'Tis the season for lists, tallies and tips.
There's the big one, of course: the Olympic medal table, impossible to ignore in the Land of Team GB. Little ole NZ is still ahead of Australia on the medal list (tee hee), and leads the world, apparently, on a per capita medal calculation. Team Oceania? I don't think so!
And everyone from Mayor Boris to Transport for London is offering helpful tips to visitors here for the Games.
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| Under the cafe name, the signpost says Community Toilet Scheme... |
After much reflection (and with not a lot else to fill my mind) I present my own travel must-have list:
I Wouldn't Be Without My...
1. Kindle
We Kindle readers are still a minority on the Underground, but my little black e-reader and I have formed an inseparable bond (which, I guess, means that I haven't managed to lose it yet). It lives in my bag, along with camera and passport, so is always just THERE when I need it. Which means train journeys - Underground, Overground, National Rail, or any combination of ...
2. Free wi-fi
It's such a bonus to be able to travel with immediate internet access. Train times, supermarket opening times, maps, coffee shop locations, following up interesting events seen on billboards, stuff you want to know about places you've just visited ... And - the big one - contact with the rest of the world.
To be honest, all of the aforementioned is a great big smokescreen to cover my internet Scrabble addiction...
3. Teabags
What can I say? We drink an awful lot of tea. And hotel rooms cannot meet our needs. I left home with 100 Dilmah teabags stuffed amongst the socks. In France, we drank yellow Liptons, now we're onto Sainsbury's Fairtrade.
3. Teabags
What can I say? We drink an awful lot of tea. And hotel rooms cannot meet our needs. I left home with 100 Dilmah teabags stuffed amongst the socks. In France, we drank yellow Liptons, now we're onto Sainsbury's Fairtrade.
4. Shopping bag
A sturdy hessian model, it lies unassumingly and inoffensively at the bottom of my travel bag until we arrive and unpack at each destination.
It has been to bustling Parisian markets and languid country affairs. It has been inspected at supermarket check-outs on both sides of the Channel.
And, every time it goes on such an outing, I think of the lovely lady who gave it to me ... and of everyone in the English Department/Languages Faculty at St Peter's.
I miss you all!
It has been to bustling Parisian markets and languid country affairs. It has been inspected at supermarket check-outs on both sides of the Channel.
And, every time it goes on such an outing, I think of the lovely lady who gave it to me ... and of everyone in the English Department/Languages Faculty at St Peter's.
I miss you all!
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