A few weeks ago, my mother and her sisters were lucky enough to get air tickets to Europe fully paid. Destination London: to make mulaakaat/visit with all the family in that part of the world. They were flying to Germany and from there with Al Cheapo Air were going to London. The message I was given was tell them to have only 20kg luggage in 1 bag each to London. The messenger always gets shot. I had to duck bullets from all angles matrix style.. getting shot and firing a few shots back.. no one listening to anyone.. only collecting more and more extra dead weight to carry from here to London. The weekend before was hectic: some trying to lose weight, others trying to get rid of baggage from the past, others carrying the burdens of others. Judgement day arrived when the weighing began. My mother’s clothes were only 10kg. Her total baggage weight was 47kg. She was 27kg overweight. Every kg costs about R100 plus. We found out to post a 10kg parcel from here to London can cost R6000. I rather buy a plane ticket and deliver it personally. Sometimes you really have to weigh your options. Is the parcel worth the price that has to be paid for it? If you are taking a R10: 1kg coarse salt from here to London, in essence you will be paying R110 for that salt. Is it worth it? Let’s say when money talks everyone listens. Only after the sponsors heard about this and realised that their money was going to be used for excess baggage and air hostesses were going to enjoy dried fruit by the kilo, did the trio start listening and letting go of the extra weight. Amazingly enough after all the commotion, they were still overweight by 1kg each and were allowed to go through, only discarding a camphor cream in their hand luggage(I would have rubbed the whole tub on my body and then through the tub in the bin). They were really praying for their lives. Let’s hope they don’t think the return trip will be as smooth sailing because our trip from London to Germany was were all the dammal (trouble) began..

Tags: coarse salt, Excess baggage, luggage, overweight, past