Packing for a return home is not half such a bother or a worry. You know just what things must go without the trouble of selection, and you also know that the going is a necessity, and that if they refuse to accommodate themselves to the limited space of the boxes, force may legitimately be employed.
(Lillias Campbell Davidson, Hints to Lady Travellers)
Packing to go home, while perhaps less stressful than packing to go in the first place, is not without its challenges. Like, how are you going to fit everything you accumulated after almost a year in Australia into your checked bag allowance - bearing in mind that excess baggage costs $50 a kilo.
Yesterday I started the process of sorting my belongings into three piles:
1. to give to the Salvos
2. to post
3. to pack
This involved much weighing and at one point it occurred to me that I should also weigh my suitcase. When pulling it down from the shelf on the wardrobe it (all 4kg as it turned out) hit me in the face.
How I wish I could be like Sir Richard Burton*, who famously instructed his long-suffering wife to 'pay, pack and follow'. But, alas, I have no wife and, contrary to Miss Campbell Davidson's suggestion, force has only resulted in a bruised nose.
*The 19th century explorer, not the Welsh actor.
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