More on the subject of luggage

We arrived at the house we’re due to babysit on Wednesday to find the family just about to set off to Cromer for a few days’ camping. We were due to head back there ourselves because we’d left all our own luggage at my brother-in-law’s while we attended to a minor medical matter.
Anyway, the family’s car was full – and the daughter’s bag hadn’t even been put in. In a last minute plea, my niece asked if we could possibly deliver the daughter’s bag to Cromer for them. Of course we could. And then we saw the bag. It was virtually as big as the daughter herself, and may possibly have contained everything she possessed. We should have realized that you don’t go camping without all the things you might possibly need.
Whether she had the kitchen sink in there or not, I don’t know – she may have had two kitchen sinks, since the case was very heavy.
And talking of kitchen sinks, I’ve noticed something odd about the taps (faucets, if you’re in the US) leading into them. When I go to fill a kettle (jug, if you’re in NZ) from the taps, the cold water seems to be on the wrong side altogether. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m partly ambidextrous and do some things around the wrong way, but I have to reach over the top of the kettle to fill it, rather than being able to turn on the tap on my left, as I would at home. Maybe I need to try doing it round the other way – if I can. Although it feels a bit like trying to play golf right-handed to do that.

The delights of luggage

One of the delights of travelling is dealing with luggage. We aimed to have as little as possible when we came to England this time, but we still wound up with two heavy suitcases, a laptop and all its connection bits and pieces, my wife’s handbag (which contained her various ‘toys’), my backpack with books in it and my toiletries, and my wife’s backpack with clothes for the voyage. I saw the phrase ‘Not Wanted on Voyage’ as the title of a book the other day; haven’t seen it in a long time. I suppose it doesn’t much get used these days with ships being less popular for travel.
The trip was fine for the most part, as far as the luggage was concerned, because we had our suitcases sent through direct from Auckland to London. But when we got to the UK, and had to start hauling them about again, things were rather different. The worst moment was when we got off the underground at Bank station and had to climb two flights of stairs with the suitcases and all the other paraphernalia.
What we really need is luggage that carries itself. Now that would be ideal!
Incidentally, one of the things my wife wasn’t carrying was her Swiss Army Knife (one of the toys I mentioned before). With all the restrictions these days, it’s not the sort of thing you want to have in your handbag. She nearly lost it three years ago when we went to Australia, and she discovered just as she was about to front up to customs that it was in her handbag. She asked if she could take it out to her daughter for safekeeping until she got back in the country and they wouldn’t let her out of the area again. So there she was, calling loudly across the terminal to my daughter, who was just out of hearing range. Fortunately, in the end her frantic waving caught my daughter’s eye. Otherwise, the beloved SAK would have gone into the pockets of the customs’ people.
I was reminded about this because I just discovered that there’s a range of luggage called Swiss Army. Apparently it’s designed to the same level of excellence as the knives, though hopefully without the deadliness.