to refund the difference between the repairs and the deposit then the booking company refunding the cost of the repairs.

As a result and the difficulties in sorting things like this out from another country, I've decided to investigate booking direct, with everything in one place. The car hire and the insurance together is almost double the price of booking with one of the low cost companies, but the excess is very high and to reduce it to £0 the cost of hire, the cost almost doubles again.

It's not always transparent at the time of booking the T&C's of car hire and these are important questions to answer before renting a car.

1. Do you return the car empty or full?
2. Is the mileage limited?
3. What is the cost for an additional driver?
4. Is there an additional charge for drop off at another location?
5. Is CWD included? Is it with the car hire company or an independent?
6. Breakdown?
7. What is the excess? How do you recover your costs from CWD?
8. Windscreen and wheel rim protection?

I also think there should be some wear and tear allowance to vehicles, yes I'm responsible for scuffs to body work and damage to the paint, but stone chips are a bit difficult to avoid.

So I've gone back to using search engines and found a different one to book through this time. However I still have to collect the car from the place where I had the problems on my last visit. I've decided I'd rather keep the costs down, as I need car hire for 4 weeks and again in June for approximately 12 weeks.

Who do you use for car hire? Have you experienced similar problems?

Week 42 - One Daily Positive and Project 366. Dubai to Newport.

It's been a super busy week. very little sleep with the demands of work, governors inspection, online learning journeys, baselines and upcoming visit from the Ministry of Education, I can't help but think, Harry Potter, Ministry of Magic and Monty Python, Ministry of Silly Walks.

Sunday #nature

In Zabeel Park

Monday #you

Blog hits and comments are slowing down, there used to be a time where 'publish' was good enough for starting a conversation, but nowadays it's just too much hard work to keep promoting and for what? Another offer to review baby products.

Tuesday - Orange

Changing room doors at the school pool. 

Wednesday -Treat

I'd been up since 4am, dropped Peter at the airport for a day in Saudi, in work at 5.30am and got 

home at 6pm, dinner on the go, packed suitcase, tidied up, took cat to vets, planned next weeks lessons, bed midnight.

Thursday - Family

peter wouldn't play ball with this photo, but it's just me, him and the cat and dog in Dubai. Work at 6.30am, observation by the school governors, staff meeting, classroom prep for when I'm away, home, out for dinner, shower, airport and flew to Qatar.

Friday - What I'm doing now

Transfered in Qatar and fell asleep on plane before take off at 1.30am local time. Woke at 5am over the English channel. Arrived in Birmingham, messed up the rental car booking, got to daughters house at 11am, drank tea, lunch at friends, arrived in Monmouth mid afternoon, signed papers at solitors for the apartment I've bought, transferred money and met up briefly with eldest son. Said Hello to my niece, went to parents at 7pm, spent 2 hours in the attic looking at family photo's, bathed and collapsed into bed.

Saturday - Eat

Stopped at garage to buy coffee and picked up Heinz chicken soup to take back to Dubai and a pumpkin to carve with niece, collected the teen, drove to Bristol to see MIL, called in to see Aunt and Cousin in Newport and back to Monmouth. Struggled with 3G and internet to send work email, blogged and off to bed very soon.

Expat travel and visits home

When you're an expat and you go home for the holidays, the last thing you actually have is a holiday.

For me a holiday is when you go somewhere new, stay in a hotel, apartment or holiday home, or even camping.

We used to holiday in the UK, mainly camping and made several trips abroad with the kids to discover most of France, the West Coast of America, Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt.

When we moved to South Africa, I wasn't working and made 2 annual trips to the UK alone each year, Peter combined an annual trip with work and we stayed with family and friends. It worked, they were trips of 2-3 weeks and the family came out to visit us. We also holidayed in South Africa with trips to Cape Town and Durban as well as camping in the Drakensburg Mountains and Kruger and weekend trips into the countryside to lodges.

The end of 2014 we relocated to Dubai, In 2015 I travelled to Canada for 3 weeks and back to South Africa for 6 weeks and we spent 2 weeks together in the UK.

Since starting work full time in January 2016 we haven't had a holiday other than 2 long weekends within the UAE.

I've returned from 7 weeks away last Friday, having spent 8 days in South Africa, traveling around and 6 weeks in the UK, including 5 days with friends in Munich.

