If it makes you feel better, I *emigrated* with a panda's head sticking out of my backpack. That would be the backpack, the ghettoblaster and the school trunk that I had to haul on and off a ferry, and on and off assorted guards' vans on trains (in the days when we still had guards' vans). It was then I learned that a) British Rail had a strict policy of only employing men with bad backs as guards - a job which included a luggage van - and b) said men got even more outraged when a slip of a girl was cheerfully going "No, I don't need you to lift it, can you just put a hand out to steady it?" as she swung a heavy trunk down a four-foot gap.

On the plus side, I only bought a coffee table a couple of years ago. The trunk did the biz for ages until I needed it more for storage than for table space!