Dishin’ with the Diva

Quick Tip – Temporary Utility Suspension

It’s probably not worth it for the average two or three week vacation, but if you’re going away for a longer length of time (a month or more), you may want to check with your utility providers to see if they have a vacation suspension available for their services. There’s no sense spending money on something back home that you won’t be using, right?

You may not want to do this with your power company, but you may want to consider it for your phone, cable, or internet service. Not to mention your paper delivery, if you have it, or your garbage collection. It may not seem like much of a savings, but I think whatever you don’t spend on something you aren’t using is money you can use for travel expenses.

Adventures in Packing – Hefty Travel Bags

The trial-size toiletry aisle is a dangerous place for me to be.

Generally, I keep a toiletry bag packed at all times; it’s just easier for me, since I don’t have to worry about grabbing my toothbrush, contact lens solution, or shampoo before walking out the door. It’s all in my bag. With the new TSA guidelines, I’ve grudgingly just gone ahead and checked my bag, since I’d rather not bust up the items in my toiletry bag.

But I leave for New Zealand in less than a week. And after my last trip to New Zealand – when I got to Auckland but my bag kept going to Melbourne – I’m not risking three days without contact lens solution again. So while shopping for assorted other necessities, I added quart-sized freezer bags to my list.

I almost never use freezer bags at home. I usually try to keep some on hand just in case, but I ran out a while back and hadn’t need them since. I hated the idea of buying a whole box before leaving, since it’ll be a while before I’m home again to use them. But I decided what the heck, I need what I need.

While browsing through the trial-sized toiletries, I ran across a bin with packs of Hefty One-Zip Travel Bags. Yes, it’s a gimmick, and I could have just as easily bought a box of plain-old quart-sized freezer bags for a more cost-effective price. But this is a nice, simple pack of 7 bags for about a buck. So into my cart they went, along with a few other items to stash in my carry-on – just in case my bag and I end up on different itineraries again. And I didn’t end up with a stack of plastic bags that will take ages for me to use.

(BTW, it took five days for my bag to get to me; I just gave in after three days and bought more contact solution and another contact lens case. Which bugged me to no end, since I had at least four more at home and would have been much happier spending that money on almost anything else.)

Culture Shock – Dressing for Dinner

Several years ago, I took a (small) group tour through Devon and Cornwall in England with Back-Roads Touring Company. It was my first group tour, only four days, and part of a much longer trip through the British Isles. I was living out of a backpack, so I had tried to pack relatively light (as much as I ever do, at any rate).

Ours was a small group – a mother/daughter pair from Australia, a mother/son pair from China, an American professor, and myself. We did our sightseeing thing for most of the day, then arrived at our home base for the duration of the tour. We had some time to unpack and get settled, then we were to all meet in the hotel’s dining room for dinner together. So I got myself settled, made a couple of phone calls home, and made my way to dinner.

And everyone else had changed clothes from the day. Except me. They were all dressed up, not evening wear, but smart semi-casual. And I was still in my Teva sandals, shorts and travel shirt. (The only shoes I had were my Tevas and my hiking boots, so at least I was wearing my “nice” shoes.)

No one said a word about my attire, but I still felt like I stuck out as a slob. The next day, I made sure to change into the nicest top I brought with me and the one skirt I had before going to dinner. And when we had some free time in town, I went shopping for a dress.

So, the moral of the story? Even when on vacation, it may be the norm to dress up a bit for dinner. If you’ll be dining just amongst yourselves, whatever you and your travel companions usually do should be fine, assuming you aren’t planning to go to a formal restaurant. But if you’re dining with a group you don’t know, you may want to dress it up, just a bit.

Adventures in Packing – Avoiding Overpacking

No matter how hard I try not to, I usually end up overpacking. Short trips, long trips, doesn’t matter – I always end up with something in my suitcase that doesn’t leave the suitcase until I get home.

Since I’m about to be living out of a backpack for the next several months as I make my way around New Zealand, I have more incentive than ever to pack as lightly as possible. But I also know I’m going there as they are moving from autumn into winter, and New Zealand gets a lot colder than Houston does. So I’ll need to pack a couple of heavy sweaters – ones that come out of the dresser maybe once a year under usual circumstances.

I’m also trying to balance between things to wear for outdoor labor, since I would like to spend some time WWOOF-ing, and things I could wear if I get office temp jobs. Plus I may need suitable clothes for hiking… 

Luckily, my backpack is pretty big, but I don’t want to badly weigh myself down. So right now I’ve got my clothes spread out in the living room, deciding what stays in the lineup and what goes back in the closet. I’m trying to plan layers, and what can go with what else, so that even if I do end up wearing the same 6 or 7 basic pieces for the next few months, the outfits don’t always have to look exactly the same.

It also helps to know what is and isn’t good value where you’re going, so if you need to skip bringing something because of packing space, you know what you’d be likely to want to buy in your destination anyway. For example, between past visits and recent research, I know New Zealand doesn’t have the best values on career-type clothes, but they have some great stores with good prices on outdoor wear. So though I’m taking some hiking-type clothes, I’m not packing a lot. However, I’ll probably take an extra pair of slacks, since I’d rather pay U.S. prices for that.

So, my plan of attack goes something like this: plan, pair up, eliminate whatever I can, and pack it all up in the smallest space possible.

Culture Shock – Bacon

Naturally, part of the fun of travel is experiencing how different people live in different places. You expect things to be different than they are at home; if they weren’t, what would be the point? But every so often, something small but startling pops up and surprises you.

For me, bacon is my culture shock Achilles’ heel. What Americans call bacon isn’t what the Irish call bacon, isn’t what the Kiwis call bacon, isn’t what Canadians call bacon, and so on. Before I leave the States, I brace myself for a bacon drought. I do my best to get at least one good bacon fix in before the week or so before I depart.

At breakfast, I remember that what I’ll be served that’s called bacon isn’t. Well, not to me. It’s still good, it’s still pork, it’s still probably not all that healthy, but it’s not what I would get back home. But the rest of the day, I tend to forget. So when a dish lists “bacon” as an ingredient, whether it’s a burger or a pasta dish or a pizza, my brain automatically prepares my taste buds for bacon-y goodness, only to not encounter the flavor they were expecting.

During my last few travels, I have found “streaky bacon” in the stores, which is pretty much American-style bacon. I even had a chicken dish in Ireland where the chicken breast was wrapped in streaky bacon, and oh, it was heavenly. The streaky bacon I cooked for myself last time I was in New Zealand wasn’t quite right, but I could only find thickly-sliced, and I prefer mine of the thinner variety. So all is not lost.

But I still made myself a big plate of bacon for breakfast this morning, just to be on the safe side.