It's THAT time again

Tonight the bags came down from the loft ready to be filled with holiday things. Then it was THAT time. You know the time when you have to ty and remember where you put 1. The yellow Disney rain poncho's and 2. The straps for the suitcases.

I know I should keep them all together with the cases, but somehow they got put away elsewhere. I found the bag with the travel holiday washing line and universal adaptors, and even stumbled across the set of walkie talkies that we take every year and never use.

I then got somewhat distracted when I found the box containing all the hotel toiletries, the ones you have to take because you paid for them - YOU know the ones! You pile them all up and only use an odd soap sometimes when a guest arrives or you run out of your normal soap. There were some there from our honeymoon 20 years ago. See, you should save the planet and leave them where they are for the next guest.

Then I had an idea. This year instead of buying new toiletries (despite the fact that I love trying out new ones) we will take a load of the freebies with us to top up the ones in the hotels. Especially seeing as a lot of hotels now have these dispensers instead of pretty little bowls of smellies.

Then there they were, right at the back of the cupboard, nestled snugly behind the bag of window glass paints that were now solid and of no use to man nor beast. A rainbow of colour! Our multi-coloured suitcase straps! All sixteen of them - or so it seemed as I pulled them out, one after the other. And guess what? The poncho's were there with them. Bingo! I know they look naff but you have to have them just for the photos.

In the process of the big search, I managed to clear out a load of junk - like 10 of those little pouches you get on the plane - containing a pair of socks that you would never wear anywhere except on a plane, a toothbrush that would rip your gums to shreds and a teeny tube of toothpaste that does sometimes come in handy, a pen and an eye thing (what the hell do you call them????) the things that people with no kids can use when they want to go to sleep.

A box of aromatherapy oils that expired in Jan 2001. A massager/cellulite gadget thing from years ago, and close to fifty free cosmetics bags from a miriad of companies, but mainly Clarins and Clinique. A couple of rolls of Super heroes wallpaper, and a box full of DVD's that had been put in there for some reason even though they were great films.

So I'm feeling rather pleased with the job done and a now tidy cupboard - it had to be done sometime.

In the process of looking for a suitable picture on Google images I found this. I would have to burn the house down if my desk ever got to this ..

(Gail runs off screaming and wailing and pulling her hair out by the roots. )




Putz? Is this YOUR desk?