Posted by Miss Maccy on Mar 22, 2009 in
Packing Today we are giving our packing lists and bags a good work out. We’re off on a homeschooling camp to Wymah Valley retreat.
That’s not our bags btw – we are all allergic to cats, so we aren’t even owned by one. However, the rate our packing is going, I wouldn’t be surprised to find one in there. This is what our packing is supposed to look like…
We are much more like this:
In fact, I HAVE to go check the little girl’s bag right now.
Perhaps we can have a practise run packing the imaginary babies while we are at it.
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Tags: bag, Homeschooling, luggage, Luggage and Bags, Packaging, Suitcase
Posted by Miss Maccy on Feb 16, 2009 in
Packing,
Travel with kids Shhhhh! Top 10 Quiet Travel Toys.
Fantastic post on Travel Savvy Mom with ten ideas for quiet travel toys. I love the caterpillar – sadly mine are all too old to appreciate it’s greatness. LOL.
Tags: toys, Travel with kids
Posted by Miss Maccy on Jan 28, 2009 in
Gizmos,
Travel with kids Due to unforeseen circumstances – mainly Leonardo’s mouth growing so much in a week that the plate they sent out by mail didn’t fit – we had to make a repeat journey today of our epic adventure into the CBD. Apart from the fact that it was at least 42 degrees (that’s over 107 y’all) it was a much smoother and more successful trip. Yes, it had MOMENTS, but for the most part it was a much easier trip. The key reason for this was that I cashed in all my baby sitting chips and only took Leonardo. Wow, just taking only one child somewhere is a whole different ball game from taking the whole team.
*Disclaimer* Now I must warn you that probably after reading the next bit you will think I am Queen CrankyPants but I will remind you that it was 42 degrees and I am obviously still suffering from the after effects of our last mission impossible. And my parents dog died this week – which has nothing to do with this – but I am just saying.
Anyway, the thing is that last week sometime I read a comment a gentleman travel blogger had made about travelling with kids. He was referring to his travels with his child and said something along the lines of … “this has been a fantastic experience and our kid has coped brilliantly … kids totally do not need gameboys and other electronic rubbish when travelling.” You have to realise that isn’t the exact quote but a paraphrase. But it has completely irritated me on sooooooo many levels. I’ve been stewing on it all week and now I have to vent before I spontaneously combust.
First up – all kids are different. If you have a lovely, quiet, compliant girl who likes to sit and read horse stories for hours on end, you may not need a gameboy.
Of course, if we had one of those types of kids, we’d probably still buy them an ipod and make them read their stories on that, but moot point, as we completely forgot to have any children like that. All kids have different learning styles, temperaments, energy levels and sensitivity levels that make them completely different as travellers. With the same gene pool, environment and upbringing we ended up with three completely different kids who cope completely differently with travel. Leonardo was a dream baby who would happily go anywhere, anytime and sleep anyplace. CityHall was a baby who would start screaming ten minutes after leaving. She’s downgraded to “are we there yet” but it’s still sapping. I guess if it hadn’t been phrased as a blanket statement but rather “this was our experience and we found OUR child was perfectly happy without being plugged in”, I’d have been a lot less irritated. As it was, to me it came across as pretty judgemental.
Secondly, as I was made aware today, the number of kids you take with you makes a big difference. One kid plus one kid makes it about twenty times more complex. I tell you I am in awe of anyone who makes it out of the house who has more than three kids. I am convinced that if we had ten kids, I wouldn’t even make it out to the mailbox to collect the mail.
Thirdly, IPODS AND GAMEBOYS ARE AWESOME, what is wrong with him?
Tags: gameboy, ipod, Kids and Teens, Shopping, Travel
Posted by Miss Maccy on Jan 21, 2009 in
Packing,
Travel with kids Today was one of those terrible, no-good, long and horrible days. While nothing majorly bad happened (we all still have our main limbs intact etc) it was one of those nightmare days when nothing goes as planned and a simple jaunt into the city which should have been all-over-red-rover in an hour took three instead. It was pretty much downhill from there. It was a good reminder that the best laid plans of mice and men can go badly awry and that a back-up plan for the back-up plan is always a good idea. So lessons before we hit the road:
- No one in this family is ever playing hide and seek again. Especially not in a shop. Enough said.
- Refillable water bottles are my new best friend. We will take these through security empty and fill them up on the other side. After that, nobody is going anywhere without one staple gunned to their forehead.
- Public Transport “time tables” should perhaps be considered “tables of intent” .
- Divide and conquer. The kids have quite different attention spans in things like the art gallery. Leonardo was miserable to have his time cut short but CityHall was going to spontaneously combust if we stayed a minute longer. I forsee “parent tag” as our new survival strategy.