Peter joined me for the last 3 weeks of the trip when we picked up car hire and travelled as far as Cumbria, Leeds and down to Lyme Regis, via South Wales, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Bristol and Bath. We managed to see 4 of the 5 children. Child 4 of 5 drove down from Northern Ireland to meet me in London for a few days when I first arrived. The rest of time I relied on public transport, trains and buses which isn't easy when you're lugging your suitcase also.

We stayed in a hotel for 3 nights in Malvern while we caught up with friends and sorted out some issues with the house we rent out and a night in Birmingham to watch the football.

We've decided we're too old to be living out of suitcases, sleeping on sofas and in spare rooms, we've used friends and family as a base and left our suitcases with them when we've visited other people just using our hand luggage, but we really need a base of our own, to have some privacy, to be able to unpack properly, to leave a mess, shower when we want and eat what we want when we want, without having to think about other people and trying to keep out their way.

The teen is with us in Dubai till the end of August, child 3 of 5 is coming out on September 1st for 2 weeks with his girlfriend, we have friends stopping over later this week for a night. We've had visitors most months this year, who have their own room, bathroom and wardrobe, complete with hangers, hair dryer etc. There's a friend coming over end of November for a week, followed by my Mother for 3 weeks and children 4 and 5 and a niece are with us over christmas and the new year.

We've explained that now I'm working they will all have to entertain themselves, our lives are different now, we can't take time off to take them places during the day, they'll have to fend for themselves and in the evenings we'll go out occasionally, but not every night and we won't be sitting up drinking into the small hours, as we're not on holiday.

The problem is when we go to the UK, people have work, routines and while they do go out with us some evenings or sit up late on weekends having a drink, they don't in general stop what they normally do, watching their TV programmes, going to work etc. They also don't have the space or in some cases an actual bed for us to sleep in, so we can't stay with some of our family and friends, which means we are completing long journeys on day trips or having to fork out for a hotel or B and B's. We're really looking forward to having a base in the UK so family and friends can come and visit us for the day, evening or even the night as long as they don't mind sleeping on the sofa for a change, rather than us.

My next break after Christmas will be over the Easter holidays, I'm planning a return trip to South Africa while I'll stay with friends in various places and live out my suitcase and then it's the long summer holiday where it's just too hot to stay in Dubai. I'll return to the UK the end of June till the end of August and Peter will join me for 3 weeks towards the end.

Peter will probably be in the UK and Europe for business over the next few months and he'll be doing a lot of travel around the Middle East and in Africa. We're both hopeful we can have a few long weekends away to Jordan and India, in-between visitors and work.

What do relocation experts offer?

From our experience of moving from the UK to South Africa 4 years ago and the current situation of moving to Dubai, I can honestly say that I am not impressed with relocation experts. I point blank refused to deal with the company in South Africa who allegedly assisted with our move here, so we've been appointed a new one in Dubai.

In regards to my husbands work contract and permit, I would be unable to to help him with the relevant work visa application and I'm more than happy for the relocation experts to do this on our behalf, however when it comes to relocating me, our son, the dog and the cat and our furniture, I'd rather we did this on our own, as to be honest, it's nothing but hassle to involve a 3rd party.

The biggest issue is that the move is due to hubbies job and getting his employers to deal with me directly is almost impossible. If I want to ask a question, I email hubby, who emails HR, who emails the relocation experts, who repeat the charade until I finally get a response. In the meantime it's a week later and with thanks to google and several phone calls, I've usually found out the answer myself.

My biggest hurdle is getting myself heard. It's my life that is being uprooted, it is me who has to wait for removal firms to be sent to quote, again appointments are made and it's expected I will just drop everything and be at home with less than 12 hours notice. Hubby is carrying on with his job, son is in boarding school in the UK, with the view to relocate to Dubai for his A levels next September.

The relocation company so far have told us we need birth and marriage certificates, driving licence and passports attested. But they haven't told us how or where. We keep telling them we are British living in South Africa, with a deadline of January 11th to leave SA when our visas expire. We have to make the application from our home country, despite them telling us we can have documents attested here, a quick call to the embassy in the UK, told us other wise. So additional stress and hassle and pressure and costs for both of us, however hubby still hasn't received his replacement passport after it was stolen in July, so it's down to me to get the ball rolling.

