Wombat got it right! (Mind you, he could be said to have an advantage.) I have asked him if he will host the next puzzle, but he is probably in the land of nod at the moment. It was -
In England it was very cold. Colder than I had ever known. The customs men did a great
deal of heavy-handed chaffing about how you cobbers couldn't really call this a winter,
ho ho, and what we would look like if there really was a winter, har har, and so on. Their
accents were far funnier than their sense of humour. They all seemed to have stepped out
of the feature list of an Ealing comedy for the specific purpose of unpacking our luggage and
charging us extra for everything in it. My own luggage consisted mainly of one very large
suitcase made of mock leather - ie real cardboard. This compendium was forced into
rotundity by a valuable collection of tennis shorts, running shorts, Hawaiian shirts, T-shirts,
Hong Kong thong rubber sandals, short socks, sandshoes and other apparel equally
appropriate for an English winter. The customs officer sifted through the heap twice, the
second time looking at me instead of at it, as if my face would betray the secret of the illicit
fortunes to be made by smuggling unsuitable clothing across half the world.
Falling towards England - Clive James
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