Are You A Flexpat?

There is another new breed surfacing as more people drop the traditional lifestyle models and take on new and exciting ways to live cheaply that allow travel to many exciting and exotic locations.

Get Your Kicks on Route 66

An article over at Trusted Housesitters describes the new "Flexpat" trend,
you can read more here

Top 5 benefits of a Flexpat Lifestyle:

1.    Experiencing a range of cultures and lifestyles
2.    Meeting new people and creating lasting relationships worldwide
3.    Excitement and adventure
4.    Flexibility to try different ways of living
5.    Less financial commitment than owning property

Guess after two years with no fixed address I can most certainly add Flexpat as my lifestyle status!

http://blog.trustedhousesitters.com/flexpat-lifestyle/

The Clean Underwear Dilemma SOLVED!

Any travelling adventurer knows the burden of getting your clothes clean whilst on the road.

Well this clever Australian company has come up with a great invention that is going to make turning your undies inside out a thing of the past.

It's a bag with little nodules on the inside to help the cleaning process, it uses minimal water and is very light so it won't take up those valuable ounces on the airline scales.

Incredibly simple, it takes away the stress of trying to keep things clean, and when most hotel sinks don't hold water without leaving the tap running, this clever little bag will really help save water too.  

You can see it in action here - not sure if the bloke in the ute comes with :-)

Find out how to get yours at their website here

Misacapades of Clean Underwear

One must never be traveling down life’s highway with a suitcase full of dirty underwear - its just one of those universal laws that must not be broken.

Last night saw me ensconced in the Marriott at Santa Clara California.  So many hotels only offer the highly priced “send out” option that sees a load of washing costing more than the price to buy it new.  So the gift of an in-house guest laundry where you can soothe your wash day blues for $2 was beckoning.  So off I choofed to the gift shop to get soap powder and quarters for the machines.  

I have attended three conferences at this hotel and they are really good at making it easy for the masses to get things in a hurry.  Their pricing reflects that.  Small items are rounded off to a dollar incl tax, meaning the transaction happens quickly in the lunch line.  So if you want a banana - its a dollar - you want a yoghurt - its a dollar - you want a bag of crisps, yep its a dollar.  So I have a thing in my head that says most small things at this Marriott are a dollar .. because pretty much they are!  

I got this great laundry bag in Aspen many
years ago - its one of the things that
ALWAYS travels with me

So down I went to the lobby with three $1 notes in hand only to find that the soap powder was $1.35 - what the?  This kind of threw a spanner in the workings of my brain because the washer and dryer, funnily enough were one dollar a piece so I needed 8 quarters, but now I’ve only got 6.  But I’d looked in my purse before hitting the lift and I could see several quarters lurking in the bottom, so I figured I didn’t need to come back.  

So I went back to my room and took ALL my dirty clothes off and donned “big red” - my big ole fluffy red comfort dressing gown, not elegant, but is like being wrapped in a hug.  I wandered down to the laundry, put my load of washing in, inserted four shiny quarters and got back to my room without anyone seeing me.

Then it was time to go back and put the now clean, but wet clothes in the dryer.

Now if you’ve done your maths, I have two quarters (.25c) left from the gift shop and I’ll need the two other quarters I THOUGHT I had in my purse.  Half correct - I had one quarter and one nickel!  They look very similar in the bottom of a change purse - DAM!

So now I’m standing in my room, butt naked under the big dressing gown looking less than glamorous, all my clothes now wet in the washing machine and I’m one quarter short.

I turned my bags upside down seeking another quarter but alas, not one to be found.

The thought of wandering through the plush lobby in “big red” to get more change didn’t inspire.

So I phoned up guest services to see if they would bring me up a quarter.  After a long discussion ....... imagine my strong Australian accent trying to relay this to the young woman on the other end line, who kept rationally telling me I had to come to the desk and get change.  

Finally , after some negotiation and a slight hissy fit I convinced her that the lobby was probably not a place for big red to make its catwalk debut and a lovely lady from housekeeping bought me up a quarter to trade for my nickel and two dimes.

