I tend to overprepare certain aspects of travel, particularly business travel. What I am most loathe to have happen in business trips is to find myself with Nothing To Do, whether on the plane, the airport, or hotel room (though in travel to the UK I can almost always find something interesting on the telly — either a good show or something fascinating to watch).
As a result, I tend to overprepare and overpack. I might bring 80h of entertainment for about 10h of downtime. So what’s on tap for this trip?
- Books. I probably go through books the fastest while on a trip, sometimes having to buy new ones at the airport (which I hate doing). For a weeklong trip, including two 9h flights, I’ll probably take 4-6 books of the densest text I can find (no Robert Parker 2-hour wonders for me, thanks). I’ll probably end up having to pick up more.
- Music. Both for entertainment purposes and as a noise-redirector on the flights for sleeping, I’ve broken down and picked up an MP3 player, replacing the already-obsolete-when-I-bought-it 64Mb Rio we had for Kitten with a 1Gb SanDisk. That it will work for Kitten on our holiday travel, too (and should work for me for quite some time to come). (Yes, Margie, if you want to consider it a Christmas gift, you can. 🙂 ) Anyway, it’s now got about 18 hours of good music on it, so I should be set there (and I can, if I determine the mix isn’t any good, fix it on the fly — assuming my notebook survives the trip.)
- Movies. I can probably, as noted, find something to watch on TV, but I also need to pick out a few DVDs to watch. Maybe on the plane (I have an extra battery with me now), but at least in my room. Maybe some stuff I’ve been meaning to watch that Margie’s not interested in. 🙂
- Games. I usually have some sort of a FPS available with me for these sorts of trips. I don’t have one at the moment, though. I might bring along SimGolf, though.
- Touring stuff. I have no idea what sort of time I will have available to take in any sights — maybe Tuesday evening (London), and Wednesday afternoon (Edinburgh), but it’s Not That Kind of Trip, alas. Still, I’m packing some UK tour info and maps from our last trip there. And I’ll have our camera, of course.
- Projects. I have a few ongoing projects I need to do some work on whilst I’m gone. I need to go through another revision on my novel. I need to plot out my next IDC game. And I’m bringing along a book of quotations for perusal and entry of particular gems into WIST. These will take up a substantial amount of space in my briefcase. 🙂
So, I think I’ll be able to keep myself busy. I could probably keep myself busy for a month, but, fortunately, it won’t be that long of a trip.
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Also…
On your trip you can scout locales for future IDC modules.
Hmmmmm …
“Knock-knock — Hello, I’m from the States, and I’m scouting out locales for a spy game I run. Can I come in and take some pictures?“
*snork*
Leave MI6 out of this.
Did you catch the piece on NPR on MI6. The reporter was on the outside of the building doing her spiel when plain-clothes police came up to her and told her to leave. Typical conversation about “I’m on a public sidwalk” insued. They kept on her until she went around the corner and down the block and out of site of the cameras on the building. You could tell this because her mic was picking up the chatter from the PCP’s comm.
You could always do what my dad does when taking photos of questionable things. Pretend your taking a photo of a person. This work well when they went on the great tour of the eastern block countries prior to the fall of the Berlin wall. Though he did have his crowned eagle T-shirt taken and treatened with arrest in Warsaw, but that is another story.
Wow Dave, I think of myself as taking too much stuff to keep myself occupied when I travel, but I’ve never even considered taking THAT much stuff! I don’t think I could get through that much stuff in a month of travelling!
Lately I’ve been cutting down on the amount of stuff I take when travelling by air for three reasons. First, I noticed that I looked at relatively little of what I took with me on a couple of trips because I found stuff locally to interest me that I knew would not be available when I got back home. Second, I decided life would be easier while travelling if I didn’t have so much stuff to schlepp. Third, I had a bad experience or two with the security goons that led to the conclusion that getting through security is easier if I have less stuff with me. I also had trouble packing my suitcase and carry-on when I took that much stuff on the plane. Just how big are your bags?
I have Margie pack for me. She can fit several cubic meters in each suitcase. All I need to do is carry it …
You might want to check out the new parliament building in Edinburgh that has caused quite a stir. Wish I could remember the name of the pub just down the street from the castle that has the world’s best “mackey-cheese”.
Ah — that’s the one that turned to be scandalously expensive? Particularly offensive to the Scots, I’d think.
I get enough “mackey-cheese” in the US, thanks. 🙂