Homeward bound

Carol, Matthew and I took the Inter City train to Schiphol and there we separated. My flight back to South Africa was already boarding while Carol’s and Matthew’s flight to Canada was at 2:10 in the afternoon. While half the passengers were through the final boarding check in and I was just about to go through, the boarding gates changed. The custom officials closed the gates while they tried to sort out what was happening. The aeroplane we were supposed to fly on had an engine problem so a new plane had to be brought out. All the baggage, food, water and cargo had to transferred from the broken plane. After a two hour delay I was onboard and fuelling started. They announced us to stay seated, unbuckled and follow any of the air hostesses instructions. Finally we took off and on my way to South Africa. Soon after takeoff, it was announced that the new plane had over 100 more seats than the fully booked old one and that we could sit anywhere. I found myself three empty seats and made myself comfortable, very comfortable. As standard the food was very good but the flight very long. I arrived back at Johannesburg at 11:45pm only to be told that my luggage was still in Amsterdam. Not a good ending but anyway what can I do? So I briskly sailed past the sole sleeping policeman at customs and was home before I knew it.