Vikrant Shekhawat : Dec 23, 2020, 02:37 PM
London: If you're stuck on what to buy friends and relatives from the UK living abroad this Christmas you can breathe a sigh of relief – and send them some fresh air. Literally.Bottles of 'fresh air' from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales can be shipped for £25 and are being marketed as the perfect gift for homesick Britons living overseas over the festive period. Bottles featuring air captured on the London Underground and air from the inside of a busy Norfolk fish and chip shop are also available.Is it a very early April Fools joke? No, this is a real offer and the bottles are being snapped up.The company behind the deal, My Baggage, explained that 'each 500ml of air comes with a cork stopper so the owners can open (it) for a moment, take a breath and quickly close again, allowing many weeks or even months of use'.My Baggage added that it is also willing to fulfil special customer requests by bottling air 'from any UK location'.Apparently, it has already fulfilled an order of air 'from the misty summit of Snowdonia' for a homesick Welshman living down under.The firm said that it decided to launch the bottled air range following research linking smells to emotional memories.It added: 'While many UK residents hanker after a new exciting life in another country, relocating leaves some pining for home.''The hope is that a bottle of air from one of our home nations will ease homesickness and make settling into a new country that much easier.' Some parents, though, are seemingly ordering the bottles to tempt much-missed sons and daughters back to British shores. A spokesman said: 'Many Brits have a dream of moving abroad and the exciting thing about our work at My Baggage is that we help make those dreams come true.' 'But we know from our customer feedback that a small but significant number of Britons who move abroad do experience homesickness.' 'We wanted to help them reconnect with home and we know from published research that our sense of smell is very evocative when it comes to emotions.' 'By allowing recipients to take a deep breath of the air from their home country, we're hoping to ease homesickness and help them settle into their new life, wherever that may be.' 'The smells Britons miss might surprise some. Orders for the fish and chip shop air have been strong while the London Underground air is one of our best sellers and seems to be popular with ex-commuters who perhaps want to remind themselves of what they're missing.' My Baggage isn't the first to market fresh air. For starters, a company called Swissbreeze began selling bottles of fresh Swiss mountain air in 2018. To order the My Baggage air visit www.mybaggage.com/shipping/air.