Where in the World is Garry?

Paradise Lost - Koh Samui, Thailand, January 2006

Man seen walking with cardboard box...

So, acquisition of the cardboard box not easily remembered. When I finally did remember to drag myself off the beach to continue my quest the super market across the street was my choice. Unfortunately all the cardboard boxes were in use as, well, cardboard boxes cunningly disguised as display cases. No discarded cardboard was in sight. I decided not to attempt the lingual leap and ask if I could have a cardboard box roughly two foot by three foot when folded flat.

The third and final attempt had actually been right under my nose every other day. Next to the gym was a new super market, complete with rear loading bay lousy with discarded cardboard boxes broken down and neatly stacked; the elephant graveyard of cardboard boxes, my nirvana. After some odd looks from staff on their cigarette break and the security guard; I left proudly carrying my box. I'm not sure what the box used to contain, everything was in Thai except the silhouettes of figures swimming, horse riding and playing tennis.

And so it was that I made holiday maker history to be the first person to walk along the sea shore of a crowded beach in the middle of the day clutching a piece of cardboard approximately two foot by three foot square under his arm. From the beach it must have looked as though I had had some kind of wardrobe failure in the swimming shorts department.

In a different life time I would have repeated the exercise on a daily basis carrying other objects of incongruity; an ironing board, bicycle wheel, microwave etc.

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Charlie's from the beach