31st March, 2007 - off to J'burg
On Saturday I took the taxi again to the international airport and began the somewhat arduous process of checking in for my flight to J’burg.
As I alluded to earlier, in Perth I found myself occasionally confronted with a certain attitude which one could sum up with “rules are rules” . And whilst I do agree in principle with the need for some basic rules, I also appreciate if those rules can be interpreted with some sense of fairness and flexibility.
And I do admit that when it comes to the rules of luggage weight in planes I am a serial offender. However, in 30 years of travelling around the world I have not once been asked to pay for excess luggage. I sometimes have to shift some weight from the suitcase into the handluggage or vice versa, what ever the current rules allow/stipulate. And I also admit to using some subtle techniques on occasions which seem to work in making those rules a bit more flexible (see my last travel report)
But on this day, the 31st March, 2007 all those things broke down and the system beat me. As yet I am not quite sure whether it was predominantly the WA attitude towards ‘rules are rules’ or the increased harshness of South African Airways but they did not let me get away with nothing. And I had already just bought a new suitcase for the sole reason of trying to bring the starting weight down. And I kept a very close eye on the weight in the process of packing the damn thing. But still, when it hit the scales, it was on 22 kg – two over the limit.
Handluggage is confined to seven kg and my little baby oyster on wheels could beat that easily with 13 kg. That left my laptop and my around the shoulder bag which basically contains my pipe bag and travel documents. And there was no way this lot would let me get away with it.
On previous occasions, most airline check in personnel would not have blinked an eye but not so in Perth. By the way at the first check in in Sydney all this was more than gladly accepted without any hint of disapproval. Here it cost me the princely sum of $364 Dollar. And my question of whether I will receive a rebate or discount if on my check in AFTER Kampala the weight was under the limit was not really understood let alone answered in any meaningful manner.
Something which gets me in all this is, that once you have passed through the check in – which in future I will call weigh in – you can go to all the duty free shops and buy stuff which might equal your bodyweight and nobody blinks. They even have the hide to sell exercise weights in one of the sport equipment shops! I m looking forward with a mix of curiosity and trepidation to my experience tomorrow when I will confront the Johannesburg weigh in. It will be my test of whether it’s Perth or SA airline which makes my life misery and stretches my Amex to never expected limits.
Johannesburg 31st March, 2007
After an 11 hours trip from Perth I arrived in one piece in Johannesburg. Again the flight was pleasantly uneventful, though 11 hours in one place with little room for movement is a test of endurance which I try to avoid es much as possible. However, sometimes geography is simply against me. Alternating between reading, listening to my own music and dozing I arrived at about 16.00 hours. Transport to the hotel had been pre-arranged, though not always do the drivers have the patience to wait the 45 to 60 minutes (after landing) which it usually takes to get through immigration and luggage pick up. Since I have had this problem before, I already make a point in mentioning this time delay in my confirmation e-mail to the hotel.
Anyway, after a phone call and some waiting the driver arrived and I was off to my hotel. This stop over was only to be for one full day and there was still some work to do, hence my outside activity was largely confined to paying a couple of visits to Mandela Plaza and its many restaurants for some very pleasant meals.
In my hotel, the Garden Court Sandton the local hotel bar had metamorphosed from a somewhat dingy Irish pub style venue with little outside facility into the stylishly named Maude Café (being on Maude Street) with white marquee and lots of fairy lights.
Progress is welcome, but here it also meant that the price for an ordinary glass of dry white wine which previously had been around $2.50 was not $6.00 That’s progress!
And I observed another example of progress, which I found somewhat disturbing. Just opposite the hotel and adjacent to Nelson Mandela Plaza they built the new Michelangelo Towers which now forms part of this large Sandton shopping centre. I had observed the progress of this building over previous visits.
Now you might be able to imagine what happens, when the aircondition exhaust/recycle unit is placed on pedestrian level. The noise is horrific, 24 hours a day and on one side you can see the new plantings being totally overwhelmed by the violent airflow which has made most of the little trees very sorry and dry specimens.
From an environmental as well as amenity point of view it has turned a once gentle forecourt into a rather noisy and unpleasant passage way. I guess we are still conditioned to think that such a large office tower in Africa needs full on aircondition. Given the fact that J’Burg is in about 1600 hight above sea level and has quite regular wind and cooling breezes going, I wonder whether the need for aircon is not a bit exaggerated. I certainly always turn it off immediately in my room and open the window with very satisfactory effect as far as temperatures are concerned.
During my 36 hours in J’Burg I had two lengthy conversations with two locals.
The first one was with a waiter in one of the restaurants where I had dinner. The conversation opener, as so often, was the question “where do you come from” And once I was identified as Australian, sport was the most obvious talking point. Cricket, Football, Rugby etc. The guy was a complete fanatic and very knowledgeable and, as you might imagine, beat me in all aspects by a country mile. But it was immense fun to talk to him and be inspired by his enthusiasm. At some point the conversation turned to politics, the other well worn chestnut in conversations amongst strangers from different countries and continents. And here I felt a little more on top of the topic. In summary a very pleasant, entertaining half hour.
The second one I had with a guy and two girls in Maude’s Café. Again it started out quite pleasantly with some exchanges over the places we knew, some information on their home city Durban which was of interest to me. We also talked about business and politics. The whole affair became tedious and boring when the guy revealed himself as a born again Christian who found his salvation in Jesus (never mind the whingeing about not having the right job etc) Once you start the entirely futile discussion about believes and religion and, by nature, opposing views are there to stay, you are – in conversational terms - on the road to nowhere. But I am now assured that the Earth had been created some 6000 years ago (give/take a few lousy centuries if you want to be picky) And Charles (Darwin that is) you can pack your bags and go home. You got it wrong!
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