Growing up, I was a big fan of Enid Blyton books. My favourite ones were the boarding school stories like Malory Towers and St Clare’s. Oh how I enjoyed them, dreaming about the adventures I’d have with them at boarding school (and *ahem* smacking someone with a paddle brush :P). In fact, I remembered asking my mum to send me to one just so I could have an “Enid Blyton Malory Towers-style” experience. That was before I found out what boarding schools were like in Malaysia, and suddenly, thoughts dreams were dashed 😛

In her books, most students carried satchels. I didn’t know what satchels looked like until about 10 years ago. I can’t really recall what students in the UK carried their books in when I was in university, but when I was living in Japan, most Japanese students carried scarlet leather satchels, that could also be converted into backpacks. I knew then that I wanted one too, and after seeing LeGeeque‘s and Paris B‘s satchels from the Cambridge Satchel Company, it was high time I got myself one too.

Unfortunately, I had a lot of issues with the Cambridge Satchel Company and 2 months after I placed my order, I had to cancel it. I’ll tell you about my experience shopping with them one day, but suffice to say, appalling customer service played a big role, and I could not shop with them anymore. A few months later, I managed to finally get my leather satchel from Zatchels, and truth be told, it’s one of the prettiest bags I have.

I bought the 13″ bag, which fits the iPad perfectly. Good for days when I want to bring my iPad out in a bag that looks equally good 😉

The leather satchel is very stiff brand new, so it’s quite difficult to put things in at first. In order to stretch the leather, I stuffed a few copies of Vogue into the bag :P. A few days later, my wallet, makeup bag, minties, shopping bag, mobilephone and small purse could fit in the bag without any trouble.

It’s quite a hassle buckling the flap everytime I take something in and out of the bag, so I do not lock it down fully when I use the bag. My mum would exclaim in horror if I did this in Malaysia, which is why I will only use this bag in Australia 😛

The leather will soften in time and use. I hope the colour doesn’t fade though, and if it does, I hope it fades to a lovely dark green. I wouldn’t be able to carry this to school back in the day though (we had heaps of textbooks and exercise books back then. This bag would only a maximum of two textbooks), so I’m fully enjoying it now.

It even comes with a certificate of authenticity!

Next up, an 11″ satchel or maybe a barrel bag? 😉