I should explain; I ‘m only really excited by the prospect of buying bags and notebooks. After all, anything could go into them. This means that I own a lot of notebooks (they’re cheap) and some really swanky bags. I tend to pay at least £40 for a bag and look for features like being waterproof, having lots of pockets, and making me look more manly.

My last bag had all those in spades; A North Face messenger bag. Made of the same kind of material that lorry tarpaulin is made from, it’s waterproof and pretty indestructable. I know this because KLM tried to destruct it on my trip to Finland earlier this year, but left it looking cooler by virtual of battlescars. Thanks KLM!

It is a messenger bag, which means that it’s great for bombing around town in, and I’ve mainly been using it around town. However, now that my knee and the weather are better I’ve picked up a new bag for long-distance cycling, so it’s time to see what cruft is knocking around in the bottom of my bag. That is:

•    One AAA battery, from when I was best man for Brian’s wedding. I had around £20 of batteries in my bag for other people’s digital cameras.
•    One Staedler blue pen, which truthfully belongs to an ex-girlfriend.
•    One wodge of pink post-it notes.
•    One uni-ball fineliner, which I brought before getting a space pen
•    My passport
•    One paperclip (not red)
•    A plastic bag from Micro Anvika (where?)
•    A leaflet from the Newcastle Philosophy Society
•    One discount voucher from KLM, who lost my bags in France
•    Two unused toothbrushes and packaging
•    Small crumpler bag which I use for carrying tools in, as I am a nerd and like tools
•    One softback notebook, brought whilst doing a residency in Liverpool with really nice people
•    A large hex nut and matching washer
•    A black nylon cord
•    Notes on green post-it notes about the Royal Society
•    Various receipts, averaging a value of £10.38
•    The bag for my sunglasses, which I thought I’d lost

I’d love to hear what others have in their bag – what tech does Alistair carry around in the bottom of his bag? What’s knocking around in trans-european Pippa’s bag? Does Yvette habitually have writing tools in hers, and does Brian have any electronics in his? Does David have some climbing equipment, or just a power bar? And is Oli carrying around some fancy cooking oil? Please post your cruft for other to see!

• Most of Saturday’s Guardian (Family, Travel, Review, Work sections unread, News, Magazine, Money, Guide sections read)
• A-N magazine for April (which I only found out after reading for a bit)
• A-N magazine collection ‘Production Lines‘
• A copy of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, by Harper Lee
• An unread copy of “Why Do Buses Come in Threes?”, by Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham
• A copy of the novelisation of Howard the Duck (which is really good, actually)
• Unix for Mac OS X Tiger, by Dave Taylor
• Visualizing Data, by Ben Fry
• Processing, by Ira Greenberg
• Make Magazine issue 14

Technology

• The fleece case for a nokia N800
• An ipod shuffle with cable
• A usb to usb-mini cable
• My mobile phone
• A watch I got for free from Marks and Spencer
• The power unit for one of my hard-drives (12 volt 2 amp output, it says here)
• An extra copy of a Zelda game that ordered when Amazon went a bit weird on me
• Laptop of great annoyance and it’s now requisite extra keyboard. Bah.
• A TV remote

Miscellaneous

• One of Elizabeth’s notebooks
• One of my notebooks
• Various letters and A4 pieces of paper that have been sent to me by doctors and Waygood.
• Some ibuprofen
• My bag, the mysterious Zook (full report coming this week!)
• A box of sultanas
• A laminating pocket in it’s pre-laminated phase
• A gel pack for applying cold/heat to my knee

Rubbish

• A double-decker wrapper
• The inside of a box of Marks and Spencer Dutch biscuits
• Various envelopes and mailing packets

Clothes

• A v-neck jumper in royal blue
• A pair of jeans
• The detachable trouser legs from the shorts that I’m wearing