I'm the one who has to organise the move, sort out the donations, finish off my charity and volunteer work, say good bye to friends, arrange transit for the pets, liase with the landlord, close down utilities and bank accounts etc and sell the car. I'm also the one who has to fly to the UK on November 2nd to apply for son's new passport on fast track, submit documents and visit Dubai to find somewhere to live. I won't return to the UK until the end of November and I'm hoping the removal firm can be organised to pack and ship our furniture the following day, leaving me time to organise the pets and relocate to Dubai the middle of December.

Throw into all of this our landlord is selling the house now we've given notice and I'm entertaining the estate agent, who half of her clients are just coming for a nose around.

So once I get son's new passport and hubbies driving licence and passport arrive and he can join me in the UK here's what we have to do.

All the relocation experts have told us is what documents we need and that they have to be attested, but not how, when or where. Despite several emails being sent via 'Uncle Tom Cobley and all' we were still none the wiser, but after several calls and googling 'I have a job offer in Dubai what documents do I need for my wife and son to get a residency visa?' I discovered this website, which quite frankly has been more use to me than the relocation experts as it tells me everything I need to know.

• Our documents must be verified with the Foreign Office. This can only be done by post and costs £30 per certificate.

• They must check that our documents are legitimate. This service will cost £330 for 3 passports, 3 birth certificates, 2 driving licences, 1 marriage licence and both our degree certificates. It will take approximately 7 days for them to be returned.

• We must then photo copy the certificates for which we'll need for the work, residency visas, plus copies to make applications for driving licences, alcohol permit, utilities, rental agreements etc, which must be attested with UAE embassy in London, that we must visit in person between 9am and 12pm and collect in the afternoon.

• We also require several passport photo's and on entry to Dubai we must have medical checks, which is a whole other debate and you can read about here.

Our costs in regards to flights, car hire, fuel, hotel (although this is in dispute as I will need to be in the UK and Dubai for approximately 1 month) fees for attesting certificates, son's passport, passport photo's will be covered by expenses. But will not cover cost of food, pet sitting for Bob and Pushkins or compensate me for my time away from South Africa when I need to be sorting stuff for moving, finishing off my volunteer work and saying goodbye to my friends and don't forget I need to sort the dog and cat out with their injections and blood tests which also has to be done within a strict timeline.

When we moved to South Africa from the UK, we had a base, no additional accommodation fees and we had access to a company car right up until the day we flew out here.

So what do relocation experts offer?

A list of what you need, which you can easily obtain off the internet and submission of the documents, which isn't that difficult.

Cape Town to Hermanus

Cape Town to Hermanus

First stop was a short walk to collect the car rental and then a long wait for the teenager to get ready and we set off in the direction of Hermanus, making numerous stops along the way for photographs, snacks and toilet stops. Hoping to see Penguins and Whales.

 Bettys Bay didn't disappoint us with the penguins on the rocks, there is a small R10 charge per person and wooden walkways to allow you to view the birds in their natural habitat. We got drenched in the rain and sleet. It was too windy for umbrellas.

 Ok Guys, I'll count, you hide.

OK don't panic, we did, this isn't an oil spill or contamination, it's river water. The staining occurs naturally due to humid acids and tannins found in the fynbos soils.

There was way too much to see at Hermanus to stop and focus cameras and stare through a lens out to see, there were Whales, sky hopping and breaching, bodies high out the water. one over here, another over there, tails waving, it was a  very busy and the bay was full. I did manage to take a couple of pics, but you need a good eye with the first one to spot the tail.

I'm thankful that the teenager is into photography, he spent the 1st 36 hours in the hotel. As he keeps reminding me, he had a 12 hour flight to reach South Africa then another 28 hours by train to get to Cape Town and he is supposed to be on his UK summer holidays.

 Rock Dassie

We finished off our last night in Cape Town with burgers on the waterfront.

Today we are driving to Table Mountain. The cable car is closed for annual maintenance, but there are still some fab views of the City to be seen, next will be over Chapman's Peak, before heading to the airport for a 2 hour flight home at 7pm.

We will beck in Pretoria till Sunday am, when we head north in the car for an 8 hour drive to St Lucia, on the coast, just below Mozambique, for a weeks stay. This trip hubby and Bob the dog will be joining us.