The Long Road Home

So I'm back, in South Africa at least, if not exactly home home, in Cape Town. I'm staying with my dad, in Joburg, right now. Until the 31st, when I fly back. I'm going to be here for my big sister's 21st, so that's going to be lots of fun.

The trip back was just the tiniest bit stressful for me. One the things I had to worry about was that I had way to much baggage. I had checked in the 23 kg that I was allowed to, but as hand luggage, I had two bags at 11 kg each. And since the limit was one piece of hand luggage at 7 kg, I felt a bit like an outlaw. And not a super-bad-ass, me-against-the-law kind of outlaw. 

No, the fact that I had to gigantic-ass bags weighing me down, and not to mention making it obvious that I was WAY over the baggage limit, made me feel like a HUGE idiot.

But it all turned out well. I got through the flight from Sydney to Perth without any trouble, because they're not overly strict about baggage on domestic flights. But I was worried that I'd be mega-screwed when I had to switch over to my flight to Jo'burg, because they'd crack down on baggage more for international flights. 

Anyway, I spent the four hour flight worrying about that, but when we landed, I had something else to worry about - we were stuck on the tarmac for about half an hour after we landed, for some reason or other, and I was going to miss the bus to take me to the international terminal - which, for some idiotic reason, is a 15 minute drive away from the domestic terminal.

So I did miss the bus, and I had to catch the next one - which left an hour later. I ended up arriving at the terminal 5 minutes before my flight was supposed to leave. And I still had to go through customs and security and all that. So I was basically mega-screwed. But, on my way in, I got stopped by an air hostess from South African airways, and she asked me if I was... well, me... and I said "YES!!" (Yes, exactly like that) and then she basically sped me through security and customs and onto the plane. 

Some Aussie asshole stopped me and said "Hey, you're not allowed to have that much baggage." And some other crap like that. I thought I was in for a full lecture, but the whole SA crew was standing out there, waiting to take off, and giving him the evil eye for delaying the process further - so he picked up on the atmosphere very quickly and shut up, and I was home free.

Okay, maybe not the nicest thing for me to break their laws like that. But really, the flight was half full (Yes - I'm an optimist) and there was plenty of space. And I just didn't have the money to pay to check my stuff in.

But anyway, it's awesome to be back in South Africa. I was very surprised by how much patriotism has sprung up since I've been away. People have SA flags sticking out of their car windows now, and they have these weird SA flag covers on their side-mirrors. It's very cool.

It's been nice walking around the malls here a bit too. You know, comparing prices to things back in Aus, and what sort of stuff is available.

Three things I've been unable to find here tho: Frozen Coke, Meat Lovers Pizza and Butter Salt. I still have hope for the Meat Lovers - I've had a "Meat Feast" pizza at one place here. It's not as good, but I'm hoping one of the other places will have a decent Meat Lovers equivalent. Butter Salt - I'm sure I can find. I've only been to one movie house so far. And Frozen Coke - I fear it's going to be a while before that finds its way into South Africa.

Three things I missed, and am glad to have again: Steers Burgers - HOLY CRAP, so good. They just don't have anything quite as good, cheap and easy to find in Aus. Chocolate Products - anything, biscuits, bars - just a lot better here, I think. 

And Afrikaans music - This guy called Jack Parow has this song called Cooler As Ekke - it's SO funny.

Anyway, over and out

OB:
Spelling/Grammar/Clarity. Pleased to report that meatier pizzas made their way to SA pretty quickly. I still yearn for Frozen Coke, though. Also, watch out YB, in a few days, your sister's friend Steph at the 21st is not just being nice to you - she's just dumped her boyfriend who (direct quote) 'fucks dudes', and she clearly has a type.