Reverse Tardis effect
May. 4th, 2014 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofastolatHas anyone else found that modern bags have mastered the art of being far, far bigger on the outside than the inside? I've noticed it with new suitcases and a new handbag, but it's particularly noticeable with our new small rucksack.
The old one had a single compartment, with two outer pockets on the side for drink bottles. It worked well enough, but I wanted to get one with a chest strap - I was often reduced to walking along with my thumbs hooked into the straps, trying to replicate a chest strap, but I did generally feel that I ought to be singing cowboy songs while doing it. I also wanted some sort of contraption that would keep the bag off my back, thus avoiding the unpleasantness of the sodden back scenario. Most annoyingly, the zips on the side pockets gradually work open, and more than once I stopped for lunch, only to find that my water bottle had made a successful escape bid miles back along the track.
So, anyway, we bought a new small rucksack that had all those things I wanted, including pockets that could keep even the most determined water bottle from escaping. All well and good, thus far. However, when came to use it, we found that it doesn't actually hold anything! The contraption that keeps it off the back seriously reduces its expansion possibilities, but that's fair enough. However, it's divided into so many mini compartments and pockets that you can't really fit anything into any of them. The biggest compartment can't quite hold our insulated sandwich bag when it holds sandwiches for two, plus an ice pack. It can just hold said bag when it has sandwiches for one, but only with a bit of squashing and squeezing and heaving at the zip. The second biggest compartment can just hold one folded up lightweight waterproof. I've found 9 separate compartments thus far, and we spent quite a bit of our round-the-island walk desperately zipping and unzipping, trying to track down the compartment that held the cereal bars/external battery/map.
How can something billed as having a 20 litre capacity struggle with holding lunch for two and two lightweight waterproofs?
The old one had a single compartment, with two outer pockets on the side for drink bottles. It worked well enough, but I wanted to get one with a chest strap - I was often reduced to walking along with my thumbs hooked into the straps, trying to replicate a chest strap, but I did generally feel that I ought to be singing cowboy songs while doing it. I also wanted some sort of contraption that would keep the bag off my back, thus avoiding the unpleasantness of the sodden back scenario. Most annoyingly, the zips on the side pockets gradually work open, and more than once I stopped for lunch, only to find that my water bottle had made a successful escape bid miles back along the track.
So, anyway, we bought a new small rucksack that had all those things I wanted, including pockets that could keep even the most determined water bottle from escaping. All well and good, thus far. However, when came to use it, we found that it doesn't actually hold anything! The contraption that keeps it off the back seriously reduces its expansion possibilities, but that's fair enough. However, it's divided into so many mini compartments and pockets that you can't really fit anything into any of them. The biggest compartment can't quite hold our insulated sandwich bag when it holds sandwiches for two, plus an ice pack. It can just hold said bag when it has sandwiches for one, but only with a bit of squashing and squeezing and heaving at the zip. The second biggest compartment can just hold one folded up lightweight waterproof. I've found 9 separate compartments thus far, and we spent quite a bit of our round-the-island walk desperately zipping and unzipping, trying to track down the compartment that held the cereal bars/external battery/map.
How can something billed as having a 20 litre capacity struggle with holding lunch for two and two lightweight waterproofs?
