First day lessons

The first day of holidays are always a juggle. After a setting out from home and travelling for more than 24 hours, your body - very reasonably - wants to do nothing but climb into a real bed and catch-up on some much needed sleep.

But your brain is waaaaaayyyy to excited to do something so mundane. You've been planning and counting down to this trip for ages and now it's finally here. You can sleep anytime!

Its also kind of practical to get out and get some sunshine, fresh air and exercise after being stuck on a plane for such a long time. So out you go and you walk, and walk, and walk for as long as you can stay awake.

But walking too long on the first day can bring its own problems. Hiking boots that haven't been on my feet since last winter need a little time to settle in. Give yourself a blister on the first day and you'll be in pain for a fortnight and your can't rest it because then you might miss something. And energy fuelled by coffee and excitement can be a bit fickle. One minute you are happily striding along and enjoying the view, the next you are drooping with tiredness and wishing you weren't quite so far away from your hotel.

It also takes a few days to get your travel persona settled so that you put out the right vibes. I'm usually aiming for relaxed and chilled, with just an edge of 'don't mess with me'. A tour guide I met once called it "getting your Italian on", and whenever I travel, it's like a coat I mentally wear.

She took it to mean that you are assertive and firm and don't  get pushed around. It means you stand tall and project an aura of 'don't mess with me' - all in the nicest possible way of course. I practice studied indifference on trains, look purposeful when walking and I wait to get off the main drag before checking my map.

I also choose my bench seats in parks with care. Settle yourself on a park bench in Brisbane and you'll likely be accosted by a few hungry Ibis or a pigeon or two. Pick the wrong part of the park in Europe and you'll get beggars or hagglers. It pays to choose with care.

Today I wandered the streets of Frankfurt city, looking at the skyscrapers and shops and then wandering down to the Opera house and the old district. Many of the trees are still bare and brown, but there are pockets of spring coming out; with tulips flowering in gardens and cherry blossoms shedding petals over the ground in a pale pink carpet. There are buds on the chestnut trees and the sky is lovely and blue.

After walking for a few hours, I stopped at an Italian restaurant for lunch and faced the other part of first day travelling I always have to get used to. Solo dining. As I walk through the crowded restaurant and get settled at a table alone, I always have to remind myself that people are much more interested in themselves then they are in me and that they aren't really staring. And if that fails, I go back to my number one rule when travelling - they're never going to see me again.

Want to put your hair in plaits for the day but worried you'll look like an aged hippy? No problem, they're never going to see you again. Want to order creme brûlée for morning tea? Go for it - they're never going see you again. Walk into a swanky cafe in jeans and hiking boots and ask for a table for lunch? Smile bright, ask politely and remember that they'll never see you again. Works like a charm - until the day they actually do see you again.

I turned up at the same hotel in Avignon on two different tours a few years ago and they clocked me straight away. Have you stayed with us before? Yes, yes I have. Yes, I was one of the people on that tour who sat up till 2am drinking wine on the rooftop bar - and I'll probably do it again this year.

It doesn't matter does it? After all, they aren't going to see me again......

Greetings from Germany

So it's just after 6am in Frankfurt. It's dark outside and I've just landed after travelling for something like 28 hours from home.  I don't speak the language, I don't know where my hotel is and I'm not sure how I'll get there - and I can't even check in for another 7 hours. Oh, and it's 5 degrees outside.  But none of that matters and I can't wipe the smile off my face. It's good to be travelling again!

A remarkably smooth trip this time, despite the fact that I came straight through and flew two different airlines along the way. There was an empty seat next to me on the sector to Singapore and the time flew by really easily. I paid to have a shower at the hotel in the airport, had a meal, a big walk and then a nap in the tranquility lounge. The sector to Frankfurt was in premium economy and let me tell you - it was worth every penny. Super comfy seat that reclined further than a normal seat and had a nice footrest. I lucked out and got the front row so there was no one in front of me and only one other chair. I actually got some sleep!

