Roll up, roll up—or carry that backpack up. This week, we’re all about airport screenings and avoiding checking in luggage.
✍🏻 View the transcript for this episode
Roll up, roll up—or carry that backpack up. This week, we’re all about airport screenings and avoiding checking in luggage.
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Toast & Roast:
Georgie:
Geoff:
Georgie 0:08
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Toast & Roast. I'm your co host Georgie and I'm here with Geoff.
Geoff 0:16
Hi.
Georgie 0:17
What’s happening. So you said you you were getting rid of or you're moving from a travel backpack to a rolly bag. And I was doing the reverse.
Geoff 0:31
Yeah, I was like thinking, You know what I could use? I got a duffel bag. But then I realised why would I want to carry all the shit in my duffel bag, when I can just roll it a rolly bag. But having said that, I can fit most of the stuff that I want in a carry on rolly bag. And I have a backpack that has like my laptop and it's pretty much empty otherwise. So yeah, when you said you wanted to then go all the way back to a backpack? It's very perplexing. But you got one?
Georgie 1:01
Okay. Yes, I did. Now the funny thing is I had exactly the same thought process as you but in in reverse. So I thought, why I have all this stuff in like a small, like cab size, roller bag? Is it roller, whatever, roller, rolly? And why can't I just get all that stuff and put it in a backpack on my back. So it was literally the reverse of what you just said.
Geoff 1:24
I used to try pack everything into the into my wonderful Peak Design. I'm gonna rep them, although I don't actually recommend like recommend their their backpack anymore.
Georgie 1:36
Yeah.
Geoff 1:37
Not the travel backpack, but like the Everyday backpack. So if I were to paint a picture as to why this backpack is, it's like a special backpack. It's supposed to be a camera bag. And what they've done is they've created shelves, which are velcroed. So removable, but you can, they put shelves in the bag that are basically horizontal shelves. So basically, so you're stacking things—
Georgie 2:04
Vertically.
Geoff 2:04
On the side, up the cavity of your bag. Now doesn't solve a lot of things for a lot of people who are like, um, I don't know, why would you need to insert a long vertical thing down the bag.
Georgie 2:18
(laughs)
Geoff 2:19
But hey, sure, if you need to do that, then this is not the bag for you, obviously, because there’s shelves in there. But the idea is that each shelf can hold, can can be divided into three and you can put like lenses and have all sorts of configurations. To me, it was like put a lunchbox, put a, put a camera on one shelf, put a lunchbox on one shelf, and you can access it on the side. So you don't actually have to dig all the way down to get your stuff. You basically open it from the side, you pick your stuff up from the side. Anyways, that's why...
Georgie 2:53
The reason I didn't go with this is because it's a camera bag. And I no longer have a DSLR with like lenses and things. So because it was I guess tailored more specifically to people who might have cameras, I thought well, that's not really the bag for me. So the bag I ended up going with was the Bellroy Transit backpack, the 38 litre one, and it opens up like a clamshell style. So the entire thing opens up. So what you just said about—
Geoff 3:22
Peak does have one.
Georgie 3:23
So they do have one that opens like a clamshell. Yeah.
Geoff 3:26
Yeah.
Georgie 3:28
So mine, mine is pretty similar in that it's like a single compartment like a large compartment. And it opens all the way down the side. So you can open it like a, how do you call it—sorry, straw hitting the straw on my glass. Opens like a suitcase.
Geoff 3:46
Yeah.
Georgie 3:46
But then it also has other compartments for like, the laptop and stuff like that. So I got yeah, I got that one. But the 38 litre one, so if you change the size to—
Geoff 3:54
38 is a weird number.
Georgie 3:57
It is, might as well be 40. Right?
Geoff 3:59
Yeah.
Georgie 4:00
Yeah.
Geoff 4:00
What's another two litres? You're not—like the travel backpack scene I think is very strange, I guess because normally anybody—
Georgie 4:12
There’s no standardised?
Geoff 4:13
Yeah. Anyone who wants to actually pack a lot of things into a backpack, I think are typically hikers and—
Georgie 4:21
Yeah, yeah.
Geoff 4:22
Right. So you get like the massive ones which are like really, like taller than you when you like, an Amazing Race style, like backpacks, but like, it's not so common as a like a, like a regular consumer, I'm going on a holiday, like backpack scene. Apparently, except for Bellroy. And I guess tra—
Georgie 4:45
Yeah, so I did find a bunch of American based or US based companies that made bags around the same size like not 38 but more like 40, 45. But I didn't want to sp—I think sometimes shipping was expensive, or I couldn't return it because international sales are final. And my brother has the 28 litre version of this. And he was telling me about it and what he could fit in it. And I was like, okay, based on what he told me, he said, like, it was good for like, a weekend or whatever. And I like to pack pretty light even for like, you know, two weeks, four weeks trips. So I thought, okay, I think 38 litres, should be fine. And I actually think that was it was, I think it was a good size. So I love the backpack now, like—
Geoff 5:29
That's good.
