Baggage

Okay, well, I'm right down to the wire so I thought I'd just grab my bag and see what's in it.

It isn't a terribly old bag. I bought it on eBay in March for a fraction of it's worth. Of course, it came with the usual gambling aspect of not knowing exactly what it looks like, and I wasn't in love with it when it arrived. Actually, I'm still not in love with it, but it holds my old-school disc man in a way that allows me to listen while I'm mobile. The headphone wires come out of a front zipped pocket conveniently, (still haven't gravitated to Ipod-land), and it has enough room for my essentials. Basically I told myself that after I bought it I'd have to live with it for a reasonable amount of time. Incessent updating of hand/shoulder bags is a habit I don't feel yet comfortable adopting. It smacks of trend-seeking, vanity and frivolity to me. Anyhow, I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. It falls into the ever-mediocre land of 'like it enough'. So here I go...

In the main compartment of the bag I have the basics:

1. My not-so convenient change (and catch all) purse that I bought from Miss Selfridge in Canterbury for 5 pounds
2. A cheap umbrella I inherited from my old job at the pub in London where I worked until spring last year.
3. My current read: Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. I'm on a Murakami marathon, devouring book after book of his. I can't seem to get enough! -- the bookmark is a postcard of a photo (Erik Kessels collection) from an exhibit at the Photographers' Gallery near Leicester Square, London.

4. Extra CDs for listening on the bus-ride to and from work: currently Glenn Gould, Beethoven Concertos, and The Rolling Stones, Flowers.
5. When out, my mobile phone is in here too, naturally.

In the random little compartments inside I find:

1. Two old National Rail travel cards (I can't seem to ever throw these away). One is from May 2 27, just this past weekend, when Dan and I went to London for the day. The other is from October 24, 2006 from Queen's Road Peckham where Dan works. I must have gone in with him in the morning to meet up with friends while he worked, which I did occasionally before starting work again.
2. An old bus pass("Gold Megarider") from last week. These weekly put me down 17 pounds to get to work.
3. An Aleve bottle filled with generic ibuprofen.
4. A card from Stone in Canterbury, the last place I got my hair cut. Whether I ever get my hair cut there again is up for question.
5. Yuzu Bergamot moisturizer from the fancy hotel Tony treated us to in San Francisco last spring.
6. A day's regimen of vitamins wrapped in cellophane that I continually forget to take.

7. A random two-pence piece.

8. A list of bus pass prices that I got from the bus station in Canterbury after I got a job there.
9. Next week's work schedule that I haven't transferred to my calendar yet... a particularly exciting week because I'm taking a lieu day next Friday for a Bank Holiday that I worked.

And onto the front zipped pocket!

1. My aforementioned disc-man with Elvis Costello's My Aim is True being the last thing I listened to. I know it seems obvious, but I hadn't listened to it in ages. Honestly!
2. My current Gold Megarider uber-expensive bus pass.
3. A hot pink hair tie (for an emergency).
4. Our brochures for the How We Are: Photographing Britain exhibition that we went to last week at the Tate Britain in London.
5. Two rechargeable batteries for when the ones in my disc man run out.
6. A 2 for 1 dining voucher for a pizza/pasta place in Canterbury that we have to use soon because it's going to expire!
7. A Pilot G5.

And hiding within things that I found after taking the original pic:

1. The actual tickets to the How We Are exhibition.
2. A loyalty card from Leon, a cool little place on Carnaby Street.

The contents of my change purse:

1. My trusty London Underground travel card holder from God knows when with stuff inside.
2. My house keys on a cheesy Whitstable tourist key ring that was attached when we moved in... with a Tesco club card thingie to add points to Dan's account (I'm afraid of Big Brother so I don't have one of my own) and a bike lock key.
3. A key to my parents house (why this needs to be constantly in my purse, I don't know).
4. A Boot's advantage card.
5. Whittard/Julian Graves employee discount card (which I've never used).
6. Two pieces of Extra spearmint gum in a package that has seen better days.
7. A receipt from Fopp on Shaftesbury Avenue in London where I bought yet another Haruki Murakami book called Norwegian Wood.
8. Another pink (??!) hair tie.

8. Three pounds and fifty-two pence.

And finally... what's in the London Underground travel card holder?

1. My New York Driver's Licence that still pictures me at age 18.
2.My NatWest debit card.
3. My Empire Credit Union (Syracuse) debit and credit cards.
4. A Kindergarten picture of my nephew Riley.
5. 2 business cards from the Gateway Inn and Suites in San Bruno, CA.
6. A May 21, 2006 receipt for $33.45 from the Thai Nakorn Restaurant in San Bruno, CA.
7. Three make-shift 'business'cards that Dan and I made with just our names and invisiblecouple e-mail address. These were to help us with our anxiety about asking people if we could take their photo on our US road trip.
8. A June 10, 2006 receipt for 38 pounds from Giorgio's, a restaurant in Margate.
9. Three old National Rail cards (I told you I couldn't throw them away) --- two from Margate to Whitstable June 7th and 16th last year when I was cleaning the house and preparing it for our move when Dan was at work... and one from March 19, 2007 in London.
10. A silly photo booth pic of youthful Dan which makes me smile every time I see it.

Now, I don't know about you... but this was surely more than a 15 minute project! -- either that or I'm having an OCD attack; I'm over three hours in since I started! :) It's been fun though.