RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31247, 20 December 1966, Page 40

RANDOM REMINDER

PACKAGE DEALINGS

Preparing for a trip overseas does not consist only of trying to find the money, having an arm looking like a pin-cushion, organising passports and itineraries, and bookings, and arranging for someone to look after the cat. One of the problems peculiar to the occasion is deciding what to take with you. We had a very enlightening example of what takes place with the difficulties of a young Christchurch man who is to leave for England soon, to take up residence for two years or so. He is, we believe, an average young man, and the hurdles he had to cross may very well be typical of his kind. He discovered that he would be able to take a case or two with him in his cabin, and very properly decided that they would have to carry his clothes and personal effects. He is a young man of some discrimination, and is very well aware that

it is better to have a clean white shirt, if asked to dine with the captain, than something worn when cleaning the car. In addition, he was instructed that in the hold he could carry effects of his choice, and he was allotted 27 cubic feet of space, which seemed rather a lot. Until he remembered that that was only three feet by three feet by three feet. Ever since, he has been arranging and rearranging his possessions in a couple of tea chests and consulting an uncle about his selection. You see, he has more than 80-long-playing pop records, and it is obviously essential for him to make a wise choice, on “Desert Island Discis” lines. He asked whether he should take the stand for his bongo drums, then remembered that as a rule he played them on his knees. Triumph: space saved. His boxing gloves

went in, with several pairs of old boots and a very large coloured poster of the Beatles. Some of the stuff came out again to make room for an enormous ash tray, weighing about eight pounds, given to him by his sister and therefore of considerable sentimental value. He could not go without it. He was persuaded it was better to sell his motorcycle in New Zealand rather than try to cram it into the tea chests, in parts. A couple of first fifteen photographs were reluctantly discarded, so were his butterfly collection, his library of Biggies books, and bis spear gun. They had to be put aside, to make room for his saxophone, his cricket bat, his tape recorder and the enormous fruit cake a cousin has insisted he will need. It’s going to be a memorable day for the customs people at Southampton.