Our trip to South Africa is still more than three months away, but I love the anticipation of a trip. It is often the best part. Starting lists is a way of stretching out the excitement.
I normally do travel lists and daily to dos in my regular ringed planner, keeping everything in one place. However, I throw my planner pages away after I have finished them, meaning I lose my memories unless I archive them somehow. Just as my chequebook stubs used to be a lovely ‘journal’ of what I did each month, my planning and reminders for trips serve as more of a scrapbook and journal than an actual journal would.
I am using an A5 notebook which is slim, light and has a strong leather cover with an elastic closure. It will contain:
- lists (see below)
- a page for each day with space for notes on food, weather and appointments
- places to paste in receipts small mementoes such as stickers
The different lists would be
Before the trip
- Presents (I buy these during the year as I find them so I need to remember what and where they are)
- Cat Supplies (we have a live-in cat sitter so we stock up on food and sand beforehand)
- Packing lists
During the trip
- Buy (my favourite South African beauty products, snacks, clothing brands)
- Eat
- Visit
- Do
- Blog
After the trip
- Laundry
- Post
- Gifts to my Swedish family
Because I am so far away from my home country, it is impossible to take weekend trips there (it’s a two-day trip just to get there) or order things online. This means I take great delight in making lists of all the good things I want to eat and buy, and all the loved ones I want to see.
Because I will be working while I am away, I will be taking a ringed planner as normal for bookings and lessons. This will probably be a pocket size with small rings so it will take up less space than the one I use every day.
You will note that, after my summer hair disaster, Potion 9 is top of the list. There is nothing anywhere that matches it and I have never seen it in South Africa. I am determined to not forget it again!
