A weighty problem
Dakota's post about handbags and a link from 43 folders (yesterday) to a Washington Times article about the amount of stuff modern man/woman carries around got me thinking. I just turned out my backpack (Hedgren Urban Bags, dark brown, somewhat the worse for wear), here are the contents:
- Belgian ID card (it's obligatory to carry this at all times - I've often wondered where one is supposed to put it when swimming!)
- British passport, which I needed for my holiday booking for Libya (yay!)
- bus pass, in a holder tied to a loop on the bag so I don't lose it (again....)
- mobile phone
- purse/wallet
- digital camera (more usually in jacket pocket)
- folding hairbrush
- packet of tissues
- small tube of handcream
- small tupperware container containing non-caffeinated teabags (Rooibos, green tea)
- 1 "reading book" (The Devil's Feather by Minette Walters, lent by M)
- Turkish verb book in case I get stuck somewhere without anything to do...
- The Bulletin, English-language weekly magazine about Belgium
- Zone 02, free French-language weekly about Brussels
- 2 holiday brochures
- envelope containing print-out of internet booking for an exhibition in London next month
- notebook for writing down any good ideas that happen to strike me
- 3 felt-tip pens, 2 ballpoints, 2 pencils and an eraser
- "Euromillions" lottery ticket bought on 27 January with La Carioca, for a laugh - but it seems that none of the winners live in Belgium!
- bank card, supermarket card and healthfood store card (I don't keep cards in my purse any more!)
Mind you, this is nothing compared to the loads local schoolchildren carry. I often see them bent double under backpacks almost as big as they are, or struggling to lift their satchel-trolleys up onto the bus!
I suppose we just have too much stuff. What burdens are YOU carrying?
posted by qaminante @ 19:53
10 comments
10 Comments:
Mine are pretty light, but I do have this habit of carying the digital camera around!
Can you please tell me what does Qaminante mean?
It's a whimsical spelling of "caminante", which is Spanish for traveller or wanderer, see
http://qaminante.blogspot.com/2005/12/poetry-in-and-motion.html
http://qaminante.blogspot.com/2005/12/
poetry-in-and-motion.html
oooh. i did this @ another blog but contents of my bag has changed abit.
1. ventolin inhaler
2. $
3. cell phone
4. digicam
5. gum
6. pen (1 purple, 1 black)
7. note/scrap book
8. chapstick
9. hairbrush
10. ID
11. passport
12. drivers licence
13. pic of my parents
14. 8-ball
15. psp
16. umbrella
17. water
18. handcream
19. sanitizing handgel
20. drinking straws
Hey boo, you must have a bootiful big bag too! What would we do without our toys?
Mine is quite empty right now, but let’s see what’s usually in there:
Filofax organiser with a pen
Extra pen
Highlighter/marker
Cell phone
ID/passport
Lip balm
Hand lotion
Business cards from others
Book, I’m reading
Batteries (I don’t know why)
Paracetamol, Ibuprofen
Tissues
Band-aids
Nail file
Sunglasses
Purse/wallet
Keys
Water
Fisherman’s Friend mini’s or gum
I carry a picnic basket as well as my pocketbook, for trips to my office and back. It's my briefcase. I like it because it allows manuscripts to lie flat and not get bent up.
Of course, I also have room for clothes to go to the cleaners and clips of movie reviews, etc.
I get them at thrift shops, and wear one out about every year and a half.
Because I carry this big closed basket and wrote a novel called Sister India, one of my neighbors calls me the Cobra Lady. I trust that's why he calls me that. He seems like a nice guy.
Dakota, I wonder whether you do what I do and carry around batteries for days intending to drop them off at one of the places that collects them.. Sometimes I put them aside and then can't remember whether they are old or new.
Peggy, perhaps you should carry a flute as well! I checked to see whether I read your novel (I have to list books I read as I don't keep many) and I did, almost 4 years ago, though I don't remember much beyond a very vivid Varanasi setting. Look forward to your next one!
my handbag is huge and generally a disaster zone ... always contains a book or two and a couple of notebooks (one for interviews and articles and meetings, the other for more creative jottings) ... fibre tipped pens ... handphone (which you'd no doubt term a "mobile"!) generally switched off ... a couple of lipsticks that have seen better days ... no mirror comb or hairbrush (I tell my hairdresser to give me the messed up look becasue it's the only style i can keep tidy) ... a bright green leather purse which still contains british coins as well as malaysian money ... and a whole mess of scrappy bits of paper, receipts, loose tissues, yesterday's serviettes, tampons ... disaster!
Hi Biblio, actually where I live a mobile/cellphone is called a GSM but I didn't think anyone would understand that! German friends call it a handyphone. Whatever they call them, everyone seems to be carrying one around with them, and I must say I would be lost without mine now even though it is mostly switched off.
Greensleeves, how do you manage to carry chocolate around with you without eating it?! It wouldn't last 5 minutes in my bag.
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