WE`VE ONLY JUST BEGUN (Part 2)

By Margary and Kevin Maskell (Area 13).

(A tale of two people going on holiday)

It was now time to pack for our holiday to the United States of America As was mentioned in an earlier CRC Newsletter Issue, this was not easy, as we had to pack our film and camera equipment in two bags, one for each of us, as hand luggage on the plane.

The list of film and equipment was as follows:-

FUJI 100 30 cassettes of 35mm, 50 rolls of 120, and 109 rolls of 220

FUJI 400 4 rolls of 120

TMAX 100 100 rolls of 120

Bronica ETR-S with 40mm, 75mm, 150mm lenses, and 2x convertor plus 220 and 120 backs;

MAMIYA 645 Super with 55mm, 80mm, 150mm lenses and 2x convertor, plus 220 and 120 backs;

Two Olympus 0M2s with 35-70mm and 70-150mm lenses;

OLYMPUS 0M1 body as spare.

It was just as well hand luggage was not weighed.

Then it was the day and a very early start, as we had to catch the 5.25 train to Tottenham Hale, for one of the first tubes to Finsbury Park and then on to Piccadilly Line to Heathrow Airport. With two pieces of luggage each, we duly arrived and in pleanty of time.

This was just as well, as we were flying Pan Am, and after the Lockerbie incident, they were very security conscious. Before we even checked in at the desk, ALL of our baggage, both hand and suitcases, had to go through the X-ray machine. After checking in we made our way to Passport Control, followed by airport security, when our hand luggage had to go through another lot of x-ray machines before we could get to the departure lounge.

It was interesting to watch the screen, in colour, showing all sorts of things, such as shoes, bags, combs etc. It was especially surprising to see all the cassettes in our bags as little circles.

We were duly called for our flight and were off.

But by then we were getting a bit worried. Two lots of machines. Were the films going to be damaged before we`d even started!!!

To be continued...