We R roaming
This is me at OR Tambo, sitting in the coffee shop on our way to London.
It is a well-established ritual. After dropping our bags,
clearing security and going through passport control at OR Tambo Airport in
Johannesburg (which is our local airport), we will sit down at a coffee shop in the
international zone and while we wait for the
coffee I would call my mom and children to say goodbye (again) and then switch my social media status to ‘we are roaming’.
There is something magical about this action. It puts an official pause-mute-stop stamp on the normal day-to-day activities and it unlocks a sense of adventure, expectation and unknown possibilities. Within these words lies another world, far removed from the regular and almost predictable routine of commuting between home and office. Not that this status is to be considered bad or uneventful, it is just not as exciting as the roaming status. You see, although we drive in the same car on the same road to the same destination each weekday, things are never the same. I learned long ago to look, see and experience each day with a ‘fresh’ approach and an open mind and to be alert for signs of change and development. Each day there are new things to look at, wonder about and draw inspiration from. This morning the tar road leading up to the university was covered in a purple blanket of Jacaranda flowers after the wind and rain of last night shook the trees. The people enjoying a free workout on the newly constructed outside gym in Jubilee Park looked determined to make up for the time lost yesterday due to the heavy morning rain that draw a grey curtain over the park. And the street vendors were proudly displaying their freshly baked treats for passers-by to see and smell and buy. The familiar places and some familiar faces are never quite the same…but I am getting side-tracked.
So back to our pre-boarding routine of changing the social media status on my mobile phone. Seeing the status updated to ‘we are roaming’ can be compared to the excitement of Christmas eve when I was a child. I would wake up somewhere in the middle of the night and seeing the bulging pillowcase at the bottom-end of the bed would make my heart skip a beat or two. Always, to the side of the pillowcase, there would be a beautifully wrapped present but it was the content of the pillowcase that made me sit up and reach down to make sure that there was indeed a large square box type lucky dip tucked between the sweets and balloons and party stuff. Confirmation through feeling the shape of the box and gently shaking it to make sure that there are lots of stuff moving inside, made me sigh with relief and I would fall back on the pillows to sleep until morning – assured that Christmas will be marvellous.
There is something magical about this action. It puts an official pause-mute-stop stamp on the normal day-to-day activities and it unlocks a sense of adventure, expectation and unknown possibilities. Within these words lies another world, far removed from the regular and almost predictable routine of commuting between home and office. Not that this status is to be considered bad or uneventful, it is just not as exciting as the roaming status. You see, although we drive in the same car on the same road to the same destination each weekday, things are never the same. I learned long ago to look, see and experience each day with a ‘fresh’ approach and an open mind and to be alert for signs of change and development. Each day there are new things to look at, wonder about and draw inspiration from. This morning the tar road leading up to the university was covered in a purple blanket of Jacaranda flowers after the wind and rain of last night shook the trees. The people enjoying a free workout on the newly constructed outside gym in Jubilee Park looked determined to make up for the time lost yesterday due to the heavy morning rain that draw a grey curtain over the park. And the street vendors were proudly displaying their freshly baked treats for passers-by to see and smell and buy. The familiar places and some familiar faces are never quite the same…but I am getting side-tracked.
So back to our pre-boarding routine of changing the social media status on my mobile phone. Seeing the status updated to ‘we are roaming’ can be compared to the excitement of Christmas eve when I was a child. I would wake up somewhere in the middle of the night and seeing the bulging pillowcase at the bottom-end of the bed would make my heart skip a beat or two. Always, to the side of the pillowcase, there would be a beautifully wrapped present but it was the content of the pillowcase that made me sit up and reach down to make sure that there was indeed a large square box type lucky dip tucked between the sweets and balloons and party stuff. Confirmation through feeling the shape of the box and gently shaking it to make sure that there are lots of stuff moving inside, made me sigh with relief and I would fall back on the pillows to sleep until morning – assured that Christmas will be marvellous.
Just like the content of the lucky packet, the
experiences of travelling are not always exceptional or without disappointment, or simply just not nice. Sometimes one of the toys in the lucky dip was broken and the disappointment is comparable to being sick while travelling - the feeling of 'you are loosing out'. Other times, the colour of some of the toys was not what I would prefer it to be - I do NOT like orange or green - and that I would compare today to the hotel rooms we often get - not the view or the floor I would prefer, but the best we can afford on a very tight budget, and most of the time, I quickly adapt to make the most of what we got. However, the most powerful emotion of holding and opening the lucky dip, compares with changing the social media status emotion of excitement. The endless opportunities and possibilities, the not knowing exactly what to expect, and the hope that this experience will be simply the best, is capturing the real magic of travelling into one exiting moment.
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