ITALY 2006... 3 THINGS [PART THE FIRST]
Whether it be an overnight trip to L.A., or a 2-3 night trip to Vegas, or a week camping trip in the mountains, or a two week trip to a foreign country, there is some planning to be done, right? Maybe you make a check-list. Maybe you get advice and input from friends. What will the weather be like? Do I bring clothes for every possible situation? Will I be doing laundry?
We were going to have everything packed and ready to go one week before we left for Italy. It sounded like a good idea. We did research, drew up plans, had meetings, faxed, made phone calls, etc...
For Ronin, clothing is fairly easy.
Underwear & undershirts: Count number of days Ronin will be away from home and add 2.
Shoes: Tennis shoes to be worn with sweats. Black shoes to be worn with slacks or dockers.
Socks: Count number of days and bring half white and half dark. Whites for the sweats and tennis shoes; dark for the black shoes and slacks/dockers.
Pants (all black): I think I brought 4 sweat pants, 1 dockers, and 3 slacks.
Shirts: Polo shirts to be worn with dockers or slacks. T-Shirts to be worn with sweats.
Jackets always throw Ronin into a quandary..., especially thick, bulky ones. Ronin hates the idea of carrying around a heavy jacket and realizing he didn't have to bring it. On the Italy trip, he chose not to bring it. He brought 3 (or was it 4?) turtle necks, one sweat shirt (to tie around his waste), and a few black thermal tops... and a black pleather jacket.
Of course: Passport and travel papers, Euros, toiletries, camera, ETC...
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AND NOW FOR THE IMPORTANT STUFF...
Minidisc player and one GB HI-MD containing a compilation of HotFudge's and Ronin's favorite music and 3 minidiscs with Italian lessons. [No audio books. Too hard to listen to. During the Spain trip, Ronin tried to listen to audio books, but it was too easy for him to dose off and then realize later that several chapters had gone by.] Batteries for player [which I almost lost on one of the planes. OOOOHH... Ronin would have been PISSED!!].
Sudoku book
Vitamin supplements
Moleskine and various colored [archival ink] pens... and an extra Moleskine.
Ammodium AD. This stuff is the absolute bomb. Forget the pink stuff... Luckily Ronin wasn't "attacked" during the Italy trip. [But he was attacked twice during the Australia trip. Ammodium AD saved Ronin. SAVED HIM, I TELL YOU!! OH, THE HORROR... THE HORROR... Ronin owes a debt of utter gratitude to the creators of Ammodium AD. AMMODIUM AD... Learn it, Know it, Live it...]
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[Of course HotFudge and Ronin were still packing the night before the trip.]
MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2006
...And as Ronin's parents drove Ronin and HotFudge to the airport early that morning, Ronin realized he'd forgotten three things: (1) sunglasses, (2) a pair of blue-tinted glasses Ronin only wears with a specific blue dress-shirt he had packed, and (3) a time-piece...(his old faithful green pager)...
AAARRRGH...!!!!
posted by ScregMan @ Saturday, June 24, 2006
11 Comments:
At 9:25 PM, June 24, 2006,
mikshir said…
Nice itemization, screg. My own travel items have continually evolved over the past decade to where now I have a fairly solid system, though it continually gets tweaked. I learned my lesson too late that when travelling, less is more. Clothing of course takes up the bulk of the luggage space so I've eventually amassed a small set of special "travel clothes" (underwear, socks, shirts): basically light-weight quick-dry moisture-whicking tech material items + a bottle of woolite. I used 4 boxers, 4 pairs of socks, and 5 shirts on my last 16-day trip. Wash in bathroom sink at bedtime, hang using a handy bungy cord and voila. I'm still building my collection of these items. I've grown fond of them.
Everything else is a little more ad-hoc but I've added a pair of REI cargo pants to my permenant collection, the advantage being the extra pocket space and legs that can zip off creating shorts while still looking respectable.
Some slip-on-type shoes I got come in really handy too, esp at the airport, on the plane, in trains, etc.
Most important thing to remember though is... if you forget something that you need, chances are that you can buy it there anyways. In the extreme, you can go there with nothing but your minidiscs and still be ok. I've taken a few trips with nothing but my courier bag.
At 9:00 AM, June 25, 2006,
Anonymous said…
Packing definately has a learning curve. Having read so often that people really overpack, for our first trip to Europe (10 days) we each took one small suitcase and one larger one. We only needed the larger one because we had to pack some "dress" clothes" for a couple banquets in Germany. Men's suit jackets are so bulky!
