We just had a JUMBO balikbayan box collected over the weekend. The box had been carefully packed by my wife over two months or so with all the usual stuff, clothes, shoes, handbags, canned goods and chocolate etc. Unfortunately the only place in the house we could keep it where it wouldn't be in the way was upstairs in the little box bedroom and I was given instructions to get it downstairs ready for collection while the wife was out on Friday afternoon.

I managed to get it to the top of the stairs by swivelling it from side to side which wasn't to difficult on the carpet surface. Then, again with a side to side sliding motion, I slowly manoeuvred it over the edge of the top stair and onto the first stair which seemed to go quite well.

My intention then was to slide it further until it was across the points of the stairs and then do a very slow controlled slide down to the bottom of the stairs. But almost as soon as I got it across the points of the stairs, I realised very quickly that I was on a loser, because it wasn't a matter of strength, it was my weight against the superior weight of the box and the forces of gravity and the superior weight of the box and the forces of gravity, I'm afraid to say, won the day.

I found myself trying to run backwards down the stairs whilst still pushing against the force of the box bearing down on me. I think I might have managed two or three backward steps before I lost my footing and fell backwards down the stairs with the box pursuing me.

I finally ended up in heap at the bottom of the stairs, with the wind knocked out of me and with the box crushing me against the front door. My step-daughter was by then at the top of the stairs screaming her head off and afraid to come down because I think she assumed I was dead.

I eventually got my breath back and managed to reassure her. Then I managed to push with my back against the front door and ease the box away from me. I struggled to sit up a bit and then waited a while before finally attempting to stand up, all the while trying to sense where, if anywhere, I had injured myself. To my amazement, apart from a few grazes to my elbows and one knee, I seemed to be OK and was soon, almost back to normal.

I wonder if the folks back home in Philippines know how much these balikbayan boxes really cost us to send.

Iain.