The Independent on Sunday's {{U}} (76) {{/U}} (industry) editor, David Bowen, collects airline sick-bags. He started about 10 years ago when he used to travel {{U}}(77) {{/U}} (extensive), but now the {{U}}(78) {{/U}} (collect) has its own momentum. "I get sent several bags a month," he says. "All my friends know that I collect these things, and they mention it to their friends. Then when any of them go on flights, they stare ahead of them for hours on end and {{U}}(79) {{/U}} (soon) or later remember to pick one up. "
He now has about 400 bags {{U}}(80) {{/U}} (cover) about 200 airlines: they are displayed all over the walls of his house. He asks people to pick up a couple so that he has one to swap although, he says, "There is a slightly {{U}}(81) {{/U}} (limit) market: my only real trading partner is a German who I met in Jordan eight years ago. "
The bags, Bowen says, say a lot about the country of origin. Far Eastern ones tend to be lavish and exotic. Germanic ones are severely {{U}}(82) {{/U}} (practice) , eastern European ones reflect "the {{U}}(83) {{/U}} (short) of decent paper".
Bowen is keen to hear from anyone who wants to join the bag {{U}}(84) {{/U}} (barter) system. The hobby is not sufficiently developed to have monetary value {{U}}(85) {{/U}} (attach) to it, but the swap system should work well. "Mind you, if someone came up with a pre-War bag, possibly from Imperial Airways, I would very seriously think about letting them have several pounds for it, maybe even an Air Afrique one, too. "