Home cooked dinner and the photo swap

It was pouring down rain on the weekend. The plan was to stay home in bed with my DVDs and my big pot of freshly cooked Pork Belly in young coconut juice with eggs and quail eggs. And since I had to leave work early on Friday because I was so sick, I thought it was the perfect way to recover.

However, Moishii called me and asked if I wanted to come over to swap photos, since he had the house to himself, and he even offered to cook me dinner! How could I refuse? Besides, my Pork Belly dish always taste better the next day. But since Moishii offered to cook, I thought I should contribute by bringing freshly homebaked peanut butter cookies. All wrapped up Rome style of course.

So in the pouring rain, I grab my laptop and my special package of cookies and slowly drive over to Moishii's place. I walk into the house and can I could smell something cooking. Moishii had made my favourite lentil soup! In the last trip, and the trip before, whenever I got sick (which is always in Istanbul) I would want lentil soup. Ever since the first time I tried it, I've been completely converted on Turkish Soup. Seeing the big pot of warm and comforting lentil soup was the best way to brighten my mood after driving in the horrid weather. Plus I was really sick that weekend as well! So whilst Moishii continued to cook dinner, I busied myself with doing the photo thing whilst we played the holiday videos on the background. Hey, I did offer to help you know??

Anyway, Moishii ended up cooking me a 3 course meal!! I'm surprised he did such a great job since he was tanked on wine!

In action

In action - close up

My favourite lentil soup and it was delicious!!

Greek salad - Turkish style

Table view

Me infront of the feast!

My plate all piled up

Sugar coated strawberries

Moishii with the cookie present

Peanut butter cookies

After completely pigging out on a delicious meal, Moishii put on a massive pot of Cay (Turkish Tea), and pulled out his secret stash of cubed sugar (I LOVE cay with cubed sugar!) where we sat down and slowly went through our photos whilst recapping some of the highlights of the trip. It did help with the videos playing in the background to jog our memories. Infact, we had ALOT of videos...

Yes....anyway, we finally got a copy of each other's photos. I took 4200 photos on my DSLR, and EASILY another 500+ on my point and shoot. Thats 4700 photos!! Crap! Oh wells, its better to have more photos than not enough photos to remember the trip. But anything I forget, I'm sure I can recap with Moishii over tea on a rainy day. Thanks for the lovely meal Moishii!! Lets do it again! HEhehe

Day 7 - Swapping accommodations

No sleep again. I must cut down on the coffee. I'm up at the crack of dawn and end up tossing and turning for hours before finally dragging my ass out of bed. Then theres a good 20mins of wrestling the shower trying not to flood the place. I end up doing a pretty good job of it. The floor was relatively dry! That is until Moishii got in and completely flooded the bathroom until water started leaking into the hallway. So much for my efforts.

We grab our essentials (For me, my camera) and headed back to our local bar for some morning coffee. The same coffee guy is there to greet us and make our orgasmic coffee (Plus he's cute!). As we munched on our cornetti and sipped our coffee, local guy started chatting with us. (OMG! We're mingling with the locals!) We somehow had a feeling that this was going to be an incident, and should drag out the conversation for as long as we could. (Even though the cashier stormed over and demanded that we pay before we had even finished) So I did what a normal person would do. I ordered another coffee. The only problem was, I was getting headspins from the caffiene! Like serious headspins! Like I had to hold onto the bench from toppling over headspins! Why I kept drinking the coffee is beyond me. Wait, it was delicious. And we managed to get a photo with him!




By the time I walked out of the bar, it feels like I've been out drinking all night! We get back to the apartment and it was final checks before we leave. Through our broken Italian, apparently the home owners couldn't come to pick up the key as we checked out because she had to take the kids to school or something. The only problem is, you cannot lock the door without a key. The door will not close unless you use a key, which we're supposed to leave on the dining room table. Now we weren't about to call them up and try to explain that, it'll just be too painful. Instead, we became reverse criminals. You know how people use a credit card to unlock a door? We'll, we used the same method to LOCK the door. Except we used a butter knife to jimmy the door so it'll lock. I'm sure the owners will be wondering why there is a butter knife on their door mat.

So once we got all our suitcases out of the apartment, we decided we should trek to the metro station that is further from us as its all downhill. The closer metro meant we had to wind through cars and pavements etc. This was a great move on our end since Moishii had two suitcases! 15mins later, we finally get to the metro where we proceeded to lug the suitcases down the escalator until a cleaner stopped us and pointed us towards two MASSIVE elevators. Yes...very observant of us.

