packing order.

I dread packing for trips and I always do it last minute, and the minute would stretch into hours. But I guess the reward justifies the "pain" lol! But really, the more important decisions when going on vacay are which books to bring and what music to listen to, right? Right. :D

So I've narrowed my selection of books to three, one a biography of Indian-born, Canadian-American renown Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, another a collection of articles that previously appeared in The New Yorker by English-Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell, and one mystery novel by British author Dorothy Sayers written in 1931. A pretty awesome mix there I'd say, from gender and genre to the authors' nationalities to even how I got hold of each book (J lent me RZ's book which incidentally went with her to Geneva last month, I'd say that this book is better traveled that I am!; I found MG's book at the bottom of my shelf with no recollection of having bought or borrowed it from anyone; and DS's book was from a book sale). These should keep me pretty occupied during the long transit.

So I've sync-ed my song playlist, and for the first time in my life, I'm going all out with stuff I've never heard before and some I'd never thought I would. This is a departure from my usual preference to go with something I've listened to a million times from the usual suspects (like how I listened to Leehom in my entire Melbourne trip). This time, I just want to break away from that habit, and I'll admit it's kinda unsettling but boo hoo. Every song is new (to me) and I've never known any one of them just a month ago.. and like my books, they cover quite a range, from Instrumental and Jazz to Pop, Rock, Soul and Rap (of course ;), and I have songs from the 70s, 90s, noughties, 2010's all the way up to some singles released not a month ago... I randomly downloaded some albums from the awesome free music site Noisetrade, and the rest from you-know-where-haha after reading music articles over the past couple of weeks. And while I'll tell you about every book I have or will read, I am pretty coy in sharing my playlist -- just chalk that up to another quirk of mine :D

So I've stuffed all my clothes and shoes and toiletries and lingerie and cosmetics and electronics in my new giant fuchsia luggage, and in my tote bag, I've got a book and iPod and passport and neck pillow and mint and cardigan and cash. I've got an awesome ten days ahead of me in an island not too far away, where I hope I'd bump into Leehom (who is in NY now, but 10 days is a long enough time for me to hope that he'd back to Tpe haha) and where I know my hubby is waiting for me, so..................

Taiwan, here I come again! :)