If I check one bag, I can carry my laptop and my purse more easily. And bring more shoes.

It doesn't count if your carry-on luggae is a TARDIS.

Pffft. Duffel bag. Plus one of those nice sturdy vintage makeup cases instead of a purse (big enough to hold the actual purse, makeup, meds and toiletries plus a paperback or Everyman novel, but still small enough to slip under the seat in front of me).

I am a MASTER of stripped-down, no-nonsense, Clean Sweep-style packing. Tremble before my fu.

If you have a hat or a big foofy-skirted dress or some other elaborate item you want to bring, wear it on the plane both coming and going.

Don't think that I haven't considered wearing the ballgown on the plane. Fleetingly. But I'm going for comfort - I'll be travelling for 16 or 17 hours.

Well, crap. You've done it, so it's clearly doable - and last time I went home to the UK I just took hand luggage, even though I was going home for a month. But a lot of my luggage is gifty stuff, you see - and sheesha pipes etc take up a whole bag of their own, and I've bought Egyptian pastries and chocolate-coated almond-stuffed dates and suchlike, which are delicious, but also depressingly bulky things. Insh'allah it'll be way easier to pack to come home (assuming I don't buy a corset & a pair of Dorothy slippers and a tiara and a big mountain of DVDs and CDs and...oh, fuck.)

Fay. You've been to an F2F before. There are laptops aplenty. It is laptop-o-rama.

I know - this is precisely why I hadn't even questioned for a moment that mine would get to come along and play with all the other USAian laptops. But now I'm realising that, actually, it's NOT a needful thing. I do have social skills. Most of the time. I can cope sans laptop. With only minimal rocking in a corner and making little Holly Hunter typing-on-the-table motions with my fingertips. Probably.

...incidentally, I know this has been discussed before, but - should I be bringing quite warm clothes? Like, sweatery, jackety clothes? Because I'm not really in the NotCairo mindset yet...

I am a MASTER of stripped-down, no-nonsense, Clean Sweep-style packing. Tremble before my fu.

::stifles laughter of watching JZ try to pack like that for an infant. Cause Lord knows it was an awakening for me.::

comes running back from the Beeb's weather centre

CRAP! San Francisco is COLD!!!! Damn it!!!! In my head, California is always hot and sunny.

This changes everything. Or at least, it adds a swift kick of crapIneedsomejumpersandsocksandthings to my packing stress.

Damn it all to heck!!!

shakes tiny fist at universe

San Francisco weather forecast through Friday. If you bring a cardigan (do you use that word? button-up-sweater/jumper thingie) and a jackety thing, you should be able to adjust to the climate changes from minute to minute and block to block. Probably.

t /not particularly helpful

t frantic

But my cardigan does not co-ordinate with my ensembles!!!!!

OMG.

Perhaps the black velvetycordoroyishwhateverthehellitis jackety thing...oh, God, I don't even know if it's clean.

I am out of the way of needing more than a shawl for warmth. I am an idiot. I didn't realise that there was a reality gap between my concept of my weather expectations and my actual weather expectations until, well, just now. See, in my head, California is Much Hotter Than Where We Live. Except that where I now live is, you know, EGYPT.

Well, crap. Sweaters it is, then. This changes everything. I'll arrive with a MOUNTAIN of luggage at this rate. And still have nothing to wear, most likely.

I must apologise to those of you who are finding this utterly baffling and stupid. I have issues. It's a thing.

Fay. Layers. A lot of nice light/sleeveless, with one or two cardies or jackets. Seriously. You do NOT need to brings masses of heavy sweaters.

Or I will loan you a cardie. Or a jacket. Stop fussing, woman.

It looks like great weather to me, but I have my hot flashes to keep me warm.

I can easily pack everything in a carryon for a business trip, because what I'm doing is pretty circumscribed. For vacation, not so much. I also have to pack taking into account the fact that stains throw themselves at me. The last party I went to, I didn't spill anything on myself. I did, however, have beer, wine and salsa spilled on me by other people.

I have every confidence that Fay will be able to create new ensembles that include cardigans. Also? You can buy San Francisco appropriate clothes in the city of San Francisco.