An Old Kit Bag

I have condensed and condensed my pile of Stuff (leaving out juggling balls, tarot cards, extra tea, books upon books upon books…) and am left with something that still weighs about 10kg too much. So what do I cut? Should I leave one of the jumpers, only to find it colder than I expected? Must I depart without my three little Norwegian bookits? How will I survive? Or should I throw caution to the wind, leave behind any toiletries and just buy them when I get there?

Pack all your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile…

Aye. If only it were that easy.

In fact, my brother said a similar thing at dinner today while I was complaining about how stressful packing is: he said “Don’t worry about packing. All you need is a book about language and a pair of shoes to go walking about the countryside in.” I didn’t realise at the time how sweet and, yes, insightful it was of him.

So I’ve been thinking… perhaps ten sweaters is too many. And as for books… well, like I said before there’s always Librivox and Project Gutenberg. I expect I’ll be reading a lot of old literature in the coming year.

The only thing I’m really sad about is that I have to leave be hind all my carefully arranged books about Old High German Grammar and my Anglo-Saxon Reader, and all my Norse myths. But provided all goes to plan, I’ll be able to read them in the original Icelandic before too long!