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it's good to be home
Jul. 13th, 2008 11:13 pmIt's better to be home and showered (my first shower since Friday morning). Given that I was schlepping around over 15 kg of books for most of the day, I was beginning to stink towards the end.
Winchester Pilgrimage was a wonderful event, and deserves a post of its own. Most of what I have to say about the journey back today derives from immense satisfaction at my own ingenuity. Stansted Airport still has the stupid constraint that going through security you can only have one bag. Period. This isn't just one carry-on bag, but includes carry-ons, purses, satchels, etc. Now, I've got my school bag which has my laptop, and my camera bag with the camera. Neither of these will I ever put in checked luggage. Neither of these fits in the other (when both laptop and camera are present). Neither is particularly big, and for most airports I can say that the camera bag is my purse and they don't blink an eye, since it's smaller than the average lady's purse! But I had a good 45 minutes standing in the check-in line to figure out how to game the system, since there was no way I was doing what I did the last time I ended up in Stansted with more than one item not being checked (namely, buy a bag big enough to fit the two that I had). So I pulled my veil out of my bag before checking it, and found myself a table where I took the strap off my school bag, took out my laptop and set it aside, laid out the veil, put the two bags in the middle, folded the veil in half and tied it shut at the top, and then cinched the strap around it. And then I remembered that I still had needle and thread tucked into my pilgrim's scrip (more on that in next post) which was in my school bag, so out that came and I whipped the edges of the veil together. *Tada*! Instant bag, sort of looks like a pillow case. Made it through security without anyone blinking an eye.
Of course on the other end I promptly sat down, picked all the stitches out and resorted the bags as they had been, but the veil ended up still being convenient awhile later when I'd be sitting in airconditioning long enough to wish I hadn't put my little zip up hoodie into my checked bag. *Poof*! Instant shawl.
The other thing noteworthy today is that after a long time (nearly 5 years), I've finished another blank book. I've been keeping a diary in blank books (the original ones were lined, but now I prefer unlined, you can get more on a page) since I was 10, not very regularly but often enough for it to be continous. That's usually where I write out all the things that I wouldn't want to bore people here with. :) I've found over the last few years that I tend to write in my diary when either (a) I'm sad/angry/frustrated or (b) traveling. When I'm happy and at home, nothing gets written. A testament to this is that in my first year of marriage, I think I wrote three entries (this being because I forgot to bring it with on the honeymoon, which I regret). Anyway, the first post in the volume I just finished was written on the day that my parents met Joel's for the first time; we'd been engaged for about two months. A whole lot can happen in five years... When my mom and I were at the Van Gogh museum when she visted two years ago, she picked me up a new blank book with a view towards this day. It's always fun starting a new volume. I wonder how long this one will take me to fill.
Winchester Pilgrimage was a wonderful event, and deserves a post of its own. Most of what I have to say about the journey back today derives from immense satisfaction at my own ingenuity. Stansted Airport still has the stupid constraint that going through security you can only have one bag. Period. This isn't just one carry-on bag, but includes carry-ons, purses, satchels, etc. Now, I've got my school bag which has my laptop, and my camera bag with the camera. Neither of these will I ever put in checked luggage. Neither of these fits in the other (when both laptop and camera are present). Neither is particularly big, and for most airports I can say that the camera bag is my purse and they don't blink an eye, since it's smaller than the average lady's purse! But I had a good 45 minutes standing in the check-in line to figure out how to game the system, since there was no way I was doing what I did the last time I ended up in Stansted with more than one item not being checked (namely, buy a bag big enough to fit the two that I had). So I pulled my veil out of my bag before checking it, and found myself a table where I took the strap off my school bag, took out my laptop and set it aside, laid out the veil, put the two bags in the middle, folded the veil in half and tied it shut at the top, and then cinched the strap around it. And then I remembered that I still had needle and thread tucked into my pilgrim's scrip (more on that in next post) which was in my school bag, so out that came and I whipped the edges of the veil together. *Tada*! Instant bag, sort of looks like a pillow case. Made it through security without anyone blinking an eye.
Of course on the other end I promptly sat down, picked all the stitches out and resorted the bags as they had been, but the veil ended up still being convenient awhile later when I'd be sitting in airconditioning long enough to wish I hadn't put my little zip up hoodie into my checked bag. *Poof*! Instant shawl.
The other thing noteworthy today is that after a long time (nearly 5 years), I've finished another blank book. I've been keeping a diary in blank books (the original ones were lined, but now I prefer unlined, you can get more on a page) since I was 10, not very regularly but often enough for it to be continous. That's usually where I write out all the things that I wouldn't want to bore people here with. :) I've found over the last few years that I tend to write in my diary when either (a) I'm sad/angry/frustrated or (b) traveling. When I'm happy and at home, nothing gets written. A testament to this is that in my first year of marriage, I think I wrote three entries (this being because I forgot to bring it with on the honeymoon, which I regret). Anyway, the first post in the volume I just finished was written on the day that my parents met Joel's for the first time; we'd been engaged for about two months. A whole lot can happen in five years... When my mom and I were at the Van Gogh museum when she visted two years ago, she picked me up a new blank book with a view towards this day. It's always fun starting a new volume. I wonder how long this one will take me to fill.