Georgie 5:30
I was able to pack in what I needed. So for two weeks, just roughly speaking, two weeks of travel, I bought like four tops, three bottoms, a pair of hiking shoes, and then obviously, I wore different shoes, like just casual sneakers. And obviously, all this underwear and other like important stuff. I have a 13 inch MacBook Air. And okay, here's the funny thing. I really hate to admit this, but my toiletries ended up being like an entire kilogram. I realised like, so what we ended up doing was I didn't check my bag in but we had one checked bag between us, I think on Nick's ticket. So he just checked his in because he's got like a hard suitcase like a hardshell suitcase. And that kind of adds quite a bit of weight. And his feet are, duh, bigger than mine. And so he's hiking shoes are kind of heavy. So I ended up just bundling my toiletries into his so that mine could be like under seven kilos. But I think some of my toiletries were a little bit ridiculous. Like, I think one of them was in a glass bottle. So even though it was like under 100 mls, it was kind of heavy. So something I need to work on for next time.
Geoff 6:45
But something that I also forgot about in that whole weight, in the whole weight equation is that I bought this electric toothbrush that came with a travel case.
Georgie 6:55
Yeah.
Geoff 6:56
But obviously if you're travelling, you're not going to bring like a big ass heavy travel like big ass heavy toothbrush.
Georgie 7:07
I’ve done that. Yeah, I've done that at times because I just prefer the electric toothbrush. But then like on this trip, I just brought like a manual one.
Geoff 7:16
Yeah. It's, it's interesting. Although, I wonder if there's a toothbrush that takes like triple A's. You can put it up the—
Georgie 7:24
Why?
Geoff 7:24
Up the, up the the holder part. And then like the top part would like vibrate or something. That might be like, a cool like compromise.
Georgie 7:33
So like a battery powered—
Geoff 7:35
A battery powered.
Georgie 7:36
Rather than bringing the entire like, pack to plug into the walls or something.
Geoff 7:40
Yeah.
Georgie 7:41
Actually another thing that bothered me, okay, so what I ended up doing was like, ideally, my backpack would have been like my only item, but they, some some airlines, like we went with in Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia on the way back. They didn't really like check the weight, but I thought just in case they do, right? Oh actually no, they did on the way back, they wanted to check mine and I had to make it bang on seven kilos. So what I had to do is I had to get this small bag that I'd packed with me as like a little day like shoulder bag, I had to take that out, put heavy shit in there. And then just weigh, like, now that's my personal item. The backpack and what, the shit I had to put into my little handbag or whatever. I had to put my powerpack because it's kind of heavy. I had to put like my, all my cables and like adapters, which—I probably didn't need to take that many. And this is what annoys me about like techy shit is like adapters and things that are like heavy and cables and stuff.
Geoff 8:37
I spent. I've spent a lot of time in this space. Where—
Georgie 8:41
How do I minimise?!
Geoff 8:42
Yeah, how do I, how do I like reduce the amount of cables that I need to, a point where it's sort of like none, almost non existent. Like I've got a three in one folding wireless like charger? So you can charge a lot of things in one go. Where is it, the...
Georgie 9:01
I mean, one thing I do because I don't really use a lot of those gadgets, I just plug them into the laptop and charged the laptop, but it's just not as like efficient.
Geoff 9:09
Yeah. So and like travel adapters have been like elusive as well. So in this case, I got the Apple Watch edition. And this thing like folds, and you put it into a put into a single bag and hey, presto, you've got three things, you can charge on that one thing. But yeah, it's still, it's still a hassle because the bundle itself is I don't know, 10, 20 Like maybe 20 like, 15, to 15, 20 centimetres thick. I guess that's the specification, let’s see how much I was right. Stacked is 30 millimetres, 88 millimetres 88 millimetres. So no, I was very wrong. 8 centimetres. What, that's not right?
Georgie 9:59
Like three and a half inches.
Geoff 10:02
Yeah, I don't know about that. I don't know if it's actually, is it... Yeah. Anyways, so the thing is, this thing is pretty awkward sized. It's like a it's like a square. And I'm like, how the hell where the hell do I pack this?
Georgie 10:14
Put it in your pocket?
Geoff 10:15
You can't fit in your pocket, that's thick, like it’s not—
Georgie 10:18
You have a jacket, and put it in the jacket pocket, like?
Geoff 10:21
In any case. So I like look, I look, I look around for this stuff. Even though I don't travel very often, I travel very consistently.
Georgie 10:29
Yeah.
Geoff 10:29
So stuff like this is pretty like, top of mind. Look, they have a cube. And oh my god, you can like pack it as a huge cube. Anyways, um, the whole thing about like, your personal item, like you can, like, carry the laptop in a separate laptop bag. And that will be like weighed.
Georgie 10:50
And they don't weigh it. They only weigh the main bag.
Geoff 10:54
Yeah, they don't weigh, they don't I've never actually had my backpack weighed. And even though it's like eight or nine kilos in my backpack, they don't weigh it, I think because it's got a very slim figure to it.
Georgie 11:09
Yeah.
Geoff 11:10
The way, the way it tapers is very deceiving.
Georgie 11:12
Maybe it depends what airline you're going with? Because I feel like I didn't worry about it until this time and yeah.
Geoff 11:19
Oh, actually story. So I was going to, back when I was going to the Gold Coast and then back down to Sydney and then over to Perth, the one way up. I think I went up to Gold Coast and they caught my shaver. Now my shaver is also—
Georgie 11:36
Is it like electric?
