2023 Hobonichi Weeks Mega travel planner

This is my 2023 Hobonichi Weeks Mega in Lagoon, with a stripey Cover on Cover.

I had intended to use this planner for the continuation of my decluttering and sales project. My 2022 project has concentrated mostly on selling clothes and jewellery, with a few sales of Filofaxes through my blog. 2023 is going to be sales of stationery and planners. I am so proud of my progress during this year. I have downsized considerably, donated to charity, and been able to put money into my travelling fund and pension.

The original aim was to continue my sales project in this planner, but last weekend we finally booked our trip to South Africa. Neither of us had wanted to even think about it, given that we have had to cancel this trip FOUR times due to Covid. The last time we booked (December 2021), we had to cancel a mere two weeks before departure due to the sudden explosion of Covid Omicron in South Africa. At that point, family members were already making our beds and planning a welcome home party. After that I lost the will to even try to plan a trip.

But..but…last weekend we bit the bullet and booked, and now the planning starts. Thanks to developments during Covid, both of us can work remotely from South Africa, which means I can use the Hobonichi calendar to take bookings and notes during and for after the trip.

The trip will be 24 days, and the Hobonichi is for an entire year, but I am going to do the following:

  • use the December pages for day to day pre-trip planning (cat-sitters, shopping for cat supplies and gifts for family and friends)
  • write down flight and hotel details in the weekly calendar
  • write down lesson bookings on the month to view calendar, to be transferred back in Sweden
  • record information about sales, to be transferred back in Sweden
  • use the note pages at the back for to-do lists (before, during and after the trip)
  • staple and glue receipts, newspaper clippings, useful bits of paper into the pages so they will not be lost.
  • closer to the time I will change to a leather cover and in the slots I will keep my various cards – driver’s licence, EU insurance card, passport card.
  • I will also keep a record of distance travelled each day, what we did with family and sights we visited.

The nice thing about doing this is that, afterwards, this will be an amazing travel memento. Our trip in a nutshell!

I like to buy non-touristy useful gifts for friends and family, and I keep lists during the year of ideas for gifts

Richard Pullen is a talented potter near where I am from and he has made lovely pieces of dinnerware for us over the years. This year we are stocking up! Also, my husband has never tasted guava so I am going to find him one as soon as we get there.

Author: Janet Carr

Fashion, beauty and animal loving language consultant from South Africa living in Stockholm, Sweden.

6 thoughts

  1. I hope your husband enjoys guava, it is very pleasant tasting from what I remember from the one and only time I had some. I hope you enjoy South Africa, remember the trip starts with the planning stage and only ends when you have run out of people to recount your adventures too!

  2. I hope your husband loves Guava, it tastes absolutely delicious. Enjoy South Africa while you’re there and remember that the holiday doesn’t begin when you arrive, it starts with the planning and ends with telling your family and friends about all your adventures.

  3. I am keeping everything crossed that you can go this time!… I’m sure that you’ll have a wonderful time. The Hobonichi planners are really so wonderful and so adaptable too. I’m back to using one as an art journal for next week and I cannot wait!… Unfortunately, I got a different planner for work, but I’m thinking about using one the following year (provided I don’t change my mind again!…)

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