Day 13 - the unexpected day!

So I woke early again as was worried about how to get home, but managed to doze until 7am which seemed a more sensible time to have breakfast... trouble was, despite not eating anything since noon yesterday, I found I couldn't eat - I forced down some fresh fruit and half a ham and cheese roll before retiring to pack my room again. The hotel kindly drove me back to the airport for 10am and waited whilst I went in to investigate. BA office was still not open, but it seems the day staff are more knowledgeable than the evening lot as a passing official told me there was a BA office behind the Terminal 1 check-in desks in Wing A. So the driver, (who was a lovely guy, who spent 18 months in the UK learning English at a college in Guildford) drove me from T3 back to T1 and waited again whilst I went in to investigate. The BA guy was most helpful and told me not to panic, I was to come back about 12:30/1pm ish when the BA office opens and they will get me on the 16:15 flight. Tears of relief followed as I ran back out to the waiting shuttlebus where my new friend suggested I wait back at the hotel as they would not yet have cleaned my room and he would bring me back in a couple of hours - things were looking up.

my plane IS going to be here

As soon as I was back in the hotel room I unpacked the chargers and plugged everything in again, I'm not risking it this time! I emailed yesterdays boarding card to reception and asked them to print it as evidence and tried to get a quick cat nap in before noon.
By the time I arrived at Terminal 3 for the 4th time in 24 hours, the BA desk was open! and a very very nice man called Renato swiftly took my paperwork, called for one of his staff to sort me out a boarding pass and told me they were looking for me last night and knew I was somewhere airside - they had already been told about the lost gate situation too and he apologised for the problems I had had and said he would take me as far as he could before being airside again.  He got me to the front of the check-in queue, he then took my rucksack to the "fragile" counter to have it sent through immediately and then took me again to the front of the departures gate before explaining exactly where gate 32 is. Of course this kindness set the bottom lip quivering again, but I held it together long enough to shake his hand and disappear behind the departure screen. Once through, I didn't dare stop for shopping for fear of missing something; a gate change, terminal change or even cancellation etc. not that I feel like buying anything from this airport after spending so much time in it - least of all a plastic snow globe with I "Heart" Sao Paulo on it!
So now I am sat in a cafe overlooking gate 32, I can see there is no plane there and there is not expected to be one for another hour - but I will see it arrive and I will be on it when it leaves - inshallah!