There is this situation that I was reminded of again today, and everytime I think of it, I cry a little bit inside my heart.
My husband (we will give him the Ominous name of ‘The One’) and I have been married for 2 years on Tuesday. We were together for 2 months short of 9 years before we got married. There has always been this long running ‘thing’ that we have, where he will always try to buy me something to do with a giraffe for my birthday. (I’ve always had a fascination for those beautiful creatures.)
One year he got me a glycerine soap bar with a small plastic giraffe inside it. Another year it was a giraffe card, a giraffe teddy bear, a pair of giraffe pyjamas – so the list goes on.
On my hen night, we played this game where my bride’s maids asked me questions about my relationship with my husband-to-be that they had previously asked him, to see how well i knew him. If I got a question wrong, they made me sing a karaoke song. (Since you’ve been gone!)
Anyway, the question came up of, “What has ‘The One’ bought you every year for your birthday?”
Naturally I knew the answer. And so it became well known throughout our group of friends.It was always a topic of conversation over the wedding festivities.
Needless to say, the theme of our honeymoon-baby’s room and clothes when he was born was wild animals, with Mr Giraffe taking the key role.
So the bad situation comes in where we went on honeymoon first to Kwa Madwala Game Reserve, where we met Mr Giraffe in person.
"Hellooo!"
And then to Sun City.On our way back from Sun city to the airport, we stopped at a huge African Curio market, where we bought our very own honeymoon large wooden giraffe.
It was beautiful.
Handpicked from many. We were satisfied.This was the best looking giraffe there.
He would stand in our lounge forever, proud and tall, reminding us of how wonderful and romantic our honeymoon was.
We got to the airport and were told that we were not allowed to take our giraffe on as hand luggage. (Just for the off chance that someone might suffer ‘death-by-giraffe’, and that was of course the reason why we bought it.)
I still asked the check in lady, “Are you sure this will be safe, it is very special and has a very high sentimental value?”
- Famous Last Words...
Arriving back in Cape Town, after a fun but tiring adventure, we went to the baggage claim belt and waited.
It was beautiful.
Handpicked from many. We were satisfied.This was the best looking giraffe there.
He would stand in our lounge forever, proud and tall, reminding us of how wonderful and romantic our honeymoon was.
We got to the airport and were told that we were not allowed to take our giraffe on as hand luggage. (Just for the off chance that someone might suffer ‘death-by-giraffe’, and that was of course the reason why we bought it.)
I still asked the check in lady, “Are you sure this will be safe, it is very special and has a very high sentimental value?”
- Famous Last Words...
Arriving back in Cape Town, after a fun but tiring adventure, we went to the baggage claim belt and waited.
...and waited...
...and waited...
NO GIRAFFE!
I FELT SICK.
...and waited...
NO GIRAFFE!
I FELT SICK.
We went to speak to the B.A. helpdesk, “we will phone you within 36 hours if we find it.”
Home we went, minus one giraffe.They phoned later. They had found a giraffe, smaller than ours and in a black wrapping.
But ours was in a clear bubble wrapping, DAMN IT!
Aaaaah, I will never forget that.I run it through my head often.
“I wish we had taken it on as hand luggage.”
“I wish they had just found it.”
I know that it’s just a wooden giraffe, just an inanimate object, just material goods.When we leave this earth one day, we won’t need it, we won’t be able to take it with to the other side.
But it’s like the photo shop losing 2 whole spools of film from your Welsh horse riding trip, except worse...
IT WAS OUR HONEYMOON GIRAFFE!!!
1 comment:
I reckon the dude with the smaller giraffe asked his granny to pick up his giraffe for him, and she didn't know which one was his, and by the time she got the statue home, he liked it more than his, and kept it. Bastard guy! Anyway, I think you should have taken the one in the black wrapping just because you deserved a giraffe after all your pain and anguish!
Of course, there's always this: if you really love something and you let it free, if it's supposed to be yours, it will come back to you... maybe, one day, your giraffe will miraculously appear on your doorstep!?
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