When we arrive at Flaminio, we started our slow hike to the other train station with our massive suitcases. Luckily a lady jumped in to help me lug the suitcases up a short flight of steps. And luckily, the train to Euclide wasn't going to leave for a good 5-10mins so we could slowly load all our suitcases on. We quickly devised a plan on how to best get the luggage off without the train running us over. We shuffled all our suitcases and bags to the door. Once the train doors opened, I threw myself off onto the platform when Moishii started throwing the bags at me. Within 15seconds, we had all our luggage off the train. Then it was time for a 5min break before the 100+ steps we were going to have to battle. Its a good thing there were a few landings on the steps for us to take a rest otherwise I would've passed out and let the suitcase fall the 100steps back down.

When we finally do make it to the hotel, we're ready to drop dead. Luckily, the tour director was there to greet us and we managed to get all the paperwork done within minutes before we're shown our room. We were staying at the Ritz Hotel and the furnishing was actually quite luxurious. Well, I mean, compared to the apartment. So out comes the cameras and we're busy taking photos when suddenly there was a knock at the door. We open the door and the mini bar guy comes storming in saying he needs to check the minibar. He takes a quick look and quickly dashes out to grab more supplies. At some point, we figured something was going to happen and we needed to film this. The video camera was on and placed onto the bedside table when he comes storming back in. Next thing you know, we're chatting about how he has a brother who is also in Sydney, and he would like to give us a gift and asked us to pass it on to him. Like WTF? Who asks a complete stranger to pass a gift onto someone else? For all we know, it could be drugs! OMG! He's asking us to smuggle drugs for him! He told us he'll try and drop by tomorrow and give us the gift. Our plan was to take it, open it, then shove it into the minibar as well. No way are we going to be taking anything for him to Sydney! Lets see if he really does come back...


After lugging all the suitcases half way across town, we grab a quick shower before we duck across the road to a bar for some lunch. Spotting the big tray of pasta, we ordered a take away plate each and grabbed an ice tea to eat across the street on the steps of an old church. This cost us about 10euros for the both of us instead of the 25euros we paid for those pitiful sandwiches! AND it was delicious!


After our satisfying meal, we decided to head back to our local guy for more coffee. Yes, we're obsessed with him. So 2 trains later, we finally pull into the bar where he greets us once again. And the more we chatted, the more we became obsessed. I don't know why. Its not like he's weird or anything, but maybe its the fact that we're getting to know "the locals". And he make awesome coffee!


Anyway, like all bars, this one is filled with alcohol. I couldn't have another coffee without headspins, so we decided to order alcohol instead, except we didn't know what was good and what wasn't. So we asked him to explain the various types of alcohol to us, and he even let us taste test a few. We settled on Disarrono. I asked him whether we're supposed to take it like a shot of alcohol or not and he starts screaming at me "NO NO!! NO FAST!! SLOW!! SLOWWWWWW!". Then I knew why. The Disarrono was served in a tall glass. No ice, no soda. Just alcohol. If I had knocked that whole glass back in one shot, I would be passed out on the floor within minutes.

Am I supposed to take that as a shot?

10mins later, I had downed the entire glass and we stumbled out of there drunk as a skunk. Great. As we walked back towards the metro, suddenly a swarm of tourists stumble out of a nearby restaurant. As we squeezed through the crowd, one of them practically burped in our face. Wait, it wasn't a burp, it was a loud satisfying BELCH. This got us into a big laughing fit right in the guys face as we quickly make a get away.

We laughed all the way to the metro station where we headed back to the hotel (After a 14y.o. kid barked at us). We got some directions from the train guy, and then we walked for about 10mins to find a supermarket. This is where we stocked up on supplies. (Supplies being 10L of water and 2 bottles of wine).

Fresh Veggies

Fresh Pasta

Fresh bread

Antipasto

Deli - shaved to order

ZOMG! ALCOHOL!!

Instead of lugging everything by hand back to the hotel, we decided to grab a trolley and wheel it back. Usually this is ok, I mean alot of people were wheeling their groceries to the car. However, we were wheeling the trolley about 5 blocks from the supermarket and making a hella of alot of noise! After attracting too much attention, we decided to hand carry everything back the last 2 blocks.


