How To Send Him Packing

Travel writer CAROL WRIGHT gives some useful hints on getting an untrained male ready to set out as an innocent abroad.

I think all wives should travel be fore marriage, not just for their own satisfaction, but so that they can cope later with husband’s pack ing. With all my own continuous globetrotting, I must admit I have made no improvement in my hus band’s travel habits. Fie scoops up random things and stuffs them in a case. He arrives at the airport with ties and dressing gown trailing from the corners of his luggage and has forgotten his pyjamas and comb.

The dressing gown will be left be hind the bathroom door at his hotel and, when he does remember to take his pyjamas, these are left under the hotel pillow. For the comb, he will buy a bright pink plastic horror at the nearest shop. So you must de finitely work to rule if you want to sort him out.

Rule one, whether your man has you pack for him or not, is to make a comprehensive check list of essen tials and stick it firmly to the inside

of the suitcase lid. Then both of you can remember needs and leave nothing behind.

Rule two is to assume he will not have any time for shopping on those high-powered business trips and make sure he has everything for coping with emergencies. My father, a sea captain, was taught early in his career how to darn socks and sew on buttons. They say women’s real emancipation will not come until men have an education in domestic sciences—laundry, cookery and sewing.

But until that time, most men will be pretty helpless off base. Panic buttons are those that come off in the ‘morning after’ in a strange hotel. A sewing kit is not a foolish feminine inclusion although I would hate to spoil the lone male’s gambit of getting to know a girl on the plane or in the hotel by pathetic pleas to sew a button on. ‘l’ll buy you dinner if you mend this little tear’ is a far more effective ploy than the ‘see my etchings’ line ever was. Few women can resist the sight of a helpless male.

A few sturdy but light plastic hangers should be added. Apart from hotel parsimony in providing enough, extra hangers are needed for drip-drying shirts. I have seen many an irate gent in the hotel foyer leaping up and down and demand ing his laundry while the airport taxi revs up at the door. It is better on fast-moving tours to wash your own than to risk not getting them back in time.

A pack of man-sized tissues should be provided in case the hand kerchief supply runs out (why on earth doesn’t someone produce travel

handkerchiefs in drip-dry fabrics?).

The big tissues can be used for shoe cleaning. Better still are the sealed sachets of tissue soaked with liquid shoe cleaner which gives a quick shine.

Rule three is keep clothing simple and basic so far as suits are con cerned and add in different coloured shirts and co-ordinated ties and handkerchiefs so that a more varied effect can be achieved. Pack hard items like shoes, toiletries and books at the bottom of the case, pad with rolled socks and underwear. Place sweaters and shirts on top and then suits. Fold trousers over each other to cushion folds. Jackets, if too wide for the case, should be lapped over, straighten shoulders and fold sleeve

in half lengthways along the side seam.

A pair of leather slippers or soft house shoes is essential. After a day at work, these are more relaxing to wear around the hotel and on long journeys in the plane.

Men now have nearly as many toiletries for travelling as women have make-up. They too are dis covering in hotels that there are never adequate shelves in the bath room for these items. This makes a compartmented zip carry bag more convenient than those that need to

have the contents spread out. Nail file, nail scissors, brush, extra soap, talc for hot tired feet and sweaty body should be packed, along with some basic medicaments and, of course, his pet hangover remedies.

Check out destination voltage and get a small adapter for electric shavers or buy plenty of spare bat teries for a battery type.

Never knowing just what enter tainment and other services a hotel may provide, some basic gadgetry is worth its weight. An alarm clock certainly, and I like the mini travel barometers which at least indicate if you need to take your raincoat with you each day.

A small tape recorder is a better bet than a radio. You can have a personal tape of girl friend or wife, and children’s messages; a selection of favourite music; a teach-yourself language tape of the country you are in, if necessary; and, for lonely Sun days, tour tapes so you can take yourself sightseeing any time you wish.

There are a lot of little items that can make all the difference to a trip.

Among them are spot removers for soup or egg on ties; pocket torch for looking for lost studs under the bed; extra shoe laces; earplugs; extra sup plies of business cards and a bundle of cheap ballpoint pens.

The male traveller of olden days went with elaborate ivory inlaid toilet chests, travelling bar and mini desk for his lap. A zip bag is good enough today and tooth mugs and duty frees make an impromptu bar.

One regrets the elegant silver flask and matching mug for travel, and a couple of plastic tumblers are some times more appetising for that drink in the room than the chipped or pale blue plastic bathroom mug. If you want to hear from your knight errant, pack some air letters and try to check appropriate air rates and note them down —hotels never seem to know these accurately.

One last rule, make a great job of packing for him—but only once, or you will be a slave for the rest of his travelling life. The second time he should manage quite nicely under your supervision and from the third time he is on his own. You never know, he may get good enough to do your packing when you are off to the next Women’s Lib con vention.