Three homes

For the time being, I am the proud owner of three ‘homes’. My old house, my new house and my suitcase. I know, I can’t actually live in a suitcase, but it is indeed my miniature home during my days abroad.

Looking at it that way, you could say that all airline crew have two homes. In a former blog I wrote about how I always turn my hotel room into a home away from home. From the many responses from people who feel the same way, I guess it applies to all frequent travellers.

When you’re used to packing regularly, at some point the autopilot takes over and you’re done in a few minutes. That’s how it used to be for me. But the temporary extra home is making things more complicated. Especially since the old one is in Amsterdam and the new one is in the countryside, about an hour’s drive from our capital, making it virtually impossible to jump on my bike and pick up something that I’ve forgotten. Therefore, whenever I move from one house to the other, I check, double-check and re-check before I leave.

Before my last flight, I decided to travel directly from my new home to the airport, which I hadn’t done before. As a result I had to go by car, since my new home is in the middle of nowhere – at least that’s what transport companies seem to think, because there’s no public transport at all. Only when I came to change into my uniform, I realised I’d left it in Amsterdam… I thought I’d planned it all very well, like making sure I didn’t pack anything that I might need this week into packing cases. But something as obvious as my uniform had completely slipped my mind. Luckily I had allowed extra time in case of traffic jams, so I made it in time for the flight.

Tomorrow I will move to my new house permanently. I can’t wait to have all my stuff in one place and to be able to pack my suitcase on autopilot again!

Caroline