Goodbye GB! Hello Malawi!

12^th September 2012

How many bags does a gal need? Seven if this picture of me looking like a tortoise is to be believed!

Well, the day to head off finally arrived. In the morning I began to wonder if I would ever make it to Heathrow as there seemed to be so much left to do. It was all hands to the pump. Mum went   in her over drive mode with  washing up, cleaning, boxing up, the list goes on. Dad was calmly mowing the lawn while Katrina helped me squeeze as much as I could into the suitcases. There were many “how many of these (for “these” read shoes, shampoo, bras, books…..) do you really need?!” questions. We ended the day with a big carrier bag of assorted essentials which did not make  the journey to Malawi. I wonder how many of those essentials I’ll miss?

Amazingly we left Farnborough on the dot of 3 o’clock and arrived with lots and lots of time which was handy as checking in excess baggage in not a two minute job! Ok I confess I had a total of 90kgs (more than my own body weight!) against an allowance of 46kgs.

A quick bite to eat and it was time to say farewell. As I queued up at Departures, I heard a loud “cheerio” from Janine in her best Granny Rosie voice. What a great send off.

 It goes without saying that at a time when I wanted everything to run smoothly, it was my bag that was checked by security. Hardly surprising with all the gadgets I was carrying and after all I do have a very sinister look about me. In what seemed like a blink of an eye, I’d arrived at Lilongwe airport, had collected my suitcase mountain and was being welcomed into Malawi by the Customs Official. Half an hour later and I was in the office.

The adventure has begun!