What's in our bag? (Or was, four months ago)
EDITOR'S NOTE - This one might read a bit disjointedly. It was started before the con, significantly edited in March, and since then we've been stalling on doing the work needed to finish it - but we want to get this uploaded to free up headspace for other projects.
We got inspired by a close friend getting a last minute flight to Vancoufur 2024 - and when plans to visit Biggest Little Fur Con fell through, we decided to focus on getting to VF2025 ourselves.
We're pretty anxious while travelling, and prior to this trip, we'd never been outside of Europe (geographically) - or on a long haul flight at all. Naturally, this meant months of research and overpreparing.
One of the YouTube rabbit holes we tend to fall into is what's in my bag videos, so hey, why not replicate that in text.
All links in this article are unaffiliated, and just so you can get an idea of the products. All products were purchased with our own money, and we have not spoken to any of the manufacturers of anything. You should absolutely not recklessly consume
the trip
The trip was to Vancouver, Canada for 7 or 8 days depending on how you count it - Wednesday until Wednesday in Canada, arriving back in the UK Thursday afternoon.
The stay was split between three hotels, one in the Richmond area (the con hotel), and two in the Downtown area, basically right next to each other - one for the first night before most critters we know arrived, and one for Monday to Wednesday after they'd left.
the carry-on
Previously when we've taken trips to Europe for a long weekend, a large backpack has been enough to store everything we'd need. We knew that wouldn't cut it for this trip, so after some research, we ended up on the TravelPro MaxLite Compact Carry-On Spinner. It's fairly affordable, it's durable enough if it gets gate checked (which it did on the return journey), it's sized pretty well to remain manageable even with a cane in the other hand, and it's unlikely to cause a problem with most airline size restrictions, particularly with similar ones apparently being the preferred ones by flight crew.
This mainly carried clothes in packing cubes (specifically Peak Design's ones, which are really nice for both compression and for easily separating clean/dirty) - mostly following the standard (number of days you'll be away + 1) formula for shirts, socks, and underwear. From bringing both a mix of past con shirts and femme outfits, we ended up not wearing some things - and also we slightly miscounted on socks.
If we'd been away for longer, then we'd have probably had to do laundry - it might have been a better option here as well for carrying less, but the facilities at hotel 3 weren't great for it.
A particular shout out in terms of clothing goes to the merino wool shirt we used on both travel days, keeping our temperature just right on the plane while the anti-microbial properties of merino hopefully meant the people in the seats next to us weren't too annoyed. [1]
The TravelPro also has a mesh pocket for flat items, so we used that for our conbadges, as well as birthday presents for a friend on the outbound trip, and a sketch drawn by a different friend which we wanted to make sure got home safe on the return. There's also a side pouch, which we used to stash a backup wallet and an AirTag.
the personal item
We've used a Tom Bihn Synapse 25 as our regular backpack since 2022 - a small obsession with the brand that started with this post, and we eventually decided to splurge when work announced a return to the office.
It is the Twilight Sparkle of bags in terms of organization, with everything in its proper place, with pockets and attachments everywhere. For everyday use, the main compartment can be a little small [2], but for travel, all the organization is well appreciated.
However, on double checking British Airways' carry on requirements, we found out that it does not actually meet the standards of a personal item. We would have probably got away with it, but we ended up panic ordering the Tom Bihn Pilot with their "Absolute" shoulder strap - similar organization, but as a smaller shoulder bag that will probably be our go-to now in situations where we would have used a sling.
left pocket - tech pouch
Left pocket got used for the bits of technology that could fit in there - our old Kindle, some business cards, and our tech pouch.
The main thing in here is the Anker 3-in-1 foldable charger (the pink thing) - this was how we kept our phone, watch and AirPods topped up using the associated charger - popping the UK adapter on or off depending on where we were.
We rarely plugged the wall charger in directly to the 3-in-1 charger though, which brings us to...
water bottle pocket - overkill battery
We've been a Pokémon Go player since the game first launched - and one of the things you learn quickly with that game is the importance of a good battery pack.
So, a couple of years ago, we made the investment in an Anker 737 battery pack - enough juice to power multiple devices for days, if needs be. To keep it topped up, we'd generally have this plugged into the wall, and then plug the 3-in-1 charger into that.
(There are newer models of this with a charging base or an integrated plug, but I don't think they sell the latter over here)
Also in here was the Miyoo Mini Plus, for if we really needed to play Austin Powers: Welcome To My Underground Lair! for Game Boy Colour (we didn't).
right pocket - toiletries and medical
Nothing too fancy in this one - a clear pouch with some travel toiletries, toothbrush, sunglasses, a little first aid kit I picked up from an outdoor shop having a closing down sale, and some KN95 masks.
main compartment
And here's where everything else went.
