Yesterday I went to the airport with my luggage to weigh it. It was like a dummy departure. I fly Emirates Christchurch to Vienna via Sydney and Dubai and they let you take 30 kgs + 7 in the cabin. Yet from Vienna to Bucharest I fly a budget Romanian airline, Blue Air , where the limit is 20. So I’m only taking 20, of which nearly half is the weight of my Samsonite-like suitcase. The test scale was frozen at 3.30 kgs so I looked around for cameras and I couldn’t see any (of course they could see me left, right and centre in this age of terrorist hysteria!), I found the power cord and unplugged the bloody machine, then powered it back to reset it. I had 21.6 kgs of which today I have to leave some behind. I also tried to pay the $25 tax they charge you when you leave New Zealand from Christchurch International but I couldn’t. You must pay on the day of departure. Emirates had quite a number of counters open, most of them economy class, where there were moderate lines, but I went to their customer service desk and I found out from the blonde there that I don’t really have to check in three hours before take off; one would be cool. This is good. I’ll be a bit longer in Christchurch, the city I love since I settled here ten years ago. I’ll have time for a last Heiniken on New Zealand soil.