Getting Ready

Do you like travelling?

I do, and it does not depend on whether it is for leisure or business; I simply like seeing new places, revisiting old ones, meeting new people and catching up with old friends and family.

Of course, travelling for a holiday means packing different clothes than for business, and a weekend away needs less stuff than a three-week-trip, while visiting relatives for a few days in the South of France in summer requires not the same amount of packing as if the destination is, say, some snowy mountain or other.

But in essence, getting ready for a trip always means to choose from the vast abundance of my wardrobe and my bathroom cabinet (the latter being really not all that vast) those items I think I can not be without: it is a small exercise in sufficiency.

Have you ever packed too many clothes, meaning that you did not even wear everything you had in your suitcase?
Probably not, if you have, like me, to be able to carry all your luggage without help from one place to the other.

When in a former chapter of my life we used to go to Sicily by car, there was not much limiting us in terms of what to take with us; the boot was spacious and the back seats were all at our disposition as well.
Since this chapter was closed, and for most of my business travelling (which is not very extensive anyway, just the odd fair to work at a few times a year), I use public transport.

The person who first had the idea to attach tiny wheels and an extendable handle to a suitcase was probably someone who had enough of feeling as if their arms were either ripped off or at least considerably longer after a trip that involved walking the long aisles with their luggage at a typical modern airport or train station, or getting from the other end of a huge car park to the platform or check-in desk.

So, a small red trolley-type suitcase it is for me, holding everything I intend to wear over the next 12 days on a trip to and through Yorkshire with my sister, where we will visit family and friends, do some sightseeing and hiking and stay nowhere longer than two nights before moving to our next stop on this most nomadic of all holidays I have ever been on so far.

When I say "everything", that is not quite true. For the hiking, I need a pair of sturdy shoes, but I am certainly not going to wear these day in, day out; and a pair of flipflops will serve as slippers inside the house. Therefore, I am taking an extra bag for the shoes; this one can also hold the brolly that is most likely to come in useful at some stage.

Some printouts of plane, train and hotel accomodation are all I need in terms of travel documents, and my weekly paper will make waiting for the plane or train somewhat nicer.

Everything is ready now - tomorrow morning, we're off to the airport.