I Hate Packing

You might think that someone who loves to travel and see the world would enjoy packing. It’s the last thing you do before you start a journey. It should be full of anxiety, adrenaline, and thoughts of trip ahead. Yet packing is such a chore.

Now packing for a small vacation somewhere warm is rather fun. All you need is a couple pairs of shorts, some shirts, a pair of sandals, a bathing suit, a towel, and maybe some other small items. Yet the packing I have been doing again and again this trip is so much more than assembling a simple warm get-away bag. Every where I go either involves a massive move, like Bermagui to Brisbane, or the packing I am doing for the next two weeks I will be in Airlie Beach/Cannonvale. The problem is that I need to pack items for a week of holiday and a week of work. Work I've never done. So what do you pack? What do you leave behind? What can you live without? What can't you live without? It's a very difficult problem.

 

This is why I hate packing. Packing is such a simple chore that could mean two weeks of bliss or misery. For example, the last two jobs I had here were very different in that one office was very warm and the next was so cold I had three layers on. How do you plan for that? What do pack? I don't know. If I were in Calgary it would be a bit easier because the dress code is generally more relaxed. Here, a casual day involves dress pants, dress shoes, and a dress shirt - the shirt maybe more daring than other days. A normal office generally expects that you will wear a full suit. And I do mean full.

 

Brisbane's business environment is very different than other places I have been. It is extremely formal. More than - and I am guessing here - 30% of businessmen wear three piece suits; pants, vest, and jacket. This is a very well dressed city, but it is all suits. Walking through the streets downtown I was amazed at the lack of diversity in attire. It is like Brisbane has a dress code.

 

Just to clarify, denim is worn. Denim can be worn to work on Friday. Denim is not always a pair jeans. Denim is not always worn to work on Friday. Denim seems to still relegated to the working class here or just the casual weekend wear. This might be in part due to the volume of transients and surfer types that live in jeans, so office attire is at minimum a pair of slacks and dress shirt in reaction to what jeans are perceived to embody.

 

So now you have some idea why I hate packing. I need to pack for walks on the beach, pack warm and cold office clothes. The clothes themselves aren't so bad, it's the shoes that take up all the space. Packing two pairs of shoes (one pair dress shoes and one pair of sandals) takes up all the space in the suitcase. I hate packing.

 

So remember the next time you are going somewhere and are feeling a little frustrated about packing. It could always be worse!