Packed: Hetho
Last week I packed a single suitcase and moved myself over to France.
I have no plan other than to find a hot French boyfriend, become a millionaire and retire by the age of thirty five. Easy. No but seriously how does one pack their life into a measly 23kg bag? These are my essentials, nevertheless.
Swannies scarf: Kayo membership secured. Let’s fucking go. Can I remind you who’s on the top of the ladder right now?
Aesop hand cream: A mate gifted me this a few years ago as a travelling present and it immediately converted me to expensive skincare. Even though it's a hand cream, I put this all over my face on the long haul flights so I don’t look like a flaky ant eater on the other side. Works a charm.
Canon AE-1: Bought this bad boy off Marketplace a few years ago for $50 with absolutely no knowledge of how to use it. Still kind of don’t how to use it but I’m slowly getting there. I really enjoy learning about film and photography, although it’s proven to be way more expensive than I’ve anticipated with how many rolls of film I’ve fucked in the process.
Books: The hardest thing about moving from Australia to France was not being able to take all my books with me. Near impossible to be fair but in the spirit of packing light, I opted only to bring the ones I’m currently reading. I usually read about two or three books at one time - a serious/ factual one, and then an easy, good story one. This is my current rotation, respectively. I’ve collected all my books since forever, so good luck to future Sam on the dilemma that will inevitably occur when I have to ship them back to their forever home, wherever that may be.
5. Notebooks: People would probably assume I have really nice notebooks as a writer but I found that if they were too nice I wouldn’t end up writing in them so I reverted back to $2 notebooks from officeworks or random ones that people always seem to collaterally gift me. I have about three going at once for all sorts of ideas as well as a daily journal that I try to update every day on things I’m grateful for, life highlights and whatever is going on in my brain that I got to let out.
6. Pocket knife: Growing up on a farm means carrying a pocket knife around is inherently built into my DNA. Obviously, you can’t be carrying this shit around in the city so this used to sit in the glovebox of my car at home. I’ve taken one with me on every overseas trip since I was eighteen and they always come in handy. This one is from our James Brand collab a few years ago and it’s still as trusty as ever.
7. Mug: My darling twin sister made me this. A little bit of home to bring with me.
8. Book money: For obvious reasons.
9. Trad headphones: Fuck airpods. Grow up.
10. Glasses: I’ve been avoiding wearing glasses full time forever but now the time has finally come. Thankfully, these ones are cute as hell. It's been so fun to see.
11. Bikinis: Only the girlies know that there are several types of bikinis. One to swim in, one to tan in, one to surf in. Plus extras just in case. All included, obviously.
12. Patagonia wetsuit: For all the tube time I’m about to get…
Me and my books I had to leave behind :(