1982 - Home Leave to England

We had been in Zimbabwe for a little over a year and were now entitled to my “Annual Home Leave”. This term always caused me some amusement because my ‘Home’ was South Africa. But because I was working in the “Overseas Countries” side of the Company I was treated as an expatriate, all but two of whom (including me) were British with a ‘home’ in Britain. So we got an annual trip to Britain as part of my contract - and naturally, we took in a bit of Continental Europe too.

Thursday July 29, 1982, Harare

We nearly didn’t make it. Barclays Bank phoned me this afternoon to say my application for a foreign currency allowance had been turned down by Reserve Bank. (At this time in Zimbabwe it was not possible to obtain any foreign currency without government approval. The normal limit that would be allowed on application was $360 per person per year. It was possible to obtain further funds if travel was for  business purposes.) I immediately phoned Reserve Bank and pointed out the error of their ways. Within an hour they agreed reluctantly to give consent for 80% of the amount applied for - $2,000 in all so at least we can leave on Saturday. (This was for a month of travel in Europe so we would have to budget carefully) Rab has done most of the packing, so there should be a minimum of flap.

Saturday July 31, 1982, Harare

After Thursday’s fright we all relaxed – at least until 03.30 yesterday morning when Matt woke up puking. We thought it might be nerves because for some reason he has been very worried about  this trip. When he showed no sign of improvement by 08.30 Rab took him along to Doctor Davies who measured him and weighed him etc and then said he didn’t know what the problem was – possibly a virus, maybe appendix? Rab however diagnosed nerves, took him along to the chemist, got a mild tranquilliser and Hey Presto! He was better.

I was all up to date with my office work, so all I had to do was to collect our travellers cheques from the bank – what a relief – and get a few last minute things done.

We got moving nice and early this morning after a good night’s sleep and Matt and I took the cats out to the kennels early on. They didn’t really want to go – Pedro especially having been very loving all week after he had seen the suitcases coming out. (We had two Siamese cats – Pedro and Pepita and two spaniels – Guinnie and Penny – at this time. There is no mention of the dogs, which is odd, as we usually left them in kennels too – maybe we left them in the care of our house servant, Willard.)

Team Herbert - ready to go!

We were packed and ready by 11.30 and Duncs was spot on time to pick us up at noon. We  got good seats on the aircraft because we were early. (We generally get to airports very early. I missed an aircraft once by five minutes and ever since then have said I’d rather wait an hour than do that again.) Dad and Lucy turned up to see us off – Duncs having gone home. We didn’t really feel like a big meal so just had a beer and a toasted sandwich with them while we waited to board…….and waited and waited. We were flying Kenya Air via Nairobi and the aircraft had been delayed in Nairobi. We had a couple more drinks and then finally suggested to the old folks at about 15.30 that there was no point in their hanging about so they went home and we went through to the departure lounge.

Rab picked up some perfume at the duty free but they didn’t have the watch Matt wanted. The aircraft finally arrived about three and a half hours late  at 16.10 and we finally took off at 16.45. There was a bit of a shambles boarding the aircraft because although the seats we had been allocated were towards the front of the aircraft, the Kenya Air ground hostess insisted that we should board through the rear door, saying that there was “free seating”. We thought we should try to claim our allocated seats and battled our way up the aisle only to find that another family had our seats and we had theirs. It soon became obvious why this trade had been made. The new seats were on the hot side of the aircraft and the seats had been badly fitted and jammed into place, so much so that my knees were touching the seat in front.

Soon after take off we spotted some vacant seats towards the rear of the plane where there was more room. After that the flight was not too bad. The snacks served were awful – dried up quarter sandwiches, curling at the edges but the Tusker beer was very good and I shared a bottle of wine with the neighbouring passengers – Swiss folk living in Zimbabwe.

Nairobi airport was a revelation – very modern, clean and large, having been built ahead of the OAU meeting the previous June. Our arrival was very smoothly handled and we had time for a very pleasant meal – soup, steak and fruit salad, with the compliments of SwissAir, washed down with another Tusker – before wandering around the duty free shops. Rab saw a lot of watches she liked before settling for a Nirvada for £31. It looks very nice but she is worried about how well it will run; Matt had no luck again. He found the model he wanted, but it was the last one in the shop and the battery was flat. (We still tease Rab about her concerns regarding the watch which were initially based on the fact that she couldn’t hear it tick. Digital functioned watches were still something of a novelty!!)

We boarded the SwissAir flight at about 23.40 local time and were on our way shortly.