We grabbed a quick shower before rushing downstairs to the lobby for the welcoming drinks the tour organises. We walked in to a room full of people. We quickly walked up to Elena (who we will now call "Cabbage Patch") to grab our name and luggage tags before I spotted a table where there were only 2 people sitting and a massive plate of chips. I quickly plant myself down with a glass of wine in hand and attack the huge pile of chips, and this is when we met Ron and Good old. Within 10secs of our conversation, we knew something was not right. Good old screamed at us whilst we were having a pleasant chat that we can keep talking all day, because they love listening to our accent. Alrighty then....We were telling them how we got ripped off at a cafe for sitting down when Good Old blurted out that they paid 20euros for a diet coke and a sprite. 20euros?? Thats $40AUD!! For 2 soft drinks!!! Ok, we're not that bad then.....

Suddenly, Cabbage Patch stands up and starts telling us about the tour. How things are going to work, how we have a 5:45am wakeup call tomorrow (SHIT!), customs in Italy and things to be aware of. The itinerary for tomorrow would be to see the Vatican and the Colosseum. This is when Ron and Good Old piped up and told us how the day before, they were at the Colosseum and paid the Gladiator 40euros for 5 photos taken on their digital camera! $80AUD for 5 Photos!! LIKE OH MY GOD!!! WHO PAYS $80AUD FOR 5 PHOTOS!!! And they found it hilarious and kept telling people that story. Cabbage Patch was so stunned that someone was stupid enough to pay $80AUD for 5 photos, she looked like someone had bitchslapped her in the face with a pair of dirty undies!

When Cabbage Patch finally recovered from the shock, she decided to announce that at 10pm tonight, the hotel will have no electricity. Because the council was undertaking work around the hotel, all power will be cut off by 10pm, and might not be restored until the morning. This brough on a panic attack with half the people screaming if theres no power, is there going to be breakfast?? Like hello? I think there are more important things to be worried about? Like how are you going to pee if theres no light in the toilet??? Some people...

By the time the welcoming drinks were over, we were significantly tanked. And the stories Good Old and Ron were telling us isn't helping either. There was an optional pizza and pasta dinner as well as a night time drive around Rome, but since they're charging about $60-80 for each "excursion", we decided to do our own thing instead. We walked around the block a few times trying to find a cheap restaurant or something where we can get take away. This is when we find that we're on a new freak street on Planet of the Apes:



We decided on grabbing some pizza to take back to the hotel room. Instead of doing the smart thing and just ordering slices of premade pizza (Which is alot cheaper), we decided to order fresh made pizzas take away. As we waited, we noticed this woman sitting the in the restaurant:

She was literally just sitting there, flicking the tv channels with the remote. She wasn't a customer since she didn't have any food or drinks and she was there before us. She wasn't exactly working either. She seemed like she wanted to turn the restaurant into her livingroom. We suspect she seriously comes to the restaurant to watch tv. o_O


We walked back to the hotel with our piping hot pizzas and dashed through the lobby and straight to our room. When we opened the pizza box, this is what we got:

Mushroom pizza...I think...

Aracini

Potato Pizza

Our wine

Somehow, Moishii managed to slide all the topping off the pizza. I guess him holding the pizza vertically could do that hey? Not to worry, we managed to find some cutlery and slap everything back onto the pizza somehow. Next obstacle, opening the wine we bought. LUCKILY, I am always prepared and happened to have a bottle opener in my luggage (It was part of a swiss army knife thing). Except this bottle opener only had the screwy bit, and not the leverage bit that helps you pull the cork out easily. So we thought cooperation is best. With me grabbing onto the bottle with both hands, and Moishii grabbing onto the cork screw with both hands, we tugged and tugged at the bottle until I went flying backwards and almost tipping the entire bottle all over our beds. Opening a bottle Oishii and Moishii style....

The pizza was delicious, once we managed to get the topping back on. The potato pizza was amazing! No tomato base, just potatoes and cheese. The potato was cooked until it was just soft. Kind of like the centre of a really nice potato scallop! MmMmm Pizza....the wine, however, was a bit of disappointment. Hey, it did only cost us $5 for the wine! We couldn't complain too much. After getting shitfaced, we somehow had the biggest laughing fit over 5 photos for 40euros! I know, we're easily amused. Half way through our laughing fit, all power got cut. Well that certainly cut our night short. However, despite all electricity being cut, the powerful street light RIGHT infront of my window was going fullblast! CRAP! Oh wells, I still had to get some shut eye even though I was pumped full of caffiene and couldn't sleep!! We had a 5:45am wakeup call.......

