Bec – 12th June 2011

And so the final countdown begins – with only 19 sleeps to go – the question arises of how do you possibly pack for five people for six months of travel with weather that will cross over three seasons!!!!

Which leads us to the time honored tradition of husbands and wives disagreeing on how many suitcases should be going overseas with us…..

My better half felt that we needed only three suitcases between the five of us. One for him, one for me and one for all three children. He reasoned that we only really needed shorts, tee shirts and some swimmers and besides, he said “I will be the one that ends up carrying all the bags when the kids are exhausted, so we should really cut it down!”.

Quite a convincing and heartfelt argument… but of course me and my wardrobe knew better.

The ‘Suitcase Issue’ is cleary something that depends on the family you grew up in. You have the Overpacker Families, the Underpacker Families, the Last Minute Packer Families and then you have the family that I grew up in, the Anally Retentive Packers who pack three months in advance, make a list of everything included  and account for every circumstance forseen and unforseen.

So clearly, it is not MY Fault ….. I was just brought up this way and you know what they say… “you can’t fight genetics” …..so why even try!

We talk about women ‘multi tasking’ – but we are talking beach wear, evening wear, museum/gallery wear and dinner wear, along with the inevitable – cold wear for the London stint – so this is ‘multi functioning’  and three suitcases was not going to cut it.

So, what to do…..I scoured the travel websites for hints and suggestions and came across articles such as  “How To Pack Your Life Into One Little Bag” – but the people who wrote these articles clearly had no lives and that’s why they could fit them into such little bags….I on the other hand had to look elsewhere to solve my problems.

And then it happened…. at Doncaster….the answer to many a girl’s  dilemna!

I was walking through the centre and there it was, in all it’s glory ….. the ‘Spinner’,….. the answer to my prayers. A suitcase with four wheels…..not the measley two we have all come to expect with tag along bags ……but four, so that a small child could simply push it along….or just collapse against it and roll it along as they are screaming that they are too tired to walk or  to go any further. (Funny isn’t it – how children have the energy to scream and wail yet not the energy to walk or carry anything!!!! Yet another of life’s enteral mysteries)

So I trialed the suitcase and rated it a total success – Sari actually wailed at me when I tried to take it back from her. She pushed it up travelators, through stores and around the food court and when we hit some steps we simply pulled up the handle and used the traditional back wheels.

Somebody out there has clearly been listening and my heartfelt thanks go out to you Mr Samsonite, or at least it does right now as I still sit in the comfort of my living room with 19 sleeps to go.  I’m positive there will be days when I wish I had listened to my lovely husband and had agreed to the three suitcase rule but for now we have agreed to embark on the ‘one suitcase for each’ rule.

So democracy does have alot to offer the humble travelling family….truth, justice and a suitcase for all.