G & J away from home

Friday, 06 May 2016

Although there are 24 days to go the 'Three' who are off to the Chalet School got together today for the last in-person planning meeting before we leave and, most importantly, the much anticipated 'trial pack'.  Being busy with other critical work (making cheese-and-onion sandwiches for lunch) I had actually failed to pack and so was at a significant disadvantage when Marianne arrived with the Smallest Bag Ever as her checked bag.

I was at once both awed and envious - and more than a little worried I would never be able to get my own luggage down to the size and weight of Marianne's carry-on-sized checked bag.  It would be very hard to tell as my packing trial was still in the preparation stage:

Packing prep.

I'd just finished weighing Marianne's bags when Beth arrived with an Even Smaller Bag.  I was gob-smacked but Beth was laugh-laugh-laughing because it had been I who had insisted we all needed to travel light.

I went off to do my belated packing feeling rather despondent; who would have thought both Beth and Marianne would be such over-achievers when it came to packing light?  I did feel a little better when the job was done and I could weigh my bag and set it beside the other two.  Here are the bags we will be checking in:

Beth, Jane, Marianne

If I remember rightly (and I'm happy to take corrections from the floor) they weighed: 7.8kg, 8.5kg and 9.5kg.  Beth also had the lightest cabin bag and Marianne the heaviest but all in the 4 - 5kg range.

And here we are with our checked and carry-on bags:'

Beth, Jane, Marianne

After the photo (and lunch) we did have show-and-tell where we sat around on the floor and unpacked our bags, explaining why we had made the choices we had; left things out, chosen certain items over others, and which slightly less-than-essential things we included just because it would make the holiday better to have them along.

Marianne's extras

A very useful get-together - as long as we can now resist adding things while we're all feeling so smug about how light we're travelling!

(Please note: everybody is taking an e-reader.  This is an essential item for the modern travelling reader.)

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