Tuesday, 6 May 1986: Getting Sick & Scoring Plane Tix

 May 8, 10:00 AM, Home of Mavis & Bill Urmson, Lombardy East.

Today, Ascension Day, is a national holiday in South Africa.  Just about every business or office, except for essential services, is closed.  Schools will also be closed tomorrow (Friday) so throngs of people are going somewhere for a long weekend.  A good time, therefore, for me to stay put here.  Besides, I haven’t been felling all that chipper for the past two days. 

I came back Monday from my trip to Kruger National Park feeling somewhat rundown especially after a boring five-hour bus ride.  By Tuesday afternoon, I had a fever (101.4°).  So, I drank a bunch of orange juice and soda water and went to bed.  I figured I was having some sort of reaction to the malaria medicine I had been taking for the Kruger trip.  The fever was gone by yesterday morning but my throat and sinuses were still sore.  Shit, was I getting a cold?  So I slept about 10 hours last night and today I feel almost normal. 

Mavis has been trying to get me to take various homeopathic stuff for my illness, but I have resisted.  She nearly threw a fit because I was drinking lots of orange juice (too acid, she claimed).  However, the best cure for me is usually plenty of rest and plenty of foods and liquids that my body seems to crave. 

FINALLY, I got to the right person with South African Airways and received some complementary plane tickets on Tuesday.  He wanted some sort of commitment that I would write specific articles about the airline, its history, and service.  I agreed to try, but expressed some doubts about where I could get something like this published.  Nonetheless, we talked some more about my plans, and he seemed to become convinced of my good intentions.  By the end of our 45 minute meeting, he had written a directive for the airline to issue me free tickets for a three-legged trip:  Johannesburg – Bloemfontein – Kimberley – Johannesburg (cash value about US$145).  He encouraged me to come back after this jaunt so we could work out further arrangements.  Finally, he even suggested that I let him know when I had a free weekend in Johannesburg so I could come over to his home for a braai (barbeque). 


I’ve contacted some members of the Rotary Club in Bloemfontein, and they are going to put me up while I’m there.  They will also make arrangements for me to get over to Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, the small independent black nation completely surrounded by South Africa.  I leave for Bloemfontein this coming Monday afternoon and will return to Jo’burg in 10 to 14 days. 

 

[Note on 1 August 2022:  The rest of this letter dealt with anger and angst regarding two ex-girlfriends, Phyllis and Janice.  I’ll spare readers an airing of my dirty personal laundry.  However, I find it amusing that the letter reported my writing Janice a post card from South Africa in which I wished her “love and good fortune”.  Then, I ripped her page from my address book, tore it into 1000 pieces, and “flushed them into the Johannesburg sewers”.  I found that “shredding” her in this manner was a “symbolic cleansing”.  What’s even more amusing is that Janice and I got back together nearly six years later for a couple months.  The relationship came to an abrupt end when she insisted I get my vasectomy reversed so we could make a baby!]





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