- Those little ladies who carry round umbrellas for shade are onto a good thing.
Anyway, it was one of those days that was going to require copious amounts of chocolate to aid recovery or something equally indulgent. Fortunately our travels just happened to take us past a Lush store. Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmmm. Of course we had to go in – but only you understand, because I was buying stuff for our upcoming trip. Here’s my little stash of loot:
I got two solid shampoo bars and a teeny tin of solid perfume. I have a confession to make in regards to Lush Lust. I don’t actually like the smell of most of their solid shampoo bars. And standing inside a Lush shop with all of the other overwhelming scents, it was very hard to tell exactly what they would smell like. We have already had one incident of some Lush shampoo being banned from the bathroom by SGM, so I really, really didn’t want anything with an offensive smell that might permeate all of our suitcases. The reason I got two was that if you bought two, you got a free tin to go with it, and in my weakened emotional state, that seemed like a good idea at the time. The blue one is,
[amtap amazon:asin=B001ACQ62I]
And the white one is
[amtap amazon:asin=B0016O5QUI]
The solid perfume I thought was going to smell a lot more caramel like but SGM’s first reaction was that it was quite floral.
[amtap amazon:asin=B000XTQHT6]
At the counter I got a very nice surprise, they were giving away excess Christmas stock and we actually came home with four additional products for free! That was a very bright spot in an other wise poxy day and now, if you’ll excuse me, I believe my bubble bath is calling me…
Tags: Art museum, Lush, Perfume, Public transport, Shampoo
Posted by Miss Maccy on Dec 30, 2008 in
Packing,
Planes It’s a more industrial beast than I had imagined. It weighs in at 3.4kg. On the bright side, it might not break the first time we get onto the plane. On the downside, the Flight Crew might dummy spit about it.
Fully Extended Kart
The Kart Folded Up
Very sturdy looking wheels
It’s a Remin Kart-a-Bag Concorde III
[amtap amazon:asin=B0006GCZZQ] If you read the review that goes with it – the person who bought it totally loved it but gave it two stars. Gotta love the way that happens on Amazon.
Folded up it is small enough to fit into one of our bags – as long as that bag was only about half full to start with.
Tags: carry-on, Concorde III, Kart-a-Bag, luggage, Remin
Posted by Miss Maccy on Dec 29, 2008 in
Packing,
Planes,
Travel with kids Before I go any further, take a look at this totally lust-worthy tray organizer from Little Jet Set
Tray Bien In Flight Organizer
Never mind the kids, I want one for me. As you have no doubt guessed from the name, Little Jet Set specialise in products for kids for travelling. They have a gorgeous range of luggage but also heaps of games and books, well worth checking out.
Now you might that that somebody like the Times would be a reliable source of information when it comes to keeping kids amused on a flight. In their article on travel toys the number one recommendation is, an in-car DVD player. Well, DUH. (Except I think an ipod is a whole lot more versatile.)
If you want thinking outside the box, Delicious Baby has some fantastic age based recommendations. They also have a this excellent article called “Ten Great Travel Toys You Already Own“. Now that is cooking with gas.
The thing you have to take into consideration with travel toys (particularly for planes) is how bad is it going to be if bits fall on the floor? I’ve seen people advise against taking matchbox type cars because they can roll under seats. However, I think a matchbox car is fairly easy to retrieve compared to a lot of the travel type games which have lots of very tiny pieces. See like these games, [amtap amazon:asin=B000QRR9E2] and [amtap amazon:asin=B000P30NEK] which I just know I’m going to buy against my better judgement because I have seen the pictures of the tin can we are travelling in and the fear is with me. Playdough is another toy that some parents love and some parents feel is far too messy. The court is out on this count in our house.
The court is also out on this book [amtap amazon:asin=1591743680] The concept looks fantastic, but the reviews are mixed. If Cityhall can’t rip the tape by herself, it would be endless torment for the designated parent. (Cause y’all know scissors still can’t come through the Australian airports). And yes, I’m not entirely convinced about Wikki Stix either. I suspect they are a five minute wonder.
What I am definitely going to buy are some of the anti-coloring books.
The Anti Coloring Book
Brilliantly CurrClick (bless you) have these as electronic downloads. This book is a similar thing [amtap amazon:asin=0811855090] Perhaps better for younger kids. The Applets each got a travel compendium for Christmas from Kathmandu that contains coloured pencils, marker pens and has spaces for postcards. Mail Just For Me also have some great art travel sets like the Art Book to Go (very similar to the Kathmandu ones) as well as a whole range of great travel toys.
The other fabulous books we will be taking are from the Mad Libs series. Maybe [amtap amazon:asin=084313271X] or [amtap amazon:asin=0843126981] if we have finished our Shrek and Indiana Jones ones by then.
