Packing light

A subject close to my heart due to recent travels. Here are some links, ponderings and possible (tongue in cheek?)solutions.

Shoes:
I used to be the girl who packed 7 pairs of shoes for a week's holiday - well no more... I can now make do with a pair of boots, some smartish flats for day time and some evening shoes. However, if I wanted to pack even lighter on the footwear front, there is a (truly hideous) answer out there - quoted as being "...fashionable women's footwear with interchangeable tops to create many pairs of shoes without having to pack them all..." "Why pack five or six pairs of shoes to match your outfits, when you can pack ten or fifteen different looks with a single quality sole from OneSole. Simply snap on an appropriate "topper" matching your outfit and pack ten times the quantity of shoes in a fraction of the space" Yuck.





Bags:
I recently decided to buy myself a walk-on wheely suitcase for short trips and made the same mistake I always make with luggage - I bought something attractive with fancy leather trim and a satiny lining, but it's COMPLETELY non-functional - this is it in the photo it topples over on bouncy pavements, nothing fits in the outside pocket.. I could go on... When will I learn, just-fork-out-for-a-Samsonite-for-god's-sake-woman....

Perhaps I should have read this link first which provides some useful if slightly geeky advice on choosing a bag: http://www.onebag.com/bags.html

Packing:
Rolling or folding? For me rolling wins everytime - partly due to my pathological fear of folding :-).. plus it's quicker, things get less creased and for some reason more fits in.

Er... underwear?
Another bad taste item I'm afraid. For the truly lazy (and unstylish, un-embarrasable etc); disposable travel knickers. Yes, that's right wear-n-chuck-out panties that go by the name of 'OneDerWear'

Urban Picnic Boxes

OK, this is a bit of a moany post, more of a rant perhaps. What to eat at work is the bain of my life. The other day for the example, I was actually forced between choosing cauliflower and mayonnaise or boiled chard for a starter, follewed by lentils swimming in lard or hot dogs for the main (I chose caulflower then hot dogs). The alternative would be making a packed lunch to bring from home and eat at my desk, but I don't want to be the unfriendly English person who eats alone whilst doing one-finger typing, plus over the past few years I've actually got used to lunch with colleagues being a sort of semi-social event. And then what does one take for packed lunch? Sandwiches? Everyday? Last night's leftover pasta? Anyway, this london-based company have a great solution: for 6 pounds (no more than my yucky 8.75 menu-del-dia with today's exchange rates) you get a delicious bento-style lunch box based on the cuisine of a different country each day of the week (Morrocan, Italian, Japanese etc). I love it and would no doubt be obese if I lived in London. It's also 11.50 and I'm very hungry which is why I'm writing about food.

You can look at the ridiculuosly delicious menus here: http://www.up-box.co.uk/menus.html

Robot toilet roll holder

For some reason, this just made me smile :-)

http://www.generalrobots.de/product_info.php/info/p455_Robotan-Toilettenpapierhalter-rot.html/XTCsid/d114aa5b497c175b0fd5f8915fbd0022

New year, new resolutions

Every year around this time I ask myself the same things. Shall I bother to make any new year's resolutions? (Yes, but, no but, yes... but), Will I be able to keep them (the majority, no), Why is this time of year any better than the rest to make promises to oneself? (It isn't), Will I feel shitty if I dont keep them (Yes, a little)....... arghh. Anyway, as with every other year for at least the past 19 (you do the maths ;-)) my answer is yes to a little self-improvement (I wonder if my embarkment on a lifetime yearly 'must be better' projects coincides with when I first read Cosmopolitan??).

So, here they are (at least the non-embarrassing ones) in no particular order:
1. Make as much recovery as possible from 'you know what', do all the exercises, all the time.
2. Be organised, don't procrastinate, just do it.
3. Be more careful with money.
4. Phone my family more (whilst at the same time paying heed to resolution Nº 3!).
5. Here is the space for some career-related resolution which hasn't been decided upon but would probably be unpublishable anyway.
6. Keep fit. This one comes up every year on everyone's lists I would imagine, but I'm hoping that this year will be different as for the first time I don't want to exercise to look good, but instead to avoid having a heart attack at some point (a bit alarmist, I admit).

To be continued...