How to: Pack your cabin/carry-on bags.

Cabin dosen't mean the size of... and carry-on is not supposed to be a 'suggestion'.

When it comes to cabin bags it is hard to get it right. To much and you pull a back muscle cramming it into the overhead locker and too little and your suitcase invariably gets lost in transit and you're stuck with lipgloss and your passport for three days. After much personal trial and error and from observing the mistakes of others (a kids plastic trike is not going to fit overhead no matter which way you twist it), I think I have found the perfect arrangement. Bear in mind that this only works if you are not: going away for the weekend with no check-in baggage, that dude from http://www.onebag.com/, have kids, have massively exceeded your check-in allowance and are carrying heaps on board in a bid to avoid excess baggage payments.

Buy a big handbag: There are heaps around, in fact you probably have one (or half a dozen) already.

• Make sure it is good quality. You are probably going to have it stuffed full so the straps have to be sturdy(understatement of the century). Across body works best with a backpack on your back.


• Comfortable. You are going to want to throw this thing over your shoulder when your hands are full (with duty free bags). Make sure the straps don’t cut and that is not rough on the outside because that will cause pilling and wear on your clothes.


• It should zip-up fully and completely. This is important because planes move. Things move around and can roll out into overhead lockers and if you have it stuffed under the seat then on takeoff the lady in row 278 is going to really enjoy your newly purchased Evian spray.


• It should have lots of pockets and dividers. In a big bag this is important for easy retrival of passport and lip balm (plane air-the ring leader in the chapped lips circus). One of the best big bags around is the ubiquitous Mimco button bag. Its only real faults as the ultimate cabin bag are that there are not enough dividers, pockets and hidey holes. This problem can be alleviated by buying some really cute pencil/make-up cases that you can get everywhere (even the front of mags- thanks Madison!). These are great for keeping families of things together.


• Never have your bag completely stuffed full either. If you are lucky enough to fly Buisness('honeymoon class') or First then you will probably get one of those ‘in-flight’ packs that you will want to take with you. Also mags, gum and all the little stuff that you buy duty free will probably want to take up residence in your cabin bag.
  

What to pack: Cram as much stuff into it as humanly possible (just joking...).

• Passport, ticket, vaccination booklet, travel itinery, and frequent flyer cards, immigration forms, extra baggage tags, travel discount cards etc will probably be best in a travel wallet. I used to think these things were mega daggy but their practical factor has over ruled that.They are totally invaluable if you are going to a number of places. You can get some cute ones now and they are the sort of present that most people love giving.


• Phone, camera, ipod, chargers, electonic suduku etc. I always take my phone charger with me because it just makes lost luggage even more frustrating when you have diminishing battery bars to remind you of it. Also it really is best to keep your valuables with you but remember that crims go on holidays too so do't get complacent with them.


• Jewelry-see above.


• Pashmina, wrap or sarong. You only need to take one of these things. They each have a million and one uses. Mainly I think the blankets provided are itchy, potentially unwashed(I'm not going to go there) and prone to creating arching bolts of static. I use a pashmina/wrap on the upper half of my body and the staticy airline one on the lower. It also is great to wrap your top with the pashmina when you are eating because 2 hours into a 14 hour flight is not the best time to spill coffee down your white top (actually I don't think there is ever a best time).


• Undies. This hopefully dosen't need to much explaining but if your check-in bag decides it would have prefered a beach holiday to your ski trip, then the hotel gift-shop pair aren't going to cut it.


• A pen. Formost for crosswords and Cosmo quizzes but also for leaving a immigration/customs paper trail that would circle the earth.


• Make-up/toiletries etc. I think I would have a panic attack if I forgot hand-cream, but you will also need lip balm (sticky gloss feels rotten on dry lips), make-up wipes, hyper-moisturising cream/oil/serum with spf, deoderant (spray on is fine as long as it is under 100mls and is wearing a cap), toothpaste (and obviously brush) and make-up especially anything that says brightening/illuninating/de-Rachel Zoe-ing. Some added extras are: perfume (to clash with all that tester stuff), little Evian water spray, eyedrops and cuticle cream. The first thing to consider is that everything will need to fit into one clear plastic zip lock bag provided to you at the airport. Remember that the bag they give you is a pretty crappy zip lock so once it has been x-rayed put the stuff back into a proper case that seals thus preventing hand-cream from moisturizing the inside of your bag. N.B you can take eyelash curlers carry-on and from personal experience make-up wipes don't need to be 'clear-bagged'.