Geoff 11:37
No, no, it's a very manual one. It's a single edge blade.
Georgie 11:41
Oh no. Yeah.
Geoff 11:43
It’s full, full of aluminium, like a solid piece of aluminium.
Georgie 11:46
Yes. I've seen these. Yes.
Geoff 11:48
If anyone wants to know what is.
Georgie 11:51
It's not like a safety razor. It's like a, like a bladed like.
Geoff 11:54
Yeah. Anyways, so it's not a safety razor, but it is. It is kind of similar. Anyways, so this thing I brought in and they were like, they, they picked up on it the first time. And they said, they were like, what is it? I think? What did I say? I said it was a shaver. They're like, oh it's fine. I read the instructions on Virgin’s website saying that you can actually bring shavers now. Or like—
Georgie 12:29
As in, and you couldn't before?
Geoff 12:30
Yeah, you can always you could never bring this stuff on... ah Virgin.
Georgie 12:37
Hey, everyone remember when we could like smoke on planes? That was in the 60s.
Geoff 12:41
Remember when we could go into the cockpit and for like—
Georgie 12:44
Oh shit, don’t go there.
Geoff 12:45
Like, now you can't. It's very sad.
Georgie 12:53
Kids born after 2001 wouldn't know that, would they?
Geoff 12:55
Version packing... anyways, so something something rule. Anyway, so they they found it, they found it. They were like, oh, what like is a weird shape? So they’re like oh, what is that? I’m like, a shaver, they’re like, okay, fine, whatever. So, but on the way back down. They found it again. And they chucked out the blade of it. So they removed the blade and they threw it out. So eventually essentially rendered it like useless.
Georgie 13:26
Wait, so they let you take it but they removed the blade.
Geoff 13:29
Yeah.
Georgie 13:29
Did they tell you?
Geoff 13:30
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Georgie 13:31
Okay.
Geoff 13:31
They’re like, is there is there, is there a blade on it or whatever, they had to check. So they chucked out the blade. And then I was uh, I mean, we had check in. I don't know why I didn't just store it in the check in. I read the guidelines. And I was like, okay, fine. And then, so it’s this bladeless now. On the way back from Perth—
Georgie 13:55
Mm, come back home.
Geoff 13:56
They, they they checked it, on Perth side, they check, they found it again. And they're like, what is it? And I'm like, it's a shaver. They’re like, does it have a, does it have a blade? And I'm like, no, and they’re like, you're sure? I'm like yes. And then they didn't check it, they didn't need to move it or open it, they didn't look at it anything just trusted me like alright, trusting you. And then they gave it to me. I'm like, wow, this is like epitome of like a three different like, like—
Georgie 14:24
That’s the same airline with different like security?
Geoff 14:27
Different security. So I'm like how am I meant to how am I meant to even pack with such varying standards? The the short and long answer of that is, always check it in.
Georgie 14:42
I hate checking stuff in though, now that I don't check stuff in anymore, I just.
Geoff 14:47
What about your back?
Georgie 14:49
What do you mean what about my back?
Geoff 14:50
You’re carrying like seven, eight kilos on your... okay...
Georgie 14:53
It’s alright.
Geoff 14:53
Seven kilos is okay.
Georgie 14:54
I go to the gym. It’s not that bad.
Geoff 14:56
You lift. And then like in five to, in like 10 years, you're like, shit my back's fucked because I wore...
Georgie 15:04
(laughs) Nah, I’m good Geoff.
Geoff 15:07
To be fair, though, my backpack without all the clothes and stuff is like seven kilos worth of random...
Georgie 15:13
Just like non—
Geoff 15:14
Other like tech stuff, I guess.
Georgie 15:16
Yeah, because the clothes don't weigh a lot. And this is what I don't understand, like, like you were saying about the personal item and how they don't really look at that. It's like, you see people when their bag is too heavy. And what they do is they just start wearing the clothes.
Geoff 15:28
Yeah.
Georgie 15:28
I just don't understand. And the people at the front desk like yeah cool.
Geoff 15:33
Oh I figured this out.
Georgie 15:33
Go on.
Geoff 15:34
I figured this out. It's because of like, it goes into the top carriage.
Georgie 15:39
Oh, yeah, because it drops, yeah.
Geoff 15:41
It’ll fall out.
Georgie 15:41
Yeah, no, true. True.
Geoff 15:43
Yeah. I also like wondered this for the longest time, I’m like, isn't the weight exactly the same if it's in the bag or on your person?
Georgie 15:50
But no, it's the overhead cabin part has limitations. And yeah, actually, I was on a flight once where there was a bit of turbulence and one of those popped open—
Geoff 16:00
Exactly.
Georgie 16:00
And stuff fell out. Not cool. Thankfully, I don't think anyone was seriously injured. But it was happening while it was landing or something. So...
Geoff 16:09
Oh shit.
Georgie 16:10
Kind of shit. No one could get out of their seat. Yeah.
Geoff 16:14
I think I realized this because like, my, was it my back, my chest or something was hurting because I just like recovered from COVID. And I was like, trying to lift my thing into the overhead or bring it down. And I'm like, oh my god, this hurts so much. Of course. Like, if it's on me that I wouldn't have to lift it.