Day 6 - The pain of exploring Rome

I couldn't get out of bed. Everything hurts! Not only did I not get enough sleep from excess coffee, but all the walking the day before completely killed my body. I had blisters all over my feet after one day of walking, and my legs alternated between pins and needles to throbbing pain. All I wanted to do was sleep! But its 7am, and the caffeine in my body has me waking up at the slightest sound. I tossed and turned for an hour before deciding to get up, shower and play on my laptop. Moishii eventually wakes up, but just like me, all we want to do is go back to bed but we can't sleep because of the coffee! To make things worse, my bedroom window faces the driveway to the apartment car park whilst Moishii's bedroom window is ontop of the garage door. The whole night you hear cars coming and going!

After procrastinating for as long as we could, we decided it was time to go out for coffee to wake us up. We walk up the road and walk past a bar that we saw the night before and refused to go in.

Now firstly, let me explain what a bar is in Italy. A bar is essentially a cafe, except they serve alcohol. There are bars on almost every street in Italy. You can choose to have your coffee/alcohol/sandwich/otherfood standing at the bar, or sitting down (which cost more). And in Italy, their coffee is not hot. All coffees are made at a very nice drinkable temperature, meaning you can walk in, throw a coffee down your throat and be out within 1min.

Now back to the bar we refused to go into the night before. It basically looked dodgy. But in the day time, it looked like the perfect place for coffee. Ok, I lied. Its the closest place for coffee and we're too lazy to walk. So we enter the bar and immediately lunged for the fresh cornetto (Crossiant) thats available whilst screaming for our cuppucino.


My god this is the best cuppucino I've ever had! Like this is REALLY REALLY GOOD!

Satisfied with our early (12pm) caffiene hit, we decided that we should do a trial run of getting from the apartment to the tour hotel. After paying 75euros for a cab, we thought cheap was best. So we went to a pay phone, and used the 36euro phonecard to call the hotel for directions. After alot of confusion and yelling with broken Italian/English, we managed to get some really rough instructions on how to get there. We grab ourselves another metro card and hopped onto the first metro to Flaminio where we're supposed to change trains to Euclide. We jump off at Flaminio, were we follow the hotel's instructions to go to Piazza Del Popolo, cross the square and find the train station for Euclide. So we did. And we walked in circles looking for the stupid train station. 15mins later, we finally locate the damn train station which was tucked in a corner with old run down signs and is about 200m from the metro. Crap. Thats going to be fun with all our suitcases.

The train pulls in and it looks like its about to fall apart any minute. I don't like this at all.


We climb aboard and decide to stand for the short trip as Euclide should be the first stop. So there I was, standing on the train, holding onto the handrail when suddenly the train door closes and almost cut my hand off! There is like a 2cm gap between the handrail and where the train door closes. If we hadn't reacted fast enough, I'll be typing this post up with one hand!

The train pulls into Euclide a few minutes later and we hop off only to be greeted by stairs. Lots of stairs. Crap. We climb the stairs up to street level and we're already puffed out WITHOUT our suitcases....I don't know how we're going to survive humping our suitcases up those stairs the next day. Luckily, the hotel is within 50m of the metro station and its all level ground. So all we had to do was survive the 300m walk from the apartment to the metro, all the metro stairs and then drag them through the piazza del popolo before getting on a train to Euclide to drag them up more flights of stairs. Easy!

So once we did our trial run, we decided to head back to Flaminio and check out Piazza Del Popolo for a bit of sightseeing. As the train pulls into Flaminio and we walk out of the station, I spot a tunnel that has a metro sign that is within 10m of the train to Euclide. We decided to check it out and found out that its less than 50m to the metro taking that route and only has about 10steps! YAY!

Before we started sightseeing, we thought we'd better have a quick toilet break and grab a drink first. So the hunt for a bar with a toilet was on. Basically, its hard to find a public toilet in Italy, and if you do find one, you'll have to pay. Instead of paying to use a toilet, we got into a habit of going to a bar with a toilet and paying for a coffee instead. This meant ALOT of coffees for us....

