Carry On Luggage

I have just come back my long awaited annual girls weekend with my sister.
Last year we went to Melbourne, where I spent many hours on Trip Advisor finding accomodation and our weekend was awesome with heaps of walking, sightseeing, eating and drinking. This year we changed pace and went for a beachey relaxed approach. It was a perfect formula. The Sister had even found an awesome apartment a sniff away from the beach for half the price of our Melbourne stay.
I had booked my flights early and in the interests of saving money in the face of impending recessionary doom, I had booked the carry-on luggage option. Both ways.
The trip didn't get off to a great start. I breezed through the airport, briefly losing my little nail scissors at the security gates, and boarded. Grumpy Head Air Steward Person scowled at me "there is no way that is going on, that's not 8kg!!!!" Slightly mortified, I was inclined to agree, it was bloody heavy and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to lift it above my head to fit in the overhead lockers anyhow. I decided to act all mollified and apologetic which worked only a little bit. She took my bag, put it outside the plane and thrust a baggage pickup slip and $20 extra charge note in my hand. I buried my head in my book and pretended not to care. Dammit, I could have kept those scissors after all. And it took about 20 mins extra to pick it up the other end.
The Sister and I relaxed, swam, shopped, chatted, solved life's problems, drank, did an awesome cooking school and had a lovely time.
Time to head home, a different airline this time. I decided on my approach with my bag. First of all I tried squeezing it in to their bag measure thing. It didn't fit. Then I approached the check-in staff and asked them to weigh it. Bad move. This airline accepted 10kg of weight but in smaller sized bags. Mine weighed 11kg. And didn't fit the bag measure. The check in staff person informed me there was an additional $80 fee to check in a bag. $80???? That was the cost of the fare almost. Drastic, urgent action was required. I rolled my eyes and said, "I'll just throw those old books out", conjuring an image of what I hoped was many old dog-earred copies of War and Peace, soon to be discarded in the airport rubbish bins.
"It will fit then" I said "No problems".
She looked dubious but gave me a precious boarding pass. And my bag. Stage 2. I needed to lose 1kg. So into the ladies loos I went, and even though I'd packed so carefully for stylish adults travel, I came out of the loos in 28C wearing two pairs of tight trousers, 2 shirts, 2 cardies tied around my waist, a pair of trainers with my hair straightening tongs and a second pair of shoes packed into my small adults handbag. It wasn't the look I'd been planning. And for the next 2 hours I sat very uncomfortably with my 10kg bag safely in the locker up top.
I will not be flying this way again. Ever.