Nobody said it would be easy!

Another test of my resilience today – between upset stomachs and BA and I did not have the best of mornings. I will save you the details of the stomach upset – suffice to say it was quite sudden and very embarrassing. The staff were very sweet though and the maids must have told reception who turned up with some sort of medicine for me, which they said was for diarrhoea. But decided to stick to my own and the antibiotics I was given by the Doctor to take in just such an event. It was either the ice in my G&T or the salad I had last night, especially if the latter was washed in tap water. Needless to say I did not go in to my toilet-less office today. Stuck very close to my room. Strangely though, apart from having some stomach cramps I didn’t actually fell ill as such, and the antibiotics seem to have worked. So I guess I did pick up a bacterial infection. Clearly the answer is more alcohol and less mixers! (Though perhaps not tonight!)


So while staying within a short gallop of my toilet I attempted to get in touch with BA. I have to say the UK end so far have been useless, and I have felt very deserted by them!  All I knew yesterday was that the London to Edinburgh flight had been cancelled but nothing more. When I e-mailed BA in the UK previously I was told to call the UK office. Which if you have ever looked closely at the BA UK numbers, they very clearly state they can only be dialled from the UK – slight problem there then!! So clutching my stomach (ok so I’m milking it a bit) I made several attempts to call BA in Zambia – but ran out of credit on my Zambian sim just being kept on hold. Which, incidently, was the second lot of credit I had bought this morning, but I guess I can’t blame BA for the fact that instead of gently scraping away to reveal the validation number on the little card you buy, I used a key and made some of the numbers illegible!! Duh!!

Anyway I eventually managed to get an answer from BA in Zambia and to be fair the woman was very helpful and had very good English. She informed me that my flight out of Zambia had already been moved to the Monday (22nd) with my connection back to Edinburgh being from City. Visions of Bank tube station and all the steps you go up and down get to the DLR swarmed in to my mind.  So I told her that there was no way I could get me and two bags of luggage across London on my own but she assured me that it was BA’s responsibility to get me and my bags there. That remains to be seen – but if worse comes to worse I will leave my bags for them to send later! I know I took a lot of stuff with me but I am sure I have left enough at home to survive!!

I am in my hotel room right now and we are in the midst of yet another absolutely horrendous storm. I can not believe how loud the cracks of thunder are or how bright the lightening. I would never have said I was scared of storms, but I have jumped on several occasions and when I see the huge big flashes of lightening I do actual tense and crouch down – entirely involuntary. The freakiest thing was that after one huge flash of lightening and big crack of thunder my bedside light switched itself on. It does work by touch – but trust me it was really freaky!! I hope the weather improves again for those days I am stranded in Lusaka!