Anyway, we finally made it to Piazza Del Popolo for a photoshoot.


Next stop was Via Veneto. This is apparently the most elegant street in Rome, and its where all the rich and famous people live. We got there, took one look and went "Its not worth the walk". We quickly found a bench and planted ourselves down for 15mins. From that bench, we managed to grab a few photos as we were too tired and too lazy to actually bother walking around.


Pulling out our map, we thought we'd head down to Quirinale Palace. We're not sure exactly what it is, we just know that its famous enough to make it onto the map and it was vaguely mentioned in the Rome souvenir book we bought. So we trudge over in the stinking hot heat and finally get there. Of course, the SLRs came out. So there I was, eye to the camera, trying to frame the perfect shot, when suddenly I hear all this screaming and see security and police running towards me. Apparently I wasn't allowed to "stand there". And where was I standing? In the middle of a square. A Piazza. Not knowing what was happening, I moved away only to see 5mins later, the area I was standing was swarming with security and police. Next thing you know, a black car drives up and through the gates. I think I must've been standing outside the entrance to an embassy or something and they had some important dude showing up. Trust me to almost get arrested by security.


After taking a few happy snaps, we decided to head back towards the colosseum as we had missed out on seeing the Campidoglio. As we were walking, we saw a cafe in a back street not too far from Campidoglio. We walked in and decided to grab a sandwich and coffee each. The "sandwiches" in this joint is actually half a normal Australian sandwich. But hell, we were hungry and tired and we were going to order it. Then we made the second big mistake. We decided to sit down. I mean, how expensive can it be when you usually pay 1euro for a coffee and 3euros for a sandwich?



Those 2 cups of coffee, the half soggy half stale club sandwich, and a rock hard turkish sandwich cost us 25euros. Thats almost $50AUD!!! OH MY FRICKIN GOD!!! $50AUD!!!!! $50!!! That really REALLY hurt. And to top it off, THIS was parading around us!


After that painful painful experience, we walked in silence for a few minutes before having a laughing fit and then we called Christine for a bit of phone abusing (Like we always do in situations like this). Then we decided to take a whole heap of random photos to make ourselves feel better:


We get to Campidoglio for some sight seeing.



After climbing to the top in the stinking hot heat, we decided to sit in the shade for awhile to recuperate. This is when Charlie Chaplin waltzed through:


No, I don't get it either. 15mins later, we finally get back onto our feet and trudge back to the metro to head back to our apartment. This is when we're greeted by the whitest legs I have EVER seen in my life. I was half tempted to pull out my sunnies even though we were travelling in a tunnel!

When we arrived, the first thing we did was hit the supermarket for supplies. After our $50 lunch, dinner was going to have to be cheap. We grabbed a loaf of bread, vine ripen tomatoes and fresh mozzerella to make our own sandwiches. This cost us a total of 3euros! With our supplies in hand, we went back to our local cafe (Bar Dal Corsaro) for another cuppucino. The coffee guy was different from this morning, but damn their coffee is still so good.


As we walked out of the bar, we noticed a park across the street. We decided to plant ourselves on a park bench to relax a bit. All of a sudden, we realised we must've walked into a retirement village meeting or something. We were surrounded by people in their 80s! We quickly made a get away and headed back to the apartment, this is when we walked past the nutrient deficient chick. And guess where she works? In a health organic shop. Someone needs to shove some animal fat down her throat!


We eventually collapsed into bed for our much needed siesta. When we could finally be bothered waking up, we made the most delicious dinner of cheese and tomato sandwiches we've ever had! All for 3euros! And we had plenty of food leftover!



Since it was still semi early, we decided to get dressed and head back into town, hoping to get some night shots of the colosseum. Earlier in the day, we had asked a chick at the metro what time is the last train into town, and we were told 9pm. We didn't believe her. We decided to head to another metro station, which is a bit further away, but completely downhill and easy to walk to. As we got there (8:55pm), we were told by the metro guy that the station is closing. Like wtf? I can't believe they seriously shut down the metro at 9pm at night. How are people supposed to go out at night???

As we trudge back to the apartment, we walked past the little dessert/pastry shop next to our apartment. We ran in for some comfort food and decided on 4 TINY TINY cupcake looking things. The little old lady behing the counter, pulled out a tray which I assumed she was just going to dump the cakes onto. But no, she proceeded to pull out tiny cupcake cake wrapper things to put each individual cake onto. Then she muttered something to us which I didn't catch. Moishii decides to translate and asked if I wanted the cakes "hot". Answering no, she then proceeded to take the tray and wrap it into gift wrap and then tied a bow around it. The end package looks like a xmas present. All for less than 1.80euros!

