Most of today was spent travelling as the tour party went to Geneva via Dubai. The first installment of our regular posts written by Mrs Junine Kruger from the tour follows. Thank you for sharing Junine. Also check out some of the photos sent from some of the boys on our "selfies and snaps" tab. Thanks boys. Keep it up.
Blog entry 04/07/2014
Blog entry 04/07/2014
Dear parents and followers – it has begun! The Kearsney College Choir tour 2014 is well
underway.
As I am typing this, we are waiting in the aircraft to take off to
Geneva. It is now 09h00 in Dubai, 07h00 in South Africa.
Yesterday at 13h00 the five touring staff members and three boys left Kearsney College
for King Shaka International Airport. All
the equipment was packed and we felt confident that the tour was off
to a good start.
We arrived at the
airport at about 14h30, where we met the rest of the boys and their
parents and families. We immediately started
checking in which was quite a mean feat as we had so many instruments to check
in together with the group’s luggage weight. There
were a few boys who had to repack their hand luggage as we were only allowed
7kgs, but many of them thought that a few
extra kg’s wouldn't matter!
After checking in our luggage, the boys
serenaded the parents with a lovely energetic performance of Shosholoza. There is only a very small waiting area with one restaurant after passing through security. Of course our boys were very hungry! Checking in was very hard work. The unsuspecting staff members at the restaurant must have felt overwhelmed as our boys descended upon them, but they managed quite well. At 17h45 we boarded our flight to Dubai.
Fortunately, the supper did not disappoint and we could feast on a starter of tender smoked chicken with coleslaw and then choose between three mains - marinated fillet of steamed hake with sweet and sour sauce, marinated chicken in Middle Eastern spices and penne pasta served with grilled Mediterranean vegetables. Dessert was also quite lovely – a raspberry sponge cake served with creme Englaise (sp?). After supper many of the boys still had lots of energy and, while some opted to watch a movie or sleep, many chatted the night away and even managed to make the acquaintance of some girls.
Just before we could enjoy our
mile-high supper, we had Europe 2014 Tour Drama No1: our hand luggage bags were too big to fit
into the overhead compartments comfortably (after having the weight and size of
them cleared by the airline a week earlier). This meant that many of the boys’ bags had to be stowed either in other
overhead compartments which still had space, or put in the
plane’s cargo hold. The bags stowed in the cargo hold would not be loaded off in Dubai, but would be sent directly to Geneva. You may think that that in itself is not a problem, but boys will usually find a way to surprise you. At the beginning of the tour, the boys were told explicitly that after each flight boarding they had to hand their passports and plane tickets back to the staff member responsible for their passport. (We know how easily boys might lose track of irrelevant (J) documents like passports).
One boy unfortunately put his passport in his
hand luggage instead of handing it to the relevant staff member. As luck would
have it his bag was one of those that was stowed in the cargo area.......destination - Geneva! This meant that
when we arrived in Dubai this boy did not have his passport, meaning that he
would not be able to board the flight to Geneva. Eeeeck….. but never fear - Mrs
Kerry-Jane Coleman managed to firmly, yet kindly, persuade the ground staff at
Dubai Airport that she be allowed to personally check all the bags that were
off-loaded from the plane onto the cargo conveyor belts, and then found our culprit’s bag minutes before we had to board the plane to
Geneva! Phew!
Mr Gareth Moerdyk subsequently assured our "passport offender" (no names mentioned) that he would have to carry Mrs Coleman’s luggage for the remainder of the tour! Lesson learned?
Mr Gareth Moerdyk subsequently assured our "passport offender" (no names mentioned) that he would have to carry Mrs Coleman’s luggage for the remainder of the tour! Lesson learned?
While this saga was playing out on
the one side of Dubai Airport, the rest of the boys and staff had time to
wander around and freshen up. We did not
contemplate buying anything due to the unfavorable exchange rate. R80 for a coffee was not at all appealing. The Dubai Airport is
very impressive and the boys managed to safely entertain themselves
until we boarded our flight to Geneva at 07h00 SA time.
17h30
All the boys have checked into our hotel - Ibis Le
Bien-etre au Meilleur Prix Hotel in Geneva. They are having an early
supper before we leave the hotel at 19h00
to attend a Friendship Concert performed by three other choirs who are also taking part
in The Rhythms of One World
International Choral Festival in the auditorium Espace Ominsports du Saleve in
the town of Collonges-sous-Saleve. The
three choirs who we will be watching are The University of Newcastle (from
Australia), the Signal Hill Alumni Choir from Trinidad and Tobego and
The Singing Angels from the USA. The boys are very excited. The presence of girls may have something to do with it!? We will be back at our hotel at around 12 midnight.
We have encouraged boys to send their snaps and selfies and hope that you get to enjoy some of their "views" of the tour on the relevant tab on this blog.
We will report again soon. Please subscribe to our blog to be notified of updates. (Enter your email address in the right hand panel). We look forward to your comments.
More soon,
Mrs Junine Kruger
We have encouraged boys to send their snaps and selfies and hope that you get to enjoy some of their "views" of the tour on the relevant tab on this blog.
We will report again soon. Please subscribe to our blog to be notified of updates. (Enter your email address in the right hand panel). We look forward to your comments.
More soon,
Mrs Junine Kruger