I’m thinking some kind of magnetic doll for Cityhall would be brilliant. Perhaps this one [amtap amazon:asin=B0018LB6TY]. Although the magnetic monsters are very cute and perhaps have broader appeal [amtap amazon:asin=B00092R6DS]
If we have any more room maybe we could squeeeeeeeeeze in a couple of these write and wipe books [amtap amazon:asin=1593955936] and [amtap amazon:asin=159395414X]And maybe a pack of the rubbernecker card games [amtap amazon:asin=0811855066] Which should of course be given to every family departing Melbourne Airport free of charge seeing as THERE IS NOTHING ELSE for them to do.
Tags: airplane, airports, Anti-coloring Books, books, Currclick, Delicious Baby, games, Mad Libs, Magnetic Doll, Melbourne, Tray Bien In Flight Organizer
Posted by Miss Maccy on Dec 26, 2008 in
Gizmos,
Red Tape I’ve done a bit of research lately on current duty free regulations for Australia. They have changed the way things work since we last went overseas (shortly after the ice melted) – there is now a Tourist Refund Scheme which works like the VAT refund scheme in the UK.
Things I’ve found out:
1. It’s possible to pre-order duty free stuff for collection on arrival back in Melbourne.
Duty Free is pretty much a waste of time for gizmos unless you can’t find the ones you want on
Staticice (who hopefully will be working again soon). There is no duty as such on most goods imported into Australia, only GST (Goods and Services Tax). There is however a
WET (Wine Equalisation Tax) on some alcohol. It must have been Friday afternoon when they came up with that acronym. Somewhere out there is a public servant whose career highlight so far was naming that tax. Actually, it’s so lame I bet they outsourced it to a marketing department *sigh*. Anyway, I have no idea what that’s on about because my eyes glazed over, but the gist of it is, alcohol may be cheaper duty free. Unless you buy it on sale in a
liquor shop, or buy
clean skins, or direct from the
Vineyard etc
2. The TRS is a GST refund, but the way it works is that you must buy up to 30 days before departure and carry in hand luggage. This is different from the “you must not use before hand” policy that used to be in place.
“Bringing the goods back into Australia”
“If the goods are to be brought back into Australia, please be aware that they may be subject to GST. Normal passenger concessions apply and include any items for which a TRS claim has been approved (excluding most personal items such as new clothing, footwear and articles for personal hygiene and grooming). If the value of those goods together with overseas purchases exceeds the passenger concession, the goods must be declared to Customs on your return to Australia. Penalties apply to undeclared taxable goods.”
Tags: Cameras, Customs, Duty Free, Exporting, GST, Importing, iphones, TRS, Wine
Posted by Miss Maccy on Dec 23, 2008 in
Packing I found some super cute luggage tag ideas here:
Karen’s Scrappin Kupboard
Although I was extremely taken with the sayings on these ones at Anne Taintor. Do you think they’ll mind if I just stick in one piccie?
She had not yet decided whether to use her powers for good or for evil
And then there are these ones with an entirely different message.
Tags: labels, luggage, luggage tags, Packing
Posted by Miss Maccy on Dec 22, 2008 in
Packing Qantas luggage lost: passengers in limbo.
More evidence that is pays to pack light.
And why not check out the unclaimed baggage Mecca of the world they receive over 7,000 items per day and the Unclaimed Baggage Center covers more than a city block!
You gotta love this travel advice,
“My best advice is to never trust an airline with your luggage. Ever.”
Tags: luggage, Packing, Qantas
Posted by Miss Maccy on Dec 20, 2008 in
Packing,
Planes There’s a big drawback to packing only carry on luggage and here it is…
The thing I hate most about air travel. Other than the “fear of death” thing, obviously.
Ok, so I don’t have a mono-brow. But I really, really hate travelling without tweezers. I’ve been scouring the Airport, Airline and TSA websites. It looks like Melbourne Airport is still stricter than the TSA regulations. TSA will let you fly with blunt scissors – I suspect Melbourne will still confiscate anything metallic. Bah!!!
Current plan is to either buy some while in Transit in Singapore or once we get to Cannobio in Italy. First Italian phrase “do you sell tweezers” is “Non si vendono pinzetta”? Ok, cool pinzetta like pincers. Awesome, I can make crab like gestures if my Italian accent fails me (100% likelihood). More critical Italian…
Non voglio dire veramente buona pinzetta (No, I mean really good tweezers)
Hanno rubato il mio aereo (They stole mine off the plane)
Si mi piace il colore rosa brilante quelli (Yes I like the pink shiny ones)
Note to self: if I manage to find pink shiny Italian tweezers I MUST post them back to myself from the UK!!!!
not shiny but Swiss
Super shiny and sparkly pink ones here
Tags: carry-on, luggage, Tweezers