Now I'm sitting in a cafe with a cafe creme and watching the airport come to life around me. The woman at the table next to me is doing the crossword and some Asian tourists behind me are chattering away at a million miles an hour. Across the concourse, I can see people waiting around the arrivals gate for friends and relatives to arrive. A couple of young men have a homemade sign for someone they are meeting. It's pink and sparkly and they are holding it up high as they peer through the gaps in the gate to look out for their arrival. A tall guy in jeans and a hat is standing waiting with a single, long stemmed red rose. Who ever can he be meeting? My guess is that he has been conversing with a girl over the internet and she is flying out to meet him. He looks too shy for it to be someone he knows well.

The girl at the cafe is from Greece and we just had a lovely chat while she made my cafe creme. She tells me she's been here two and a half years, but while it's good that she can make money here, she needs the sun too much and she's going to go home at the end of the summer. What interesting lives people lead!

I'm going to linger over my book for an hour or so and wait for the sun to come up and then catch a taxi to my hotel and leave my bags while I go out for a wander around the city.

Update: the hotel let me into my room early which is just the best bonus ever. So now I can have a shower and clear my head before going out.  A very good beginning :-)

Use it up!

A few weeks ago I dug into the pantry looking for some vanilla paste and somewhere in the middle of pulling everything out onto the countertop, I realised I had a problem. There was a LOT of stuff in that pantry – and there were also multiple copies of some items hiding away behind each other.

A quick inventory told me that – among other things – I had six cartons of chicken stock, four packets of red curry mix, three packets of flour (two plain, one self-raising), four cans of coconut milk, three tins of tomato (I don’t eat tomato) and a range of odds and ends that I’ve bought to use in preparation for a dish long eaten and forgotten.

No grocery items were wasted in the taking of this photo.

Now none of the items were past their use by date. I’m pretty good about doing a quick check of expiry dates. But honestly, why should that be necessary? And who needs six cartons of chicken stock in their lives? The shops are open every day till late. There are several places within walking or short driving distance. It’s not like there is going to be a national shortage of the stuff any time soon. So why was I stocking up like there was a forthcoming zombie apocalypse?

A review of my shopping behaviour made me realise how often I go out without a real plan about what I need. Wandering the aisles aimlessly and wondering what I’m going to cook for dinner only leads to poor decision making and purchasing things I don’t need. And those, “two-for-one-special-price” deals are obviously something I’m susceptible to. If I see a special offer on something I know that I use often, I get it – but how much of a surplus of something do you need just because it was a tiny bit cheaper?

So took action. Enter ‘Operation Use it Up’.

Cooking decisions have been based around items I already have on hand. One of the cartons of chicken stock became cauliflower and potato soup. Another made a delicious bacon and mushroom risotto that fed me for several days. I made a cake with plain flour and added some raising agent and then I whipped up cheese and corn fritters with some pre-bought cans of creamed corn.

I found websites that made recipe suggestions based on ingredients I already had and got a bit inventive in swapping out ingredients I had on hand for other items I didn’t.

I’ve also made some much-needed changes to my shopping behaviour. A brightly coloured notebook now lives on the kitchen benchtop and I make a list before I leave the house of exactly what I need. If something is on a two-for-one special, I only buy if there are no stocks left at home. Unless it’s Lindt chocolate because, well, Lindt.

Aside from the most obvious benefit of saving money, I’m feeling much more comfortable about the benefits of my little campaign. Each empty space in my pantry is a sign that I’ve been more conscious of my own actions. I’m planning more and wasting less and feeling much more mindful about my choices. It’s quite empowering.

Now I’m taking my campaign onto other things. I’ve gone through the bathroom and lined up all the shower gels and other items I’ve found for use and no more will be bought until they are all gone. I’m also going through my kindle and finding books I haven’t read and trying to get through those before I buy any more – although that might take me a few years!

Have you ever had a similar realisation? And how do you manage the balance between keeping a reasonable stock of pantry items and not overbuying?