Georgie 16:33
But it's like above. Yeah. Actually speaking of like, you know, weight distribution and shit. It's so funny. I did not realise until lit—so I was gone for like 16 days. And there's a chest strap on my bag. And I was like, cool. Because it's like, right there. Yeah. And then I full on wrote a blog post about, like, how I was finding the bag. And that was great and stuff. And I was like, I don't think there's like waistbelt or whatever.
Geoff 16:56
Yeah.
Georgie 16:57
I was in the airport in Queenstown. Just like messing with my fucking bag in the back padding. And I was like, oh, actually, there’s a waist strap in there. Yeah, and I was like, how have I gone this whole trip and not realise that it was just been folded in this, and I was finding all these pockets—actually, it wasn't until, so I fully packed my bag as well before leaving home. And I'll talk about this another time but we ended up our flight ended up being delayed multiple times, by many hours it was like originally supposed to be at like 10am and got delayed to 12 and then it got delayed to like 2 or something or I can't remember. But then eventually it got cancelled. Anyway point was, I was waiting at the gate lounge and then I realised I found a new pocket in my bag. Like wow, I didn't know that was there.
Geoff 17:48
Yeah.
Georgie 17:48
Actually, this was really annoying. So with the, the flight ended up being cancelled, so we got on the plane. Oh, well, before we got on the plane, they said there's an engineering issue. And we need to have it fixed. And then we finally boarded the plane. We literally go around on the tarmac about to take off and then we don't move, and they they tell us that unfortunately the engineering issue that we have tried to fix is not fixed. So this flight’s been cancelled and then we had to, because we were fucking airside, we have to go back through like customs and we had to go back through security again. This is so first world problemy. But we had bought a drink after we had like gone through security the first time and we're like, yeah cool. We're gonna stay hydrated. And then they had to take it out when we went through security the second time. It's like fuck you man. I bought it on the other side, just...! (sigh)
Geoff 18:44
Actually. They didn't check my water either. I had like a full ass bottle of water and like just...
Georgie 18:50
Wait. Really?
Geoff 18:52
Anyways. There, I found the line.
Georgie 18:55
I think water is fine, but I think ours was actually like Coke or something
Geoff 19:00
I found the line here, “given to, given to considerable enhancement of aviation security measures and screening equipment in recent years, the Australian Government have removed the following items from prohibited item list. These items are permitted to be carried on board knitting and crochet needles”. You could kill someone with those. Fork with square ended or round ended tine, tines? Tins? Tines? I've never heard that word, tines?
Georgie 19:25
Tines. It's the two, the three thing.
Geoff 19:27
Yeah prongs, I would I would accept the prongs. I would accept pointy bits, I do not accept times. And the non detachable handle those rounded, blunt ended or round ended scissors with blades less than six centimetres long, pointed metal nail files and nail clippers, disposable or safety razors. Thank you. Thank you.
Georgie 19:52
Is yours, is yours considered a safety razor.
Geoff 19:54
No, it’s not considered a safety razor. But it looks very similar and they should have let me have it.
Georgie 19:59
Yeah, it's funny, because like it's funny that they pulled it out and was like what is this? Because to me it like, sure it's a slightly different shape, but to me it looks like a goddamn razor.
Geoff 20:07
Yeah, it's it's it's definitely one of those things where I'm like, do I have to bring it? Maybe not? Maybe I can deal with like, like disposable ones on on holiday? Do I buy a second one and leave it in Perth? Absolutely.
Georgie 20:28
I think it's such a, I dunno, it's such a, I feel like this is annoying, like, having to think of things that you want to try to bring with you when you travel, but not check them in. But then you can't.
Geoff 20:40
Yeah, I've been thinking about actually just like but like leaving clothes in Perth, so don't have to pack them every time. Like I wear the same thing.
Georgie 20:48
You just leave them with your family or something.
Geoff 20:50
Yeah, exactly.
Georgie 20:50
Just fucking do it.
Geoff 20:52
I leave. I—
Georgie 20:53
You can't do that. You can't do that. Just when you're travelling. You can't just know expect clothes to just be randomly there in Europe.
Geoff 21:00
But am I, where, am I? Am I? Am I prepared to spend like 100 bucks worth of clothes just leaving it in my in my family's house and visiting it once a year?
Georgie 21:13
Yeah, just so you can carry like, not check in stuff or carry less on the plane.
Geoff 21:17
We'll definitely have to check in because my partner has clothes and stuff too. Oh, yeah, we airtagged our check in baggage.
Georgie 21:25
Oh, yeah. Yeah, Nick did that, it was quite interesting. Yeah.
Geoff 21:27
Actually, what did he do? What did you do with the Airtag? Like, did you slot into something, like did what you—
Georgie 21:32
He just put it in his suitcase that he checked in. And the interesting thing is, like he can tell like is like, okay, it's definitely going on the plane. Because when we're sitting there on the plane when you’re going to take off, it's like, it's nearby.
Geoff 21:44
Yeah.
Georgie 21:44
It doesn't say that you left it behind, though.
Geoff 21:47
Yeah.
Georgie 21:48
So, it’s kind of, yeah, it's kind of interesting.
