London, 24 hours before leaving

Everybody who knows me a little bit knows that I'm the queen of forgetting things. When it comes to packing for a trip, even if it's just one night at my parents, I freak out. My biggest fear is forgetting things, and 99% of the times, I manage to do so. Sometimes it's trivial stuff, like a clean pair of socks, but sometimes important stuff, like my contact lenses. The most embarassing thing I've ever forgotten must be the time when I went to a concert of my orchestra without bringing my clarinet. O wait, that didn't even happen once, but TWICE.

The fact that I'm such a dumbass when it comes to this sort of things nags at me a lot, actually. More than once, I've felt so ashamed for forgetting my friends' birthdays, meetings, other peoples belongings that I borrowed...It may seem that I'm just careless and uninterested. Far from it! It's just that I've been this way all my life and I haven't yet found a way to change it.

People advised me to make notes to remember stuff. And I do that, and it helps a little. Usually, I get my more lucid moments when I'm lying in bed trying to fall asleep and then I'm too lazy to make a note, wishfully thinking I'll remember it the next morning. Which of course, never happens. So a few weeks ago I bought a whiteboard, to scrabble down things that I need to remember. For London I'm trying this new tactic of making a list with the things that I need to pack. It looks like this


Instead of freaking out, I'm going to wake up at 8 a.m., going for a swim with Chris, THEN do all the packing. I promise myself here and now that I'm not going to take all day, but limit myself to 1 hour. Then I'm going to eat dinner with Christiaan, and board the train to Arnhem, to toast with Misha on a nice (and probably sweaty) vacation in London! Prepare for a shitload of pictures as my new camera will surely come along!

Hasta la vista, baby!