When we got back to the apartment, it took us a good minute+ to unwrap the goods! Poor woman, all that effort for 4 tiny little cupcakes! And it was only after that we realised she wasn't asking if we wanted them HOT, she must've wanted to know if we're going to be eating it straight away. And because we said no, she must've packaged it for us to take it home as a gift! All for 1.80euros!



So after stuffing all the cakes into our mouth (which lasted all 30seconds), it was packing time. Tomorrow, we're going to have to drag our suitcases to our tour hotel...thats going to be interesting....

Coffee count for the day: 3
Sleep: Minimal

OMG! I'm published!

I was procrastinating at work and was reading an article on how people meet friends online etc. For some unknown reason, it triggered me to google myself. And guess what? I've been published into a book! Not "someone used my exact name in a book", but literally, I've been published into a book!!

A few years back at my old company, I gave an interview on the life of a Tester. Somehow, that interview got published into a book!

http://careerfaqs.com.au/TitleDetail.aspx?TitID=16

I'm going to Angus and Robertson after work to find that book. Holy batcave! I don't even remember what I said! I do remember that I said one line that he absolutely loved and asked if it was ok to quote me. But I thought he was going to quote me in a "Testers" section, not put my whole interview up! God...I hope I didn't go the interview straight after having my coffee or green tea.....those who worked with me would know what affect that had one me!

OMG!!! I'M FAMOUS!!!

Travel Tips

After talking to Petals today, and also the numerous comments I got from the people on our tour of "If only I knew you before the holiday! I would've packed completely differently!", I thought I'd write my own version of travel tips. What I do when I'm travelling. So in no particular order:

- Pack light! I am the worse offender! Although, I think alot of what takes up the weight in my luggage now days are electronics (Cameras, laptop, chargers and adaptors etc) and the many MANY souvenier books, cook books and heavy food such as chocolates that I buy. But my general rule when packing is, packing everything you think you would need. Then put half of it back. For my 5 weeks holiday, I packed about 5 shirts and 3 pairs of cargo/capri and 2 pairs of jeans. If I wasn't going to Mykonos, I would've only needed one pair of jeans. Atleast one nice outfit. Thin cardigan and a light jacket. Also 2 sets of PJs. This is probably overpacking by some people's standards, but hey, it worked for me! And remember, you're on holidays. Not a fashion show.

- Saved your old clothes to bring onto the trip. Unless you're buying something like super thin/easy dry clothes to bring on your holiday, save all your old clothes. And I'm talking about undies and socks as well. Anything you think about throwing away, save them for your holiday. As your holiday progresses, and you need more room in your suitcase, throw out your old clothes! Not only does it give you more luggage space/weight, its an excuse to buy new clothes without feeling guilty.

- Handwash your clothes every night so you don't need to do a big load in one go. Whenever I showered, I would dump my dirty clothes into the shower, letting the water and whatever shampoo/body wash have a go at it. Then when I'm done showering, the clothes are already half clean. A quick scrub with a bit more body wash and they're clean. Some people, like my parents, like to carry washing powder, but I'm a bit worried about "white powder" coming out of my suitcase...

- Bring a washing line. I picked up an elastic washing line which I can hook onto almost anything (including the handle of my suitcase) to dry my clothes. Everynight my washing line will be out and usually anything I wash, is dried overnight. This means clean clothes every day!

- Sarongs can double up as a towel if you need to. Its also great for wrapping up fragile items to put into your checked in luggage.

- Toiletries - I generally start hunting a month or two before I go on holidays for small versions of the various toiletries I use. Some brands have "trial packs" which is usually half the size of their normal products. Instead of bringing a whole litre of shampoo and conditioner, grab a 200ml bottle. Especially if you're staying in a hotel as there are usually complimentry toiletries. Yes, its not as good as your "luxury products" at home, but you're on holiday. Whats more important? Having your $30 a bottle of shampoo with you, or the extra luggage space to bring holiday memories back? And before you come home, throw them all out! That means extra luggage space!

