I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time looking at and for bags. Something drives me toward a Shangri-La where the perfect bag for all occasions rests in a temple, waiting for me to pack it with all I need, forever simplifying and organising my life.
Of course the reality is that I asymptocically approach an ideal, never quite having the right bag. I thought my ridiculously large Crumpler messenger bag was ideal, and it was certainly satisfactory for some four years, until I got a laptop. While I could pop the laptop in the messenger bag inside a Built neoprene sleeve, it always slopped around in an uncomfortable fashion. So I grabbed a right-sized laptop bag. The trouble is that a tension then arose between being able to Pack Everything and rational convenience, and I inevitably would be swapping backward and forward between bags for different occasions, inevitably leaving things behind as a result.
My vice, or at least one that I will admit to in a public forum, is a desire to carry way too much stuff around. I never know when I need that stuff. It’s important. It could be useful. And very occasionally is. But a large bag means I carry a lot of crap.
All of which brings me to my latest bag. I acquired a pretty big (70 liter, I think) backpack for travelling, with a removal day pack. Today I moved into that day pack, in order to get used to carrying it, and to figure out just what I should carry. Of course I packed too much, and haven’t packed all I ought:
- Kindle
- Laptop
- Camera
- Torch
- Pocket knife
- Wallet
- Keys
- Gorilla Pod
- Umbrella
- Hair ties
- iPhone
- Headphones
- Earbuds
I guess that’s not too much. I can fit passport, two Lonely Planet guides, and a stuffed koala, can’t I?