• 'Medical' kit. No, I'm not talking scapel and compression bandage but tissues, band-aids, cotton-buds, Nurofen/panadol, immodium (before you dismiss this think-food that has been sitting around for ages+minimal toilets= disaster waiting to happen).


• Entertainment. Books/ mags etc. Even if the airline you are travelling with advertises 389,000 movies on demand you won't be able to watch any if the entertainment system isn't working (happens all the time) or your individual tv/headphone plug is broken(i.e some brat has stuffed gum into it).


• Keys. For your home, car (as long as you are planning on driving it home, not your boyfriend who so kindly dropped you off) and baggage locks.


• Snacks-remember there is no 7/11 at 38, 000 feet.


• Water-(buy it duty-free or take an empty bottle and fill up at a post-security bubbler)the regulatory plastic cup half-filled is not going to touch on the amount of H2O that you need to turn your blood back into a liquid after a long flight.


• Other-togs (swimmers) one 'late'/lost bag and those 3 soul-destroying, sleep-in surrendering Saturday morning 'perfect' tog-hunting marathons will have been wasted.

Is this it? I think so. Also remember that most tickets will say how much you are allowed to take on-board and if worst comes to worst remember that on most airlines in addittion to your cabin bag you are allowed a hand-bag, a coat, umbrella and 'a resonable amount of reading material for the flight' (so Syd-Mel thats a brouchure and Syd-London thats an entire collection of Encyclopedia Britanica). Happy 'stowing'!

N.B it will be a freakin miracle if you get everything I have recommended, into a handbag.

www.fruitybeauty.com.au -excellent skin advice for plane shrivelled epidermis.

www.onebag.com -truely in my heart I wish this was possible.

www.mimco.com.au - for gorgeous general-purpose cabin bags.

How to: Make your photos more interesting.

‘Stopping your happy snaps from turning into crappy snaps’.

Have you ever gotten back from a trip and uploaded (I nearly said developed –how nineties!!) your photos and thought ‘what (or who) the heck is that’? I know I'm not the only person to have a memory stick chock full of random pictures of frescos, close-up elaborate tiles and 'pillar detail'. Sure it’s stunning when you’re there looking at it but boring and meaningless a few months after the fact. Those types of photos are sure to push rellies over the edge too. Most of the fun of looking at peoples photos is looking at the people. Scenery and landscapes have meaning and memories for the people who experienced them but often it would be more interesting for a viewer to look at pictures in a glossy book.

Some ideas:

• Get in your photos! If you’re travelling by yourself or in a pair then accost people on the street to take your photo, buy a tripod or one of those mini beanbags and set the thing up! Make sure there is a good mix of positions and postures too. Sit down, turn side on, take a picture from behind looking at a landmark, from above and below and vary the distance. Don’t always take the photo from a metre or two away. Walk way away or really close. Get down on your knees; take photos looking up at someone (just make sure they are not wearing a skirt). Practise facial expressions (watch Top Model for hints). Be angry, pensive, innocent, exasperated don’t just turn on the ‘photo smile’. Also don’t fall into the photo pose. For me and my boyfriend it was arms around each other, me always on the left .Blah! So boring we looked like cardboard cut outs or like we had just photo-shopped ourselves into tourist brochures. Also do a montage i.e. walking into a shop, trying on clothes, walking out with a bag(fun photos+clothes=awesome). Even mundane things tell a story when you capture all the elements. Always remember too, that 10-15 years on that mullet you had in 1989 far outshines the Eiffel tower in the background anyway.
  

• Some of the best photos are the candid ones. It is truly hard to catch some people unawares but that’s part of the fun. If anything you will at least get a photo of them looking seriously peeved! If you are travelling in a group or as a couple assign one person paparazzi duty for the day and get them to snap away. You will soon forget that they are taking photos of you (just don't pick your nose) and it is truly hilarious at the end of the day going back over them.
  

• Have a mascot. I have had a little Kipling monkey and a Nici magnetic elephant at various times. Take close-ups of it where ever you go. Pose it in naughty places, scaling replica landmarks, getting wasted with a glass of beer or tucked up into bed, basically just doing everything you do. Use your imagination to get the little buddy in some awkward situations. When you get home, print out all the photos and write an accompanying story and give it to a little cousin or if it’s heading more towards the adult fiction section have it as a coffee table book. If stuffed things aren’t really your style make your own version of ‘where’s Wally’ get a hat or scarf or something and pose it on people or things in the background of regular photos. Maybe bribe a person to walk by wearing it in the background or put it on a mannequin in a shop window. When you get home, have friends find it in your photos. Très dorky fun!
  

