I always spend the first day of travel wondering what I forgot to pack. I always forget something. Usually it’s something easily replaceable, a razor, an umbrella, a toothbrush. Occasionally, it’s something photography related and fairly expensive to replace, like a camera battery. On our last trip to Australia, my battery charging cord would not function properly, and we had to buy a gadget to charge batteries. I failed to realize that this expensive charger would only work in Australia. If you’re going there, I have a perfectly good battery charger to sell you. Please inquire. Ruth and I have found that the 24-hours before leaving for anywhere are critical. We spend that whole day packing in an unhurried way after setting out what we need and might forget days in advance. Still, we forget something.
Once we’re on our way, we have lost much to TSA agents. Ruth tends to forget she is carrying items containing liquids. On a recent trip to Louisiana, she bought several food treats to take home. TSA benefited. Some of them had liquid content. On that same trip to Australia, I lost several grooming implements, like my favorite portable scissors that I forgot was in my carry-on bag. I also must report that I was flustered because the check-in agents in Sydney had no record of our flight booking, and we had to buy costly last minute tickets to go to Broken Hill. Luckily, there were seats available and it was not far away.
What I plan to remember but always forget are tipping customs, rental car license plate numbers, airport codes, my passport number, street directions to attractions like that pub in London with the commendable food we could never find, and the names of restaurants I liked. What we always forget as soon as we leave a hotel are room complaints, except regarding bedbugs. Ruth has been bitten by them, not in a hotel, but on an international flight when she used an airline pillow containing critters. I have never been bitten by bedbugs but wonder how airlines plan to protect us from the cornonavirus. I have lost track of the colds I have had after staying in a hotel room and/or flying. If they can’t get rid of cold germs, how will hotels rid the environment of a transmittable killer virus?
Other travel obstacles that we tend to forget immediately are flight delays. One of the flight delays that I can’t easily forget occurred in Shanghai, China. It lasted for 5 hours, and I learned that the Chinese don’t take delays lightly. Many Chinese passengers were loud and combative, so I fear that the Hong Kong protests will not end well.
Hank
Security Conscious 