Taxi commuters are used to seeing students lugging all their luggage into the taxi at the end of the school term.

Taxi commuters are used to seeing students lugging all their luggage into the taxi at the end of the school term.

The students usually haul a large suitcase, computer and duvet set to be taken home for the holidays. The suitcase is usually packed with dirty laundry which their mothers would have to wash before the new school term begins.

The young folks would then show off their newly acquired knowledge to the old fogeys travelling with them. Some people become annoyed at this behaviour but I find it refreshing that nothing much changes in the world.

A new and funny thing that happened over the holidays is that those who managed to get to their ancestral homes for the festive season left Gauteng with piles of goods.

Sons and daughters go home at this time with presents like hi-fi sets, garden implements, TV sets, stoves, pots, beds and blankets for their parents.

They would tell anyone who cares to listen that they are trying to make life easier for their parents.

Surprisingly, the travellers are now returning to Gauteng with the same goods they left with.

I have noticed several people who would often boast about the good life in the rural areas of Transkei in Eastern Cape are not saying much this time around.

I asked one of them how he had spent the festive season. He said: "Andiyityanga. Bendi apha eRawutini." (I did not enjoy Christmas. I was right here in Gauteng).

Auntie Emma then solved the problem for me. She said (let us call him) Abram had confessed that the hi-fi set he bought his parents the previous year had broken down.

He did not have enough money to buy a new set.

That is why when he went home for the holidays, he took along his own hi-fi set.

This way he was able to make the usual noise during his visit. Abram said he was too embarrassed to show his neighbours that he could not afford to buy another hi-fi set.

Now, one wonders if all the people returning to Gauteng laden with luggage are bringing back the goods they took with them.

Did they take the goods to impress the neighbours or are they coming back to fill the empty corners of their rooms in Gauteng?

Each morning in a taxi there is usually a passenger who would "buy" the whole seat behind the driver to carry his or her goods.

The buses and taxis from the rural areas land in Germiston in the early hours.

This means that those of us who did not have Christmas have to share seating with the "whitewash" pretentious that happened over the festive season.