• Colour / shape/sign study. Groups of pictures (especially triptychs) look great on your wall at home but to make them into extra special works of art they need to have some sort of cohesive quality. If you are trying to match a particular colour scheme at home then that sort of makes your choice for you but if not, decide on a colour you love and look for it everywhere! If you picked pink, take a picture of lips on advertising boards, chewed gum on the footpath, cupcakes, graffiti, tiles, flowers whatever! Just take them so that the colour fills the majority of the frame. If that’s impossible then you can always crop and magnify once they are on a computer. Shapes are super fun too. Round things could be whole cakes, traffic lights, windows, tops of cocktail glasses, patterns on money just keep a look out. It’s a visual treasure hunt! You can also take photos of letters and cobble them into a friends or your own name when you get home. This looks cute in matching plain frames and lets the person know that even though they were not there, that you were thinking of them (aww...). Remember you can make your own letters out of food, drawn in the sand, shaped out by body parts ala YMCA. Another idea is to pick one item and take a photo of it in whatever country you go to. This could turn into a life-long tradition, sort of the visual equivalent of Lonely Planets ‘Big Mac’ index. Some ideas: take a photo of a bottle of milk, an ‘open’ or public transport sign, police car or a newspaper. Whatever. There are a million ideas out there, just pick something that exists everywhere.
  
  Above all though remember to be in the moment, photos are only part of the fun, practise taking ‘photos’ with your whole body. Stop for a second and think I’m going to remember this moment for the rest of my life. Remember what you are looking at, but close your eyes and feel the temperature of the air, listen to the sounds, feel your clothes on your body and most importantly breathe through your nose and smell deeply. File the snapshot of time away in a filing cabinet in the back room of your brain. Our olfactory memory is amazing, so the smell will be especially evocative and you will become one of those (annoying) people who are always saying stuff like “that smell totally takes me back to last time I was in Berlin, have I told you about that Amy?”....”well, um, I’m sure I’ve heard that story at least once before......”

www.fodors.com/focus/ -such pretty pictures!

http://goeurope.about.com/cs/photography/l/aa_photo_101.htm -enough of my 'skillz', let the experts inform you.

Love and loathing in the late afternoon.

Loves:

• Hotel sheets with such a high thread count they practically feel like cardboard.
• Japanese tour groups.
• Window seats- although the other day I heard a stat that said more people prefer the aisle. I guess it's because of exit access and avoiding the whole 'crotch in the face climb over a snoring stranger' scenario.
• neatly packed bags (when the elastic holdy inny things do their job).
• Surrendering to the rain instead of frantically running awning to awning.
• Street vendor food (carbon monoxide gives it a little je ne sais quoi).
• Shampoo bottles that don't leak (whatever you do don't just throw your toiletry bag into the washing machine because it just foams and foams..... ).
• Being the first person to use the loo on the plane before the floor gets all flooded out (why/ how ?) and you practically have to wear gumboots.
• Hostel showers that you don't have to keep pressing on, are hot, and have pressure (the holy trinity).
• Tight connections (adrenaline rush).
• Filling in Australian customs forms ("yes I will do the right thing and declare my semi-automatic weapon").
• Foreign supermarkets.
• Finding out that your Sudanese dinar which is worth nothing is the same size as a 2 dollar coin.

Loathes:

• Waking up and forgetting what country you're in.
• People in dorm rooms thinking that grungy undies qualify as pajamas (you know who you are).
• Arm rests on airport terminal chairs.
• Getting stuck in lifts.
• Having a yeti-sized carbon footprint (but that seat was going whether I was in it or not....eek).
• Getaway-type shows (the envy I feel is too much really).
• When you're in 26A and 26B has embalmed herself in tester perfume.
• Going to the bank in countries where inflation is so high you have to walk out with a box of money just to cover lunch.
• Making eye contact with tourists when you are at an out of the way destination and have them give you that "we're in it together look".
• Never being able to remember my passport number even though I am quite capable of recalling every phone number I've ever had, the number for Pizza Hut (and Dominos) and π to the tenth decimal.