My life looks awfully exotic to so many but it took over an hour to get that load of laundry in the dryer - its the small every day things on the road that drive you the most nuts!

Always Talk With Strangers

It was so indoctrinated in me from childhood "don't talk to strangers" that I still have to force myself into conversation with outlanders while I am on the road.

An encounter in Canada bought home just how much I miss out on when I don't engage with the magnificent souls who walk this earth.

Getting on the Ferry at Horseshoe Bay BC

Now I am not condoning a chat with a shady character in a dark alley or asking you to break into conversation with anyone who gives you a bad vibe.  But it's my belief that there is a lot more good people than bad in this world and we shouldn't let our fear overwhelm us and lock out experiences with awesome people.

I was coming back to the mainland after spending five lovely weeks in Sechelt, a holiday destination on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. Already I had encountered one horror cab driver who seemed to be living in his own reality, most certainly not in mine. So I felt blessed that I had made the ferry terminal in one piece, after living through a real life episode of the keystone cops with the cab driver. You know you are in trouble when you are sitting in the back of a cab shouting "follow that bus!"

Its a spectacular ferry ride

By some miracle I made it to the ferry terminal ON the bus, but my luggage was heavy and I had too much of it and I was already feeling harrowed.

The walk down to the ferry was a LONG haul and I knew from the journey in that I still had a LONG way to drag those three suitcases onto the boat.

A human in discomfort will do just about anything to get out of it!

So what did the damsel in distress do?  I sought out the first knight in shining armor I could eyeball.

This happened to be a well dressed, trendy looking young man, who had just arrived at the "get on barrier".

I had my line ready, and out it came.

"I'll give you ten dollars if you roll this suitcase on board for me - it's not heavy, I just don't have enough hands".

Good grief, if my mother could have heard that!

A little taken a back, he agreed to the task but wouldn't take the cash.

He was generous enough to just want to be of service and he did duly get me on board and seated.  He also offered to come back and help me off at the other end.

Sure enough he did.

Turns out he was also going on the same bus into downtown Vancouver and as he helped me on board the bus, a drumstick fell out of his bag and clattered down the aisle.

What's the chances?

I had chosen the one person out of several hundred on board the ferry that day who I could have a slightly intelligent conversation with.

So it was time to take the coach approach and ask a question.  I asked the first one that came into my head.

"So, are you some famous rock and roll band drummer I should recognize?"

I figured I was pretty safe because I knew he probably wouldn't be riding the bus if he was, but he took it as a compliment that I thought he could be.

It's a long time since I have played in a rock n roll band, but that DNA never dies and very quickly he was telling me his dreams of playing professionally. In fact he had an audition to go to that week, hence why he had his practice sticks with him.

But I knew there was something more because he was a little too well dressed for your standard rock drummer, so I got more questions rolling.  Sure enough, he was studying archeology, hence why he was spending so much time in South Africa.   He had mentioned several trips there in a previous conversation and I figured he had a beau there, but no, he worked at a "dig".  He was the guy that cataloged everything the diggers found.

WOW - this was your not so classic "digs and gigs" guy!   I might not have been on the bus with Nirvana's drummer but I was with a real life Indiana Jones! 

I was very moved when he commented that he felt very humbled to be the very first person to handle and catalog these precious artifacts after fate had placed them in that spot all those centuries ago. He described the amazing energy they carried.  I was able to share my theory that it was probably him in another incarnation that put them there in the first place. For an academic, he was surprisingly ok with my "out there" totally unsubstantiated theory.  You could tell he was deeply connected with his work, not just at "books" level, but also at a very deep heart level as well.

We then went onto a discussion on all the great bands his parents had dragged him along to see when he was little and they were living in England.  All my favs - Queen, Rolling Stones, in fact there was a strong chance we had both been in the crowd for the Stones at Wembley, if only I could remember the year.

It amazes me how in even the most unlikely situations likes will attract.

All too soon he had to get off at his stop, but he made sure I knew where I was getting off and bade me farewell. I thanked those gawd awful heavy suitcases, because without them, I wouldn't have had my life enriched by this encounter with a total stranger, whose name I forgot to ask.

