Flying Emirates, Qatar or Turkish airways to your conference?

I love the window seat!

Last week we were informed via news networks that some direct flights to the USA and the UK will be affected by a new ban on laptops in hand luggage. (I always wish they will start measuring and weighing and counting the pieces of hand luggage when I see the travelers who  take everything but the kitchen sink with them on the aircraft. Only once I saw airport check-in people taking action against this abuse). The most interesting part of this ban is the airlines picked, like Emirates and Qatar with their strict security while other airlines like our own local SAA is not subjected to the rules although, as you know, security is non-existent at some of our international airports. And extremists are found everywhere and can be recruited by international terrorist organizations even in their countries of birth (as was seen last week with the incident at the British parliament), so why pick on certain airlines and some flights?  Will it not help just to have the laptops started at security in order to show that it is actually a working instrument and not a bomb? Or will it still work if it is also used as a bomb?

Anyway, Emirates send us e mail that informed us that we will be allowed to use our laptops up to Dubai where they will pack it for us for the journey to the USA. This will cause additional waiting time and standing in lines in the USA, but which we are by now accustomed to - we know beforehand that we will have to waste at least 3 hours in the airport building on arrival or in transit in the USA, no matter which airport we travel to, and even if we use the machines and the 'We have been here before" lines. The message for today: if you are travelling soon, ensure that you check out the airline's web page and arrive at the airport early and make provision for enough time at the destination airport in order not to get stressed.

We are off to the Postgraduate conference at Spier near Stellenbosch and cannot wait for the conference to start.