A necessity: My briefcase because I feel very insecure without having my work beside me. I like to remind myself of what I should be doing even when I'm ballooning. I keep my toothbrush and so on in it, but also a file or two.

A luxury: A mobile phone for security, and I could hold it in reserve for when I was really down in the dumps. It's a means of contact with the real world.

A memento: I'm not superstitious or the kind of person who collects things, but I always have my Breitling emergency watch, which has an emergency transmitter built into it. If ever I need rescuing, all I have to do is unscrew a bolt on the side and pull out the aerial and it will automatically transmit to the nearest aircraft within 200km. It also has a built-in party trick: whenever you cross time zones all you have to do is pull out the stalk at the side and give it a spin and it automatically changes with a great flourish and without losing a second.

If only: Something that could change the weather when I needed it and deviate me on to a good course, so that when I get to the other side of Japan and there is a thunderstorm looming, I wouldn't have to ditch in the sea but could carrry on.

• To The Edge of Space, Memoirs of a Balloonist by Colin Prescot, is published by Boxtree at £20.