Baggage

 

It’s all about the packing this week… what’s the golden number for shirts (ironed or au naturel), pants, jumpers and the rest? What’s essential, what’s optional, what’s a frivolous luxury? I think, for me, a kettle would fall into that last category, along with baked beans and Cheddar cheese, even though I am a fan. I’ll make do with boiling water in a saucepan and enjoying the local fabada and Manchego cheese. When in Leon…

I wonder too, whether to take any books, reading material for the kids, trusty Scrivener and/or Swan for the theory and/or English grammar, meditation or Yoga recovery workouts for post-classroom management “calamities”. It will depend, I suppose, on how close the dial gets to the magic 20kg on the scales and it is already perilously close! Trying to balance a large case on a decrepit pair of bathroom scales is a precarious operation and not an entirely accurate one. I’m sure Ryanair scales will weigh differently in any (and for all) cases.

I’ll aim to be ruthless, like I had to be walking the Camino before Covid. You lugged your luggage on your back day after day, tortoise-like, so every extra pair of socks or box of Compeed counted. That experience, the walking I mean, was good for processing the other sort of baggage, the emotional stuff we carry. That comes along too, but without a weight limit; in my case it’s the insecurities, the worry about being good enough, the pain of a recent loss. I plan to walk a new bit of the Camino from Leon; I’m already looking forward to the breakfasts on street-corner cafés of orange juice (squeezed), café con leche and a freshly baked pastry, a bargain at 2.5 euros from memory. For me, the teaching, like the walking, will be a matter of step by step, keeping an eye on the ultimate destination.