Dull

Not the weather, the sky blue day today was fantastic. Just in terms of news. I had intended to see Inception yesterday, the new Christopher Nolan film, though I decided against wasting too much money the wrong side of pay day. So I'll probably take a look at it next week.

I took a notion to buy a new bag today, one with adequate space for my ridiculously oversized 16" laptop. As I figure €50 for a bag to carry it with ease makes more sense than €500 for a smaller, lighter, easier to carry model. Not that I'd say no to a smaller laptop were money no object.

I already know that Media Markt and Saturn don't do any laptop bags worth talking about, only plain black, expensive Belkin models. I don't really like the look of them. So instead of travelling to Hoofddorp or Amsterdam, I just went up to Haarlem to take a look in two local computer stores.

The first store I visited had a couple of fantastic messenger bags, well made, excellently padded, lots of small pockets for storing things and they looked rather funky and cool too. Unfortunately, they were designed to hold 15.4" laptops. Meaning mine was a bit long for any of them. What a shame. They did have one bag for a 16", but it looked like a giant handbag, so it was out of the question. After a while I got fed up with the staff looking at me like I was wrecking their buzz, so I moved on to the next store.

They had a much smaller selection of bags in this store, however they had two quite good ones that might do me. They weren't as funky looking as the designer bags in the first store, but they were good quality and well made. Nice padding and lots of sensible pockets. One backpack that looks like it would hold a lot comfortably, and one messenger bag, that  looks like it wouldn't fall apart too easily. As soon as I was done looking at them, the shopkeeper pounced on me to close the sale. It wasn't his day however, I told him I'd think about it and moved on.

I may buy one of these bags after I get paid next week, probably the backpack. I do like my current messenger bag, it was good value and is comfortable. However, it's not designed for carrying a laptop, and I often struggle to fit much in it. A good laptop would be more comfortable to carry the laptop in, be easier to cycle with and will be useful for bringing home the couple of books and things I've accumulated during my stay.