The Bub in the Belly

Something fun today.

When I see ladies carrying huge totes, I always wonder what they have inside. I used to carry a lot around when I was younger, but as the years passed, my list of essentials shrank and the tote and I have parted ways. Now, I carry a small to medium sized handbag, and I try to keep the contents to a minimum. I just have my wallet, my phone, my blackberry, my business card holder, my house keys, my car keys, and sometimes a notebook.

Even when I became a mum, I never had to carry much around. Just a diaper and some wipes, and a blanket for breastfeeding. Ryan had no milk powder/bottle (that was me), no pacifier (that was also me) and no toys for entertainment (me, again). We never worried about getting dirty/wet and needing extra clothes - we just rolled with it. There was one time Ryan had to go topless while we finished up our outing. I wrapped him in his blanket while carrying him in my arms. A stranger came up to me and told me he would catch a cold. He didn't.

I never bought a diaper bag or any sort of dedicated bag for baby stuff, although I confess that, a few years back, when Richard took me to the Louis Vuitton store to buy a handbag for me, I did ask to see their diaper bag (when the sales assistant was wrapping up our purchase). I was more curious than anything, and any shred of interest I had in buying it evaporated the moment I saw it - it was big, bulky and heavy. Not for me.

Now, in addition to my handbag, I usually carry a bag for my camera, which I load with quite a lot of gear, plus I still carry Ryan around quite a lot. So I do try to keep the total weight of all our bags as low as possible. I don't need to carry a diaper and wipes anymore, we just keep a pack in the car. I also don't bring a blanket around anymore as Ryan doesn't nurse as often as before. Depending on the occasion, we might bring some stuff for Ryan to play with, like an alphabet set or a drawing pad.

Anyway, I was walking about today and my handbag was feeling so very heavy. I looked and discovered that there was so much junk inside! It still holds the evidence of our holiday plus I had a few errands to run which explains some of the stuff. Nevertheless, I think you'd be shocked at what was in my handbag (I certainly was!) so, just for fun, I thought I'd share it with you, to give you an idea of what I carry around as a mum of a three year old (yes, three already!).  Ready?

Here's the big picture.

2. Black business card holder (also contains my access pass to my office)
3. Blue notebook for scribbling ideas (not for notes).
4. Two ballpoint pens
5. Red packets
6. Blackberry (office issued. Extremely old generation - my office has offered to get me the latest one, but I'm just too used to this one to bother)
7. Frequent customer stamp cards (including one from Borders, which has closed all its Singapore stores)
8. Receipts from shopping, eating, etc.
9. Hairbrush
10. Under the hairbrush is a concierge card for a taxi from the Conrad Hotel (I had lunch there on Tuesday with clients)
11. Receipt from Casa Bom Vento because I still owe them the tray that the fish heads came on (from the curry fish head for the birthday bash)
12. Chopard watch, a gift from Richard which I carry around because I need to change the worn-out strap. I keep forgetting when I'm out in the shops so the watch keeps going in and out of my handbag.
13. Tag Heuer watch, also a gift from Richard. It's here because I took it off when I weighed myself two days ago (every gram counts!)
14. Two hair scrunchies
15. Two tubes of lip cream
16. A new eye makeup applicator
17. Some coins, which should have gone into my wallet
18. Pet Lovers Centre membership card and an expired SK-II card
19. A spare cashcard
20. Spare contact lenses
21. A birthday card for Ryan from his grandmother (my mum)
22. A pouch containing our bank account books and cheque books (had to do some banking today)

There's more...



31. Car key (at the top right, above the notebook)

In the interest of full disclosure, there was actually one more item (which I put away before I thought of taking these shots) - it was a set of photographs.

In my defence, I will only say that having this much junk in my handbag was unusual. Please believe me.