Time capsule

Oh dear. I found out from British Airways that I can take up to three items of check-in luggage. This means any type of discretion I may have previously used when selecting what to pack has now gone out of the window. I have so far packed all of my casual summer clothes, most of my work summer clothes, a lot of my work winter clothes, and some of my casual winter clothes. I have yet to pack my work laptop, my electrical bits and pieces and some reading material. I have already filled two items of check-in luggage and have run out of further receptacles.

I am the girl who went "backpacking" for five weeks around the world with a large wheely suitcase. Travelling light isn't really my style. It's not that I'm vain; it's not thousands of pairs of shoes and bags of make-up... it's more that I'm indecisive. And too lazy to do one of those "capsule wardrobes" they're always banging on about in those crappy women's magazines.

I've never been very good at reading those women's magazines. Once I was in the hairdresser, and they gave me a copy of Heat magazine to read. I didn't recognise a single person in the magazine. It took me fifteen minutes to work out what a WAG was, or why I would want to be one. As a colleague recently asked me: "Laura, are you some kind of cultural retard?" Yes.

So, from shitty women's magazines to decent literature, I have a book recommendation for you - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (of Kite Runner fame). Not a cheery read, but somehow uplifting despite its harrowing subject matter. Go and buy it now. Off you pop.