Weighty issues and situation monitoring - a boring navel gazing post!

Woo!hoo! looks like a wind change is forecast...maybe we WILL get there!...trying not to get too excited!

from Singapore airlines:
The following flights to Europe on 21 April have been scheduled:

• SQ365, Rome-Singapore, scheduled to depart 1600hrs (Rome time)
• SQ366, Singapore-Rome, scheduled to depart 0520hrs (Singapore time)

So while the ash over Europe has been  making me wonder if I'll ever get away, I'm still  doing my Weight Weenie act with my packing.   Every gram saved by not packing unnecessary or unnecessarily heavy stuff means  more weight for the really important gear I need..ie clothes!

For some reason I now find it impossible to travel without the following, all of which have accompanying cables and chargers: 2 mobiles -1 a smart phone with  an Aus Sim card and 1 dead simple with Italian/French/Austrian/whatever Sim card, iPod, Garmin 705 (this trip, SRM powercontrol when racing), digital camera, Ay up twin lights (for use when cycling into long dark tunnels and night time trips to the toilet in camping grounds)  and lap top. So as to make some order out of this electronic chaos,  anything that can be charged from the lap top will be doing so rather direct from the mains so  that gets rid of 3 wall charges and cables. Total savings amongst the electronic gear is about 500gm.

Mini lap top...I've indulged myself and bought a  teeny tiny lap top  (an end of range special at Harvey Norman) to take OS instead of my standard sized rather hefty model and it's great but the mouse pad drove me nuts so I went in search of a mini mouse and found this ..shown on the lap top (and with my glasses to give a sense of scale).  Actually the first one was a dud and I had to return to the shop to either get a refund or one that worked

I've also discovered  this box  (costs $70) and might think about it for future trips as it's lighter  than my Qantas one..it's not in the plan  for  this trip as the box has to get chucked out on arrival in Italy since there's no room in the truck for 30 of them and I'm not too keen on chucking out something that cost me $70, but if the weight issue becomes desperate it's just a short drive to Dandenong......

I have 3 more days at work and tomorrow is the farewell bash, so its time to finalise my speech and dampen down the emotions.....ciao!