How hard can it be, I thought. I've seen those movies where people get their marching orders and leave with their small box of personal items, and a pot plant.

Two hours after I started I still hadn't found the plant but I had come across a range of items I must have believed were necessary to my work.

First were the paintings. The office walls were a little bare and, being a woman, I immediately decorated. Three abstracts, one outback scene, two prints from Alice Springs and a motivational cartoon showing a van delivering "fresh words daily".

Oh, I also took down my two certificates, both received for merely turning at up management training, and my 2007 Best Journalist and Most Popular awards from The Courier. Not quite sure how the latter happened although I do remember talking about world peace.

The desk drawers proved the most interesting with an eclectic mix of items that have nothing to do with getting a newspaper out each week.

The top drawer held knives, forks, packets of soup, microwavable rice, tins of tuna and family photos I had never bothered to put on display.

I think that's a phobia from when my sister sent me a photo of her first child, my nephew, after I had relocated to Hamilton Island the day he was born. Don't ask.

Anyway, you know how every baby is beautiful - he wasn't. I don't know how he was delivered but his head looked like it had gone through a wringer (yes I know, I know) and his face was a very strange shade of purple. Those photos never saw the light of day but I am happy to report

he is now a good looking, six-foot, 15-year-old.

Opening the second drawer had me quite worried. Was I really ill or just a hypochondriac? Panadol, cold and flu tablets, a spare Ventolin, nasal spray, tissues for when the spray didn't work, Bandaids and three half-used bottles of anti-bacterial handwash. And then there were the

bottles of multi-vitamins and the vitamin b executive stress tablets along with an unsigned form to join the gym.

In other drawers I found an untouched box of thank-you notes, a handbag I bought and stashed until I could take it home and genuinely say "oh, that old thing", and a couple of magazines from the time I decided I would actually take my 30-minute lunch break.

Anyway, after two hours it was over. I had the car full and the office empty. And I also took away some great memories.

I don't have a desk at The Courier yet.

But I have found an empty set of drawers. I mean, you always need a few things from home around you.