Geoff 21:52
Mine was like the signal was delayed a bit. So it was like in the middle of the ocean for a really long time. We landed on the on the ground, supposedly. The so, so you just chucked it in there amongst the clothes?
Georgie 22:09
Oh, it's probably in a pocket somewhere. But yeah, it's, so it's in, it's in the suitcase somewhere.
Geoff 22:14
Yeah, I got these adhesive sleeves.
Georgie 22:18
Yeah.
Geoff 22:18
For them.
Georgie 22:19
Oh you put it in and just stick it on the inside.
Geoff 22:21
You just stick it on the inside wall, and my suitcase comes with like a zipper that comes down the middle of the lining so that you can open the lining and see the hard shell from the inside.
Georgie 22:32
Oh, yeah.
Geoff 22:33
Yep. So I took it and I stuck it inside underneath the lining. And then and then I zipped it up.
Georgie 22:38
Yeah.
Geoff 22:39
Where, one of the times when they were like, “there's a strange shaped object”. Like.
Georgie 22:45
Are you serious?
Geoff 22:46
They were like, the, I was like, is it? Is it like a razor shape? And they're like, We don't know. It's just a strange shaped object. So I'm like, so they're like, rummaging around—
Georgie 22:54
So they knew it was in the lining?
Geoff 22:57
No, no, they knew something was strange in the suitcase. And so they were rummaging, they’re like, are you sure? Like, they’re like, we're not sure what it is. So I said oh, if you're not sure what it is, it's probably the Airtag. So I like guided them—because you can't touch the bag when they're checking—I guided them to going all the way in and finding the Airtag. They're like, oh, it's not that. I’m like, then tell me what shape it is, damn it. And then like it turned out to be the razor obviously. Like have you never seen a razor shape?
Georgie 23:27
Yeah. Was this like they had the entire thing on the screen? And they were like scrutinising it?
Geoff 23:33
No, I don't remember, but they just brought it out, they’re like there's something strange in there I'm like, okay, and then I'm like if it's strange then it's possibly the Airtag, can’t be a shaver because you’d just tell me it's the shaver.
Georgie 23:46
Yeah, so actually, I just remembered what you said about your bottle like water was like fine. I think that happened to me going in maybe? Because I—oh no not going in but I mean like leaving Sydney going through security at Sydney Airport. And my bag got put aside and I think, I think it was at Sydney Airport. But anyway, the I think they've upgraded some of the software or the whatever the the system they use.
Geoff 24:08
Oh, it's really cool.
Georgie 24:09
It’s like super detailed. Yeah. And so the guy is like having a little look, having a little scrutinise at my bag, he’s taking some time. So it's been put aside, he’s looking at it again, and I'm like, you gonna find something or what? And he's like, I just got to check it again, he said, I might have to put it through again. I'm like, alright, but he ended up not having to do that. But he was looking at the thing for a really long time and then he was like, It's okay. And then I walked out, I walked off with my bag and I thought, I wonder what he was wondering about, was there just like a lot of water in there from the water bottle or something. You know.
Geoff 24:41
The new scanner is really cool. I gotta admit, like the, the, you don't have to take out your shoes take off, take off you shoes?
Georgie 24:51
Yeah, you don’t have to do anything, separate—
Geoff 24:52
You don’t have to bring out your laptop or your phone or anything. You just leave it all in there. And it goes in because they can, they 3D scan it now. Instead of them like X raying it, I think that's what they did before, they x rayed it. And they’d just see a whole bunch of shapes on top of each other, like what the fuck is this? Like, bloody, take a bloody surgeon to decipher this. But now they can yeah, do a 3D like rotation and like they have levels and they have all this kind of crap.
Georgie 25:22
Yeah.
Geoff 25:23
It's really cool. The most important point of this story, and the most annoying. Sydney does not have the scanner. But every other airport, Melbourne, Brisbane Gold Coast. The—
Georgie 25:39
Yeah, actually I think it was when I was in Melbourne, maybe? Yeah.
Geoff 25:42
Yeah. So in Sydney, you have to take all your shit out. But like when you go to all the other, quote unquote, non cent—not quote unquote. It's not it's not the city. It's not the main city. Not... quote unquote, capital. That's the one. Yeah.
Georgie 26:03
Yeah.
Geoff 26:03
I can't believe the least technologically advanced airport is the one that has the most traffic arguably. It's ridiculous.
Georgie 26:12
Wait, you know, what Nick said to me was, you know, they're building a new new airport out in woop woop. Blacktown. Prospect, whatever.
Geoff 26:21
Oh, yeah, I know about that.
Georgie 26:22
Yeah. So I don't know. He said, what is their plan? He said there was like some plan for this current Sydney Airport.
Geoff 26:29
Bulldoze it?
Georgie 26:29
Fifty year plan? Yeah. And they're just gonna fuck it off. Apparently, like, and I was thinking about going, dude, I did not move to Eastern Sydney to... Nah I’m kidding. But it's just like, now it's you've got like, oh, yes. 10 minutes on a train to the city. And what are you going to do now? You're just gonna say it's an hour now, in an Uber, or taxi or something. If we were to bulldoze this current airport and only use the one out that way. That’s shit.
