So today I closed my credit card account with the Cooperative Bank. I’m sad to say goodbye to them, because they are a fantastic bank with an outstanding ethical record, but I need to really simplify my life and too many cards is a hassle. Now I only have one debit card with Nationwide that has all my monthly credits and debits running off it, and includes a useful and manageable overdraft limit so I can use it like a credit card. I used to have countless cards. Now I have one that does everything. Linked to that I have an “invisible” and card-free internet-based savings account. Yay for internet banking! But boo because all the money in that account is set aside for the Receiver who likes to know all about my freelance business.

Anyway, the plan is to really cut down and cut down more on the things I own and have been dragging around with me all these years until eventually everything I have can be packed away into two backpacks. My laptop bag and one for clothes, digital camera, wallet and rollup bed. My watch should be a mobile phone, TV, wifi-internet connection and radio all in one to save space. All my official documents can be stored in a bank vault somewhere. And I’m ready to go on the next adventure to who knows where!

That’s the ideal situation. Slowly but surely Ive been wittling down my belongings, donating them to friends and charities and as I look around me now, I dont find myself attached to any single item in my room, except for Victor the pig and a magickal flaking straw hat that has adventured across a vast continent and been dipped in both oceans. The rest of my stuff, well they serve their purposes for now.

It’s a good feeling. And in about a month I should have my trusty SA passport, returned to me from Pretoria anew, with 20 “maxi-pages” to fill with colourful entry/exit stamps. Yes, it’s a good good feeling.