I get on a plane bound for England today, (yesterday if you are reading this on Tuesday) and I've solved my  packing dilemmas of last week.The big concession I made was deciding not to bring my laptop. I'll have to do a lot of writing longhand in a small notebook. It's been a while since I've worked that way, so it should be interesting to see if I can get done what I need to get done: reading and making notes on my  book manuscript, and drafting part of screenplay number four.  I love to have my laptop with me for quick and easy writing and web surfing. I'm very comfortable and at home on it and it lets me get work done fast. But for this trip, there just isn't room. When it's time to publish the blog, I'll borrow Calli's computer.I took some photos of the packing process. As you can see below, the camera will take up a lot of weight and space in the bag.  I'm just getting started here...

That's more like it. You can see my face paints up in the left hand corner. I'll put those in the green toiletries bag, if they fit. Everything on the green towel is what I will wear on the plane, so it doesn't have to go in the bag. Almost as big as my laptop is the printed manuscript, which you can see in the middle of the growing pile:

You can see that I am not bringing a hand bag. That little gold wristlet will have to do. I might decide to throw in a lightweight fabric roll-up shopping bag if there's space at the end. Also, a major concession is that I'm bringing almost no cold-weather clothes. I don't have them anyway, and Calli and her friends are glad to lend me what I need, for example, Wellies for tromping around muddy wetlands. I'll bring my trusty knitted cap, and a light jacket that I'll wear on the plane.  As far as shoes, I'm bringing just one pair in addition to the sneakers I wear on the plane. I hope my old grey leather boots will be dressy enough for a fancy restaurant or club. It's time for everything to go in the bag:

Okay, I managed to zip it up. It weighs in on my American scale at 19 pounds, which is 8.6 kilograms, well under the limit of 20 kilograms for easyJet luggage. Now it's time to measure it...

It comes in at or under the maximum allowed dimensions. Except for one sort of bulgy part, which is just over, but I figure if they pull out their tape measure I can just repack it so there's no bulgy part. Later, I realized I forgot my cell phone charger, the battery for the camera,  ear buds for the plane, and a converter to plug in the camera battery charger and my phone charger in England.  This is one reason why it's good to pack well in advance.Those are small items and will be easy to throw in... momentarily  as soon as I find them. I'm hoping that I can use my unlocked smart phone to get on a free WiFi connection in England so I can chat with Prince Charming on my phone using a Skype app and/or WhatsApp but my phone today is showing an error message when I try to get online. We'll see if Charming can take a look at it. I've got blogging and packing to finish.I'm proud to be traveling so lightly on this trip.Calli and England, here I come!