Chapter II — Travelling Light
Every traveller develops habits whose origins are impossible to explain.
Some people always choose the window seat, others collect maps, hotel key cards (Dad does) or railway tickets. There are those who insist on carrying a notebook they will never write in, convinced that one day they might (this is probably me).
These customs rarely begin as conscious decisions; they simply appear and, after enough repetitions, become part of one’s identity.
My own habit announced itself during the first school trip that required spending a night away from home.
I packed clothes, a toothbrush, whatever teachers considered indispensable for a child leaving home for the first time and, without consulting anybody or reflecting upon the matter for even a moment, I also packed Mr. Gutang.
I have never discovered why. Probably i have been influenced by my parents that never stopped to add more companions for my rabbit step siter Miffa.
Looking back now, after years of travelling through places considerably farther away than that first school excursion, I still cannot identify the reasoning. There were other toys. There were certainly newer ones. Some were probably more interesting. Yet none of them seemed suitable for the occasion.
A definitive turning point
The first decision related to my first overnight school trip was so natural that it escaped memory altogether. Like many things in childhood, it only became remarkable years later, once repetition had transformed an isolated event into a tradition.
I continued growing older and we continued travelling. Probably those two tags with my name were like a magnet and when i celebrated a Halloween party for the first time Pelo Pelo aka Mr. Gutang was the perfect choice to perform as evil “monkey” (Orangutans are apes) in my ghost pirate costume handmade by my dad.
From that moment, he became more a more involved in our adventures, to the point that he actually took my sister’s throne in the travel and adventure series.