Packing Order.

Okay, time to pack for my annual pilgrimage back to Motherland. Though I've always looked forward to seeing everyone back home, I absolutely abhor the packing part. 

As always, there are the gifts for friends and family which, from experience, have always been the bulk of my baggage. When I say bulk, I mean somewhere between 6-8kgs with the occasional stretch up to 10kgs. This year, for some reason (I suspect the $900 from the Aussie government has something to do with it), the recession spurred me to buy MORE stuff resulting in some 12kgs or so of just gifts alone.

So anyways, that's the gift part. Then there's the CSH (Clothes, Shoes and Handbags) aka The Great Dilemma. Although I'm not someone with an elaborate wardrobe, I do have enough CSH (thanks to my garment manufacturing mother-in-law) to cause some frustration when it comes to travelling overseas; especially one-month-long holidays like this one. Should I take this top? If I did, would it go well with that bottom? If I didn't, why did I bother with that pair of shoes? And what about handbags? Different occasions warrant different bags. Decisions, decisions, decisions!

And to make matters worse, the 8kgs weight gain (and I'm not even pregnant!) has caused me to have to "reevaluate" all my apparels after I found out I couldn't fit into at least 10 pairs of jeans (not kidding!). Thus, last night, I went on a 'Can I Still Fit Into This' clothing review with the help of The Most Honest Person In The World who, not only answered 'of course not!' to every 'Do I Look Fat In This' but also reacted very quickly with the zips and buttons when I looked like I was about to burst the seams of several dresses.

As it turned out, the whole sorting process boiled down to:

Still, after shortlisting those clothes that fit and ("supposedly") looked fine on me, I still cross the luggage limit. In the end, I did the next best thing - assign all excess luggage to the husband to bring back later. I mean, what does he have to carry anyway? It's not like he going to wear anything other than t-shirts and bermudas in that scorching heat, and he doesn't need to decide how to match that pink blouse with that blue denim skirt and that black tote with that pair of white espadrilles.

Or does he?