- Tie your toiletries up in a plastic bag before putting it in a toiletries bag. I've had things "explode" in my toiletries bag that ended up leaking all over my clothes! A plastic bag buys you more time and limits the damage if it happens to you.

- Make copies of all your documents. Ontop of my original documents (and credit cards), I had photocopies in my hand luggage and preferrably suitcase as well. If you're travelling with someone, give them a copy of your documents and vice versa. Have an electronic copy stored in your webmail and USB key if you're bringing one. Carry a photocopy of your passport in your wallet and leave the real one locked up or in your money belt.

- Have backup cards and money. Whenever I go overseas, I always bring cash. The cash is usually spread between my wallet (In hidden compartments), money belt and suitcase. Very useful when you can't locate an ATM or if my cards get stolen. I also have 2 credit cards. One for actual shopping usage, and one for emergencies. I also had my debit card which I use to withdraw money. You can also get your credit card linked to your savings account.

- Increase your daily withdrawl limit on your debit card. Its cheaper to withdraw a large sum of money from an ATM rather than multiple smaller amounts.

- Lower the limit on one of your credit cards. If you're ever in the suitation where you HAVE to use a credit card, but the place seems dodgy, give them the credit card with the lowest limit. If anything does happen, atleast they will do less damage with a lower credit limit.

- Call up all banks and phone companies to let them know you're going overseas and give them a list of countries. Otherwise, if they see an overseas transaction on your account, they may suspend/cancel your card.

- Bring an inflatable neck pillow and eye mask. They take up minimal space and is god sent when on a long overnight flight.

- Stock up on medication! Especially prescription medication as it may be hard to find what you need overseas.

- Zip lock bags are great to store loose items and dirty clothes.

- I always try to carry a small set of clothing with me in my hand luggage. That way, if your luggage is lost/delayed by the airline, you'll have a set of clean clothes and undies you can change into. And if your luggage doesn't resurface for a few weeks, you will always have a set of clothes to change into, ontop of your new foreign clothes.

- Lots of padlocks for your suitcase! Anything that can be padlocked, should be padlocked. Especially your boogie board bag...

- Bring different sized cloth bags. You may not always want to lug a big travel bag around, especially if you're out to a nice dinner. And some places, e.g. the Vatican, does not allow big bags. Having a small cloth bag means you can switch bags if need be (Instead of carrying a plastic bag!!) and takes up minimal room.

- Bring an empty bottle onto the plane. With the liquid restrictions, you can no longer bring water on board. However, the lovely ladies on Singapore Airlines were always more than happy to fill up my empty water bottle for me, meaning I didn't have to harrass them every half hour for more water.

- Bring a small diary to write your travel experiences in. Try to write in it every night! (I tried! It didn't happen! I couldn't face what happened all over again!)

- I NEVER unpack my things into any of the draws/cupbards in a hotel room. Unless you're planning on being there for a month, everything stays in the suitcase, or on a table in clear view. The chance of you leaving something behind is much lower.

- Pack your bags before bed everynight, and pack 2 sets of clean clothes at the top. This means you don't need to get up at the crack of dawn to pack, you won't need to dig around for clothes when the 6am wakeup call comes. And after a long day of travelling, the last thing you want when you check into your hotel is to dig through everything for clean clothes!

- Last but not least, don't bring anything you're not prepared to lose!! And have fun!!

A quick update for now...before the enslaught!

I know I'm way wayyyy behind in my blogging on the trip. I promise that will come soon. Once I work up the courage to sort through the 4000 photos that I took (Not including the photos that Moishii took!). In the meantime, here's a quick update to my life:

- Been sick for 3 weeks, I think I am finally starting to recover (After the chemist gave me the strongest of everything they have). The jetlag ain't too bad. I just don't want to work!
- My Manager is now gorrrrrrrn, so I'm managerless for awhile. Woohoo!
- MnMs is in town, meaning there will be lots of food posts eventually. God, all we ever do is eat!!
- I rocked up to volleyball the day I got back from OS. Got there early, so I parked my car opposite the sports hall and sat there next to a van. There was a guy in the van. 5mins later, I see a head bopping up and down around his lap....he quickly shoved the head down with his hand....Another few minutes later, the head finally emerges and I see something being errr...spat out. EWWWWWWW!! Apparently they're cleaners for the office blocks around there. How do I know? They got out of the van and grabbed their cleaning gear from the back to head off to work.....
- I have yet to unpack.