Geoff 27:00
I think Sydney is the only airport that actually has a train to it at the moment. And people are build—like Perth is building their train. But Sydney for a long time is, has been the only one that you can actually get to on the train. Because I can't remember in Gold Coast you have to take the bloody bus or an Uber out. I can't remember Brisbane but Melbourne just recently, don’t think it had a train in though. But yeah, they have actually got a master plan 2039 overview, which is...
Georgie 27:34
Geez.
Geoff 27:35
Not 50 years but...
Georgie 27:39
But I mean, I think he meant 50 years from whenever, from some date.
Geoff 27:42
Yeah from whenever this was made, I guess. So yeah, who knows? Who knows? All I know is that it's a mess. Like I don't get it, you come out of the airport and you have to walk 10 minutes to get picked up from god knows what car park they've built away, so far away from the airport, because they don't want cars coming through the, like next to the doors.
Georgie 28:11
It’s not that long is it?
Geoff 28:13
You're dragging your shit all the way over there. It's just—
Georgie 28:16
You mean like it's not immediately just out there? It's—
Geoff 28:19
Usually in airports you walk out the gate, out the doors, and there are cars that can come pick you up.
Georgie 28:26
But I think taxis do but Ubers can't.
Geoff 28:28
Yeah, they really anti Uber around here, I guess. So yeah. What was the other thing that I was gonna say, yeah, I mean like back to like packing the bag. I think technically I can pack all my shit into this into my current 20... Is it like a 20? It's like a 20 litre bag with a little bit of an extra? Is it 15 litres?
Georgie 28:51
Twenty is not a lot.
Geoff 28:52
Fifteen litre bag. Twenty, yes, I got a 20 litre bag.
Georgie 28:57
That's pretty small.
Geoff 28:58
It can be, it can expand to 23 or 24 litre? I can't remember.
Georgie 29:04
Well it depends how long you're going for what you're taking, right? Like I think I would have had way more room if I didn't take a pair of hiking shoes but I kind of needed those.
Geoff 29:12
Yeah, exactly. I can't pay, take a pair of sec, second pair of shoes. That's not gonna fly. Oh, it can just be on the, on the, on the side. I can just like—
Georgie 29:24
Oh like hang it on or tie it on.
Geoff 29:25
Yeah, tie it on.
Georgie 29:26
I hate that though. It’s kind of annoying.
Geoff 29:29
Plus three litres on the 20 litre bag, so it can be, it can be come a 23 litre bag. If I didn't bring a Switch to Perth every year.
Georgie 29:39
Entertain yourself with?
Geoff 29:41
It’s, it's for the, for all the gatherings and crap that we have to do during Christmas. I could probably do three shirts, one pair of jeans, one pair of shorts. The underwear Okay, toiletries. I'm hard pressed for space to be honest, but you know what—
Georgie 30:02
Yeah dude, especially with 20 litres.
Geoff 30:05
I could do it. Probably.
Georgie 30:07
Just, just carry them on your person. Whatever's excess, I suppose.
Geoff 30:11
Yeah, the shoe thing I'd have to hang off the bag. Actually, my bag comes with external straps. Yeah I can strap things on to the back of the bag.
Georgie 30:19
Oh, yeah. Just have your underwear hanging off it. (laughs)
Geoff 30:25
(laughs) It's like, what's that, what's up little pouch? Well, you see, it’s my underwear pouch.
Georgie 30:29
Nah just put it straight on, don't even put it in a pouch.
Geoff 30:32
Just like stack it and just like wrap it. It's like in an X configuration. So you just—
Georgie 30:37
You just put it on, yeah. So you could put a jacket.
Geoff 30:40
Not under, on the, on the face of it. So on the face like literally—
Georgie 30:44
On the front face?
Geoff 30:44
On the front face. You can have a, a X strap over the front face.
Georgie 30:49
Oh yeah, you can put, you can put stuff on there. Yeah.
Geoff 30:52
Yeah. So I could put shoes and stuff on there. If I had a shoe shoe shell? A shell for the shoe? Hey, maybe I'll try that. Maybe I'll try go to Perth with a 23 litre bag. Or pack, try pack it and see how I go.
Georgie 31:07
Let me know how you go. That's very, it’s quite small.
Geoff 31:10
Yeah. How will I pack the Switch is a good question because... I guess generally I don’t need an umbrella when I go to Perth so I can put the Switch on the outside.
Georgie 31:19
Hey, actually speaking of umbrella like, I was I was concerned about like, so I brought an umbrella. It was like collapsible one, just totally fine. But then because when we arrived in Auckland, it was raining. It was like before the flood happened.
Geoff 31:32
Yeah.
Georgie 31:32
Like we arrived the day before the floods and we only had this tiny umbrella between both of us because Nick didn't bring one and he bought one while we were there. But he bought like a stick umbrella. And like the whole time we were worried that like—it was like one of those cool, it was the Blunt umbrella.
Geoff 31:48
Yeah, yeah I got one. Yeah.
Georgie 31:49
Yeah. Which I realised, dude, everybody.
Geoff 31:51
You bought it at the airport?!
Georgie 31:52
No, no, we bought it in Auckland.
Geoff 31:54
Oh my god. Okay. That’s fine.
