Thursday 21 February 2013

Packing

Something you should know about me - I really dislike packing.

I try to be organised.  I always have a list.  I do lots of research into wherever I'm visiting; I know what the weather will be like, I know where I can get food (having weird dietary requirements is a total pain!), I know how the transport system works, I know what currency I need and what the time difference will be...  So in theory, packing should be easy.  

But it's not.  This is what my bedroom floor looks like just now:
To pack...
You might say that looks quite organised, but it's been like that for the last 3 days.  And my rucksack isn't that big.   

Getting to this point has been pretty stressful.  Last week, one week before we travel, our washing machine decided to stop working.  We spent two days staring at it, surrounded by piles of clothes, willing it to start working.  Eventually, we realised that it's not going to fix itself and had to resign ourselves to the fact we were going to have to hand wash 2 weeks worth of clothes in the bath.  Fortunately, my lovely friend Angela and her working washing machine saved the day and have spent the last three days surrounded by my dirty laundry.  It's a good job we know each other well.

In 2010, I was involved in a Girlguiding UK GOLD (Guiding Overseas Linked with Development) project in Guyana, South America.  The rest of the team realised pretty quickly that I am really bad at packing.  I took just about everything except the kitchen sink (it wouldn't fit in my rucksack).  My personal favourite random and unnecessary item was the giant chalk.  To this day, I have no idea why I decided giant chalk was a good idea, but still I took some.  After three weeks of being ridiculed for taking giant chalk, I was determined to find a use for it...

Giant Chalk Challenge!
We made a giant board game to teach people about environmental issues!  So the giant chalk DID come in handy... 

Ok, I promise I won't take giant chalk to the UN.  But what *do* I take for two weeks in New York?  How do I fit it all into one rucksack?

Answers on a postcard please...

And yes, I do realise that in the time spent writing this post I could have packed my bag AND had a cup of tea.  That's how much I hate packing!

Rosyx

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