Torch One – Batteries Nil

All week I’ve been doing my usual form of packing, which involves tossing anything I think I’ll want to take onto a chair in my office. The problem with this particular method, is that it gives me the illusion of having packed without actually having packed a single thing. The result is a chair piled high with clothes, books, toiletries – and, in this case, blister kits and any amount of chargers and electronic equipment. It all needs sorting out – and by now I should have learnt that it’s no five-minute job.
I re-read the information sheet that Tina has sent out to all the pilgrims – and I’m very glad of it. She suggests that a torch might be useful in a dark church hall – good point! The horror of tripping over a sleeping body and waking everyone on a 2am loo trip doesn’t bear thinking about.
So I make yet another trip to the cellar to have a good rummage around in the camping box. I’m distracted by something I come across in a stuff bag. The nylon sets my teeth on edge as I pull it out. It turns out to be a camping pillow. Now how on earth did we acquire that? Like many people, we have a habit of accumulating things without any idea how. Ordinarily I’d scoff the idea of a camping pillow (when a de-lumped pile of clothes will do the job), but we’re not carrying our bags, and it might be nice to have it. So I stuff it into my rucksack. Now, on with the hunt for the torch. Aha – found it! I check that it works and find that I have, in some hyper-organised moment, remembered to take out the batteries before putting it away. So now the hunt's on for the batteries…