Contact-ing, Baby Lips and Skinny Pens. The Excitement Of.

Well, it's officially less than a week until I live on a plane for a day en route to London.

Say what you like, real books do photograph better than e-books!

Which is generally the stage on my travel planning time line when I buy the relevant Lonely Planet guide at Books Kinokuniya and finally get excited about my forthcoming trip as the pleasant reality of leaving for a work free international time zones finally eventuates.  Life is so busy these days, holidays seem to hit you out of nowhere.  When I was a student, it seemed to take forever for a holiday to arrive.

My book is now wrapped in clear contact (old habits die hard, it was either contact or keeping it in a sturdy zip lock bag at all times) and it is now travel ready.  Which is more than I can say for me.  I have to pack for and return from Melbourne this weekend before contemplating London's packing and I am starting to get a little anxious about the prospect.

After reading through the suggested 4 day itinerary of neighbourhoods, it appears that I will have little time left over for shopping.  I know I'll be in London for 10 days but have you seen me read a map or try and follow the little blue dot on my iPhone?  There's often more movement of the map than of my feet.  I go nowhere fast.  Even on home turf.  But don't you be worrying about time restraints, I shop best under pressure.  A museum or a gallery here and there may have to be sacrificed but I will make the hard decisions when I need to.

I haven't just been head down studying travel guides, I've been pushing boundaries and trying new things in the world of lip balm.  I've been using Lucas' Paw Paw ointment for years now but when my last tube ran out, I found this Warhol-esque tube of Maybelline Baby Lips balm at Priceline.

It was on sale for $3.99 and has a berry scent.  It has a sheer consistency and glides on smoothly with a clear gloss finish.  I'm so used to the reassuring weight of Lucas' Paw Paw on my lips that a light slick of Baby Lips doesn't quite cut it.  I suppose it's like making the transition from full fat to skim milk.  Anyway, Baby Lips is a convenient size to slip into a makeup bag to use as a base for lip colour, which is how I'll be using my tube.  I just love the packaging too much not to use it frequently.

I have a confession to make.  Guess why I went to work early today?  To fatten up my new biros.  My new skinny biros are officially making my already bad handwriting worse.  I just can't seem to hold them in way that gives me any chance of clearly differentiating my 'a' from my 'o' or my 'e' for that matter.  Unfortunately, I have around 6 more boxes of them to go.  I had a brain wave at Officeworks when I saw these pencil grips and realised that they'd fit my biros.

Black skinny is a good in a jean but a disaster in a biro.

It took me a good 20 minutes to squeeze my pens into the holders and another 5 to figure out why the lids wouldn't go back on.  You shouldn't do these things without the benefit of a cup of Moccona, readers.  But it was worth the effort.  By the end of the day, my writing was back up to about 50% legibility.

Contact-ing books and customising biros, what an exciting day it's been.  I'd almost forgotten that tomorrow's my favourite day of the week!

Have a good one.