Overnight work trip with 15/13 Cadet and PCSB

[Vertandor]

I recently had to go to one of other our sites with my colleagues, and because of the location and the fact the meeting started at 9am we had to travel down the night before. As a bit of an experiment, I decided to see how minimal I could make this...

Cadet (main section):
• Laptop in sleeve (HP Elitebook 2540p)
• Glasses Case
• 3D clear organiser with basic first aid stuff, spare contact lenses etc, plus my preventer inhaler managed to squeeze in.
• Small wash bag with toiletries, toothbrush etc (similar size to the 3D cube)
• Small pouch with USB sticks etc hung from key strap
• Phone charger
• Contigo auto-seal travel mug
• Pashmina
• A5 hardback notebook
• A4 plastic pocket with print-outs of hotel details, agenda for meetings etc

Cadet (outer pocket)
• Power brick and cables for laptop
• Pens
• Reliever inhaler in pouch on key strap
• Set of work keys (hung from o ring)
• Small pack of tissues
• Small red bike light
• Reflector stick (movo-bright)
• Various credit-sized cards e.g. site ‘passport’, travel help-numbers in the pocket pouch (hung from o ring)
• Work mobile in the ultrasuede lined outside pocket.

PCSB
• Long sleeved tunic top
• Vest top/camisole
• Pyjama top and bottoms
• Spare underwear
• Pair of ballet flat style shoes
• Knitted hat
• Sunglasses
• Small hairbrush
• perfume

Wallet, phone and keys were in my coat pockets.

Thoughts:

Ok so this might be pushing it for much more than an overnight stay even with washing, but the combination of the two bags made things very easy. I was travelling by car with a colleague, and as well as our bags we both had a crate with site gear (safety boots, overalls, gloves, glasses, high vis coat) to fit in the boot of the car. We then met another colleague at the hotel and had to add her bags and site gear to ours in the morning.
The PCSB slid easily into one of the small gaps left in the boot, and emerged looking as fresh as when it had been delivered. The Cadet sat in the footwell of one of the back passenger seats. I left the PCSB in the car during the day, taking the Cadet in for the meetings. Unhooked the inhaler in the pouch and tucked into one of my overall pockets for when we were off round the site to inspect the area we were discussing, the pouch keeps the dust etc out really well.
Definitely going to look at a bigger bag in the future for longer trips, but nice to know I can do an overnight.

I'll try to remember to post some photos over the weekend.

[Vertandor]

Right - photos. Sorry about the quality!

The two together

cadet - main

cadet - outer

all that went in the PCSB

[lotuseater]

Thanks for sharing the photos. It's the first time I've seen the iberian interior with the black ultrasuede pocket liner. The photos I saw on reviews4i.com (Tom Bihn Cadet Messenger Bag Review) showed it with the tan/light brown ultrasuede.

Black/iberian is no longer being offered as far as I can tell (although I just saw black/wasabi on the backorder list). I missed out last month and ordered black/steel instead. It's a much more versatile bag than I expected from the early reviews. I like the idea of using it with the PCSB on minimalist trips, although my Lenovo T410 takes up a lot more space than your HP Ultrabook, so I can't squeeze as many extra items as you did in the main pocket of the Cadet.