If you’re anything like me, the excitement of a holiday either hits you hard at the very last minute, as leave work on a Friday afternoon at 6pm before you board a 10pm flight — or you spend six months counting down to it, crossing off the calendar days, triple-checking the weather forecast, picking out movies on the in-flight entertainment program in advance. There is no happy medium, no sliding comfortably into the warm knowledge of an upcoming trip. It’s butterflies-in-the-belly one way or the other. It’s silly, really, to get so worked up over a holiday, but I can’t help it. I have the travel bug bad.
I find the only way to combat the mind-churning, heart-pounding, sleepless nights, is to do a brain-dump, and make a checklist. With just a few weeks to go, these are a few things that I need to tick off – perhaps you should add these to your list as well?
Safety first
- Photocopy passport in case it gets lost/stolen.
- Take down addresses for Australian embassies.
- Register on smartraveller.gov.au – in case of natural disaster or a political emergency, the Australian government will know your whereabouts and make every effort to return you home safely!
- Pick up extra prescriptions and first aid supplies from chemist – I always take an additional month of birth control in case my luggage is lost, and antibiotic eyedrops ‘just in case’ as my eyes are prone to redness and dryness. If you have recurring medical needs make sure you take enough meds to cover you in case of emergency!
Do I have everything I need for my trip?
- Apply for an NRMA International Drivers Permit – you won’t be able to hire a car/scooter/motorbike without one.
- Buy and engrave a padlock for one of Paris’ bridges.
- Add friend’s addresses into iPhone so I can send them postcards. It’s old-fashioned, but I still consider these to be the most personal and affordable souvenirs – better than yet another fridge magnet.
- Dump music on iPod or iPhone.
- Write up list of things to pack – so we can check it off before leaving each hotel and make sure we don’t leave anything behind!
Does everyone back home have all the information they need while I’m gone?
- Organise house-sitter, and write up appliance manual and plant watering instructions for them.
- Print three copies of the itinerary – one for each of our parents, and one for ourselves.
- Record overseas voicemail on phone (and turn off services so I’m not surprised with a massive bill on my return).
- Set up auto-payment of bills.
- If you have a desk job like I do, write up handover notes for work, and setup ‘out of office’ on email.
Plus a few things to make the holiday as comfortable as possible
- Login to airline website and reserve best seats on plane.
- Brush up on my foreign languages.
- Get all those necessary treatments done – hair lopped off into the perfect low-key travel ‘do; eyebrows waxed for sunglasses-ready weather; nails shellac-ed for an immaculate and chip-less six weeks.
And one more for the road – time to empty the fridge/pantry of all consumables likely to go bad while I’m away. Perfect excuse for a farewell party! 🙂