The Pilot has a number of attachment points (or as they call them, O-Rings), so our house keys were hung from one on a carabiner, as well as a couple of pouches with some portable accessories for quick access. Our security wallet (an old Eagle Creek one that we've had since 2015 and is no longer sold) also went in here when it wasn't on our person.
Also in here was our electric shaver, a packable tote bag, a generic A5 notebook, a bandana with the non-binary flag, and on the outgoing trip, a change of clothes in case our main luggage somehow went missing.
We also had our iPad Pro - which is in the interesting and unenviable position of both being too much and not enough computer for this.
Prior to the trip, we downloaded movies and git repositories to the iPad, but basically all we did with it was transfer journals and notes on the book we were reading (A System For Writing) from our physical notebook - and we used the Kindle for reading that book. On the outgoing trip, we did not have a good understanding of how many times British Airways would offer food where it helped keeping the tray clear, given the lack of space in economy. On the return trip, trying (emphasis on trying) to get some sleep was more important.
Those git repositories were a pain to get on there [3], and while we could have edited code, testing it would have been a lot harder without a real computer. [4]
But equally, a larger computer like a Macbook Air would have been even more of a struggle while still in Economy - unless we'd done something that means we didn't need to look directly at the screen - and we probably wouldn't have used it more off the flight.
At this point, not fully sure what we'll do next time, beyond probably getting a bump to Economy Plus. iPad Mini plus a Bluetooth keyboard probably makes the most sense for flexibility; although we generally prefer attached keyboards, the Mini is just too small for that to be comfortable.
what didn't we bring
the vision pro
The Vision Pro allegedly can be an excellent companion on flights, a private space to watch movies or do anything an iPad can at greater sizes, providing a Bluetooth keyboard or Macbook is handy.
But it is also inconvenient in a lot of ways, and I don't think we could justify using the space/risk the expense of it being broken, lost or stolen. If it was a business trip where we'd be expected to get work done on the plane or at the hotel, that might be a reason - I'd certainly rather use it for a big monitor with a paired Macbook rather than fucking around with the hotel TV - but it doesn't make sense at all for rooming with friends.
Still, I do have to wonder about some of the screen mirroring mixed reality glasses and the like for the plane - but I suspect most of those would be OK for movies but perhaps not as good for clear text.
the chucks
Since 2018, due to the recommendation of a friend, we've basically worn exclusively Chucks when not wearing sandals for a couple of reasons - we know that they can fit our big, broad paws, and the variety to choose from means that there's normally something we like [5].
But a heavy rainstorm followed by snow in January revealed that the sole had split on our winter ones, and they were out of the current winter ones in our size.
So we went back to the brand we trusted before - VivoBarefoot, picking up their winter boots. Not the biggest fan of the style, but they were warm and available in our size, and that's what mattered more. We don't necessarily buy in to the whole barefoot shoe movement as a whole, but it certainly did feel interesting trying to clamber over the pebble beach at Whytecliff.
Like a lot of things here, probably overkill (it wasn't that cold), but hey, we didn't know.
what will we not be bringing next time?
Our wallet for the past few years has been a cheap six letter brand one from Amazon - specifically, the brand is "FurArt", which we thought was cute.
What is less cute is the sheer amount of friction this design causes on the card in the main card slot - which meant that along with the edges fraying, the actual chip had been damaged.
This isn't a problem for us normally because all of our payments are either online or contactless, but it turned out to be a problem at hotels that don't want to take Apple Pay so the card details line up. (Thankfully, we had a backup card in our backup wallet)
So next time, this is the much more sensible, much more practical wallet that'll be coming with us.
Additionally, with Amazon's move to restrict options with what can be done with Kindle purchased ebooks, we've since replaced that with a Boox Palma.
footnotes
As an aside, if anyone knows a place to get merino in plus-size femme fits, let us know. ↩︎
We still use our old, falling apart backpack on grocery runs rather than the Synapse, just because the main compartment is a lot more spacious. ↩︎
This is more due to our weird setup rather than anything else, our Synology NAS is our git server, but Synology's built in git server can't do git LFS - and I believe this model is too old for Docker to run a proper one. On a regular computer, the setup with the Synology is fine because you can point the remote at the fileshare and everything will still work. More encouragement to set up a local Forgejo instance or something at some point, I guess. ↩︎
Granted, most of the work we had in mind was adding alt text - which could be tested just fine once back home. ↩︎
Admittedly, these things often don't quite line up, or the variant that fits us won't be on sale when the other variants are... ↩︎