Then, it was time to get those dam suitcases off the bus!

Photograph Your Bags

House sitters frequently rack up a lot of travel and spend way too much time on trains, boats and planes. 

 Fingers crossed it all goes well. But even the most hardened travelers have something go wrong from time to time.

I had an incident with my bag coming off a flight out of San Fran into Vancouver.

My bag is quite distinct and has all the required bows and big identifying labels showing it is my bag. But still I found myself at Vancouver airport, in a hurry to catch a connecting ferry, in the unenviable position of watching a bag identical to mine go around and around the luggage carousel.

I have never seen anyone with a bag like mine. I got it in Sydney years ago and I bought it because it was different.

Even though identical in every way, I knew this interloper doing the airport equivalent of a session on a hamster wheel wasn't mine because I had checked the bag tag. Yep it was an Australian address, probably purchased in the same shop as mine. This wasn't a good sign.

As soon as it became obvious no new bags were entering the system I headed over to the the very friendly and super helpful man at the lost baggage counter. He swung into action as he stated his annoyance with people who couldn't or wouldn't obey the airport's constant pleas to check they had the right bag before leaving the concourse.

He rightly pointed out that people think they are too busy and important to take a few seconds to check.

Your Bag Carries Important Things Like Clean Underwear
- its not good when it goes missing

He tried all the obvious things like phoning the number on the imposter bag, putting a message over the airport intercom system. As time ticked away it was becoming increasingly obvious I wasn't going to get that ferry.

Then the paper work started and the questions.

So many questions related to one little common blue bag.

This is why I recommend you take photos of all your luggage so you can show the person at lost and found exactly what it looks like. Despite the amount of time spent lugging that bag through airports and hotel lobbies, you would be surprised how hard it is to remember the more intricate details.

As I reached for my phone to start showing the guy my photos, we noticed two women, red faced and puffing running toward us .... with my blue bag in tow. I've never been so pleased to see that bag.

However the woman who had lifted my bag was more concerned how this had held HER up and how could we hurry this up because they had tight connections that were being messed with.

Then, as a dispossessed afterthought, she added "oh well ......... these things happen".

Until now I was happy to just glare and get on with my day but the last comment raised my heckles. and my brain disengaged as my mouth flew open.  I pointed out that "perhaps if she had checked she had the right bag then maybe she wouldn't be in this position".

Now I was fuming mad and off I went into a rant ....... "and ignorant, unthinking people like her who couldn't spend five seconds to check the label on the bag were the reason this sort of thing happened. It had nothing to do with fate or some off-chance divine intervention".

Then she poured salt into the wound and offered in a very off hand way to give me money for my loss.

How do you recompense the fact that the sit I was going to included an 86 year old woman who was petrified of the dark? The ferry at 5pm would have got me in before dark, the later ferry wouldn't.

Unthinking Actions Often Hurt the Innocent  

So here we have a situation where someone elderly and afraid is sitting alone in a big house, the sun is going down and she is wondering if this total stranger all the way from Australia is even going to show up. How do you recompense that?

 

Luckily the customs lady who had to bring the bag napper back into the secure area, read my body language, stepped in and suggested we just agree to differ and get on our way.

I did miss the ferry but luckily BC Ferries provide free Internet for their passengers so I was able to log into Skype and phone ahead to let my elderly charge know what had happened.  I was able to assure her that although I wouldn't be there before dark, I would be there.

If I'd known it was going to cost me $80 to get a cab from the ferry to the house instead of taking the bus for $2.50 I might have considered taking that horrible woman's guilt money. But in hindsight I wouldn't have wanted the energy of that women's money anywhere near me, even for a short period of time.

As the very wise and observant man at the lost baggage pointed out, as I was thanking him for his outstanding service, "people like her would never understand that their actions caused so much distress for others and what's more she wasn't the type of person who was ever likely to change her behavior because people like her could never own her part in what went wrong".

Crikey, you find the most extraordinary everyday sages in the most unlikely places when you travel!

My day was much enriched by meeting the wise airport workers at YVR.