Packing!

I love going on holidays, but the packing part really stresses me out.

What if I don't take the right clothes? What if I want to wear something specific and I don't have it with me? What if it gets cold and I only have summer clothes (as happened to me on a trip to New Zealand)?

The reasonable, rational response to all those issues is "well, just go and buy something", but that doesn't wash with me. I like being prepared. I like having all my bases covered. Because I usually don't find something when I go looking for it in a shop as a starting point but I also don't like wasting time looking for something I have to buy... There is a difference between wanting to buy something and schlepping around a mall in Copenhagen looking for tank tops and t-shirts because we can't find somewhere to do our washing...

Anyway, the trip we are about to embark upon has an interesting set of parameters, weather-wise. We are off to the northern part of South Africa (Kruger National Park) where it will be cold at night but mid-thirties during the day, the UK where hopefully it will be warm down south but realistically the north of Scotland will be freezing by Kitty standards, and Hong Kong where it's the end of the hot wet season. So it will, ergo, be hot and wet. We also have some special dinners planned so no doubt I'll need a frock and a snazzy pair of shoes as well.

Hmmm.

So I have to pack for warm, hot, wet, cold, freezing, night and day - all with a 23 kilo limit. Including toiletries. And there has to be weight left over for me to do some shopping while I am in the UK. Unfortunately, unlike Carrie, I don't have a Mr Big to cart around my bags. The rule in our house is "you buy it, you schlep it."

Sounds like a bit of a challenge. Wish me luck.

Kitty

Photo courtesy of Vogue.