Georgie 31:56
Yeah. You know, what I realised? Is everybody there has a fucking Blunt umbrella, because it's a New Zealand brand. Anyway.
Geoff 32:02
Oh, that's cool, I didn’t know that.
Georgie 32:04
But we worried like, are they gonna let it? Like, are we going to check it in? Because we can't fit it into any of ours... Can't fit it into Nick’s suitcase, but turned out to be fine. But Virgin Australia on the way leaving Queenstown, they were like, uh, just just let you know, they might not let you take that, that in. Like, it just depends, but turns out to be fine. And it's like, but I could kill someone with this.
Geoff 32:27
How? How can it just depend? I don't understand.
Georgie 32:31
I know. It's really annoying. It's like sometimes I just like don't even check how much your bag weighs. And so basically...
Geoff 32:36
They never check.
Georgie 32:36
Over the past five years, I've been used to just being like, “it fits. don't weigh it”. You know.
Geoff 32:43
All right. So about your pockets thing. It's really funny because I got this bag off a Kickstarter. And so I watch the, I watch... I had to watch the video intensely because I had never seen this bag.
Georgie 32:55
Yeah.
Geoff 32:56
Right. And I'm buying something that's this expensive. It's like $481 Australian dollars. On Kickstarter, it was a lot less to be fair, it was maybe about 200, 200 ish. And, or 180? I think it was 180 US dollars, perhaps, anyways. So I was like, looking at every nook and cranny, every part of their marketing material and thinking, do I have a use for that? Do I have a use for that? Will it be good? Like, anyway, so I was looking through all of that. And by the end of it, of course, I bought the bag and I got the bag. Anytime—I think it's a very small minority in Australia, which have it—anytime someone was like, oh, that's an interesting bag. Because whenever I go to take something out of it, I do, I, there's a quick release latch on the adjustment of the of the side strap.
Georgie 33:53
Yeah. Is that the one that lets you pull it around your front to pull something out?
Geoff 33:56
Yeah, so you pull around your front and you open it from the side and you pull stuff out. So I got very adept at doing this obviously because it's actually like the main way you get in the bag. So whenever someone asked me and was interested, and it's usually at work I guess, I would do a full on like, like just—
Georgie 34:16
Tour of your bag?
Geoff 34:18
Yeah, I do a full on tour, tutorial. I'm like, you can do this. You can do this. You can do this, flip it around, like you got slat, latches here. You've got pockets here. You can use the pockets for these things. And then I did that, I did that so often, like not that often, but like at least enough that I had a whole script essentially in my head. I did it like maybe five five or eight times to be honest. So I knew every bucket of my bag. And to be honest, they came out with a v2 and they replaced my old one because it was—like technically this is supposed to be more or less watertight.
Georgie 34:58
Oh you mentioned this before, they just replaced it for free if there’s a problem?
Geoff 35:02
Yeah. Lifetime warranty on this bag. So I mean, in the past, I've had other complaints like other things that aren't work, like one of the one of the expansion latches, like was half falling off. So I said—
Georgie 35:15
Yeah.
Geoff 35:16
This is a problem. And then they just gave me a new bag. So this is my what, third, or third bag, fourth bag from them. Anyways, the v2 is not as good as the v1. And I'm a bit sad.
Georgie 35:28
Is it the qual, because I think you said like, the quality is not as good?
Geoff 35:32
The quality—
Georgie 35:33
Or is there something actually different about it?
Geoff 35:34
Yeah, something different. They re—they—
Georgie 35:36
Did they remove a pocket?
Geoff 35:38
They redid the top part and they redid the side pockets. So, so his—like before, if you put a laptop in, you can access there's a separate like slot there for your iPad, or tablet. And then there's a pouch like a open pouch that you can—
Georgie 35:55
Yeah, I got that pouch thing in mine.
Geoff 35:56
Yeah. The thing with the new one is that once you put a laptop into the back slot, it makes the makes the space tighter.
Georgie 36:05
The main space?
Geoff 36:06
The main space tighter.
Georgie 36:07
It butts into the main space.
Geoff 36:08
Yeah. So now you can barely get to the iPad. So you put the iPad there, even tighter. And then you can barely get to the soft pouch where you can put sunglasses. So the moment I put a laptop in there, everything gets hard to open and see.
Georgie 36:24
No, that’s shit.
Geoff 36:24
I’m like that's the whole point of this thing up here, was to have like a quick quick and easy locate, like—
Georgie 36:30
Yeah.
Geoff 36:30
Quick and easy location of, to put, to put stuff.
Georgie 36:33
Yeah because my Bellroy one has that too. And I remember when I watched some videos about it, like, if you, I think there's some bags where all of the external pockets that are not the main compartment, sometimes they will butt into the main compartment and take up space. So you just got to keep that in mind.
Geoff 36:49
Oh, yeah.
Georgie 36:49
Like so some of mine does that but not in a, not in a shit way. Yeah, if I'm put shit at the top, you can see it in the main compartment, if I put it in the side, it's like yeah.
Geoff 36:57
Oh, yeah. So that's the clever thing about the Peak one is that the side pockets do extend outwards. They don't go into the—
Georgie 37:06
Oh, they like, yeah.