For our next trip, we ot it down to one small suitcase each, plus a carryon type bag for books, maps, water, and anything we would need in case our lugage got lost.
Our motto is to take less and take half day to do laundry. Neither one of us if the "driven" type. We don't feel compelled to see everything. We didn't see the Louvre until our third trip to Paris. Having that day to do laundry is relaxing, you can sit, plan out the next couple days, watch the locals, peek at local underwear, worry that you're going to ruin your clothes since you can for the life of you figure out the directions, etc.
You guys are lucky, you can buy clothes along the way. I have a hard time finding clothes my size in Europe. And you can forget it in Asia.
At 12:09 PM, June 25, 2006,
caninecologne said…
i shall take your packing advice to heart ronin. we are almost done packing for hawaii.
but we are underpacking. figure we will buy a few clothing items (for TC) once we're there. and throw away old mangy underwear as well...
lotus says i would have a hard time finding my size in hawaii since the locals there are "large". well, don't plan on me wearing any muu-muus anytime soon. shorts and tank tops for me thank you.
again, ronin, i enjoy your detailed blogs. thanks to you, i will not forget my sunglasses.
At 5:40 AM, June 26, 2006,
Kilatzin said…
blue-tinted sunglass that goes with a
SPECIFIC blue dress shirt?
always interesting when color factors into the screg clothing equation.
At 12:28 PM, June 26, 2006,
Kilatzin said…
I spent one month in Philly/New York/Pittsburgh (visiting Shogun and Lotus) with a small roll-on bag. In December!!! How did I do it? Coin-operated laundry and wearing a lot of other women's underwear!!!
wifey always wants to bring more than is necessary, but will defend to the death her notion that everything she brings IS necessary, and will continue to do so months, even years, after the fact.
i took a HUGE coat to New York some years back, in the dead of winter . . . however, I just happened to go during a freak heat wave . . . New York in the seventies in March? who would've thunk? everyone walking around in their t-shirts!
At 1:19 PM, June 26, 2006,
ScregMan said…
Aaahh, Clark... allow Ronin his moments of vanity... The blue-tinted glasses are literally an exact match to the color of the blue dress-shirt. Not a few shades off, but exact... What can I say? I just think it's a good combination...
I've bought at least 3 pairs of sunglasses that were based on HotFudge saying: "...you look good in those." Thus, I HAD to buy the blue-tinted glasses. In fact, HotFudge said the same thing to me when I first tried on my pleather jacket.
Partial quote from Kilatzin's prior comment: "...and wearing a lot of other women's underwear!!!"
Now Superman, if you just said "...wearing a lot of women's underwear", it would imply (to me) that maybe you went out and bought some of your own or that you already had some on hand.
But when you say: "...'other' women's underwear", this tells me that you might have borrowed other women's (already worn?) underwear. And from numerous women at that...
Can you please clarify?
At 2:58 PM, June 26, 2006,
mikshir said…
clark! you're a genius. you should start a line of uni-sex clothing that is adaptable enough to conform to both male and female physiques with a little effort while maintaining a sense of fashion. That way you need only bring one set of clothes between the two of you when traveling... or rather, you need bring nothing at all and exploit your partner's tendencies to overpack.
At 4:22 AM, June 27, 2006,
Kilatzin said…
thank you mikshir,
i'm some sort of idiot savant!
or more probably, just an idiot!!!
or maybe i just love wearing other women's underwear!
At 10:48 PM, June 29, 2006,
Mulysa said…
ok... this is an attemp to get a hold of you ronin.
i'm trying to call your house, and both cell phones, but someone must be on the internet because all i'm getting is a busy signal.
please call me when you get this comment, even if it's late! not an emergency but importante!
ciao!
At 3:41 AM, June 30, 2006,
Kilatzin said…
Paging Dr. Screg!
Paging Dr. Screg!
You're needed in the doctor's lounge . . . STAT!!!
At 12:30 AM, July 04, 2006,
caninecologne said…
so superman, when you wore other women's underwear, were they the brief cut, bikini cut, the thong style or the big ole granny panties? i could see dudes wearing those and fitting into the granny pants quite easily.
however, with thongs, the nut sack would be hanging out as well as the main vein. did you steal women's underwera from laundromats? good god, i hope they were clean!
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