Geoff 37:08
When they go, when when you put something in, it, it, the flap’s outside, the flap goes out outwards, not inwards. It's key because obviously there are shelves in there so you can't actually—
Georgie 37:19
You can’t butt in.
Geoff 37:19
Yeah, you can’t butt into the main. They also included two very small dividing pockets in the soft pocket open space at the top. So even less space, right? I'm like cramming my hand down there and I can't even get into those small side pockets even though I put like Airpods and my like wallet in there. But it's like, impossible to like grab.
Georgie 37:43
So is it the bag has gotten worse.
Geoff 37:46
Yeah, they just introduce a whole bunch of stuff that is like crowding the space now. The side pocket, they've, they've like divided the side pocket into two, one zipped and one top one. I used to put my battery pack in there. And now I can't fit because it's divided in two. Help me. Now I don't know what to do with this bag. Do I sell it and like, I don't know get a new one like get the Bellroy one maybe?
Georgie 38:16
If you want to borrow mine and check it out, you can do that.
Geoff 38:20
Yeah, but the shelving is still kind of good. To be honest. I don't put anything in that bag anymore. I don't leave my house anymore. Barely go to the like the shared workspace that we have to do because our company doesn't have an office in Sydney yet. Or maybe—
Georgie 38:38
We're gonna lose ours. We’re gonna lose ours for a shared workspace.
Geoff 38:42
Oh shit.
Georgie 38:43
Yeah.
Geoff 38:44
Like this merger—
Georgie 38:46
It's like a downgrade. No it's not about the merger. It's like literally no one's like going.
Geoff 38:50
Yeah, it makes sense.
Georgie 38:52
And we're paying a lot for it. I don't know if I'm allowed to say.
Geoff 38:55
Yeah.
Georgie 38:56
How much, but per month is like, could be somebody's, salary.
Geoff 39:03
Could be. Depending on where you are.
Georgie 39:06
But yeah, but it's a lot per month that we’re paying.
Geoff 39:10
You had a full ass kitchen setup with a chef and everything. So downsizing makes sense. The problem with the co working spaces that was highlighted in a in a meeting that we had with people from Sydney and what choices that there are for co working spaces and things like that, is that there are meeting room credits. And that is—
Georgie 39:32
What.
Geoff 39:33
Bloody hard to manage. Yeah.
Georgie 39:35
Are you saying you need to pay in like coin, like some kind of coin credit like to use a meeting room?
Geoff 39:40
Exactly. So your company will have a set allotted amount of meeting credits, and you have to allocate that to people or you allocate it to the company itself. So say you want a meeting, you go to a meeting room, you say I'm Culture Amp, or I’m Campaign Monitor. Sorry, both of our companies start with C.
Georgie 40:00
They start with C!
Geoff 40:03
And so you do that, and it minuses the credit. So what happened to—
Georgie 40:07
Do you have a dedicated, do you have a dedicated space? Or you only have the co working space?
Geoff 40:14
Depending on who you go with, you can have—
Georgie 40:17
Because we are going to have, we're going to have a dedicated space.
Geoff 40:20
Yes. But even with the dedicated space, it's, it'll be interesting to know. And you can tell me because we're also dealing with our co working space issue. But generally that's the, that's the that's the model that they're going—
Georgie 40:33
Why not just have a meeting out in the open.
Geoff 40:36
Maybe companies—
Georgie 40:38
On a couch.
Geoff 40:38
Company sensitive stuff.
Georgie 40:41
Oh, right, okay.
Geoff 40:42
Customer service? Like they're like, we can't have our meetings outside in the open.
Georgie 40:48
Okay, yeah, makes sense.
Geoff 40:50
But yeah, it's like really awkward because you run out of credits. And then there's like, the next person needs to have a meeting and you're just like, can't, you can't, just—
Georgie 40:58
Can you buy more?
Geoff 40:59
Yeah, but then it's kind of expensive. It's kind of one of those things with bulk buying and then like, if you want to add on it's like $100 or something.
Georgie 41:06
Yeah, I'll have to let you know I think in maybe a month's time.
Geoff 41:09
Yeah.
Georgie 41:10
It’ll be, yeah, actually less than a month we’ll be like moved.
Geoff 41:13
Yeah, most co working spaces don't have like monitors and those kind of amenities if you, if you're working on a budget, so I'd be really interested to know if you go to somewhere that actually provides monitors and stuff. Speaking of credits, yeah we've run out of credit on this episode.
Georgie 41:31
Time's running out.
Geoff 41:32
Time is running out. Quick red flash button. Oh, you have like the little light that's like flashing red when you run out of time—
Georgie 41:38
You serious?
Geoff 41:39
No.
Georgie 41:39
In the in the meeting room? Oh, you mean like in the recording studios?
Geoff 41:42
Like recording studios. So you can find us in @toastroastpod on Twitter still. Still no Mastodon? Sorry? Not sorry.
Georgie 41:51
Not sorry at all. You can find us—what the hell did I just? You can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcasts and the big travel backpack.
Geoff 42:03
Yeah, baby. And new episodes every Monday. So...
Georgie 42:08
See you next week.
Geoff 42:10
Bye.
Georgie 42:10
Bye.