Suitcase and World: The planners.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

The planners.


Here's proof. Lei's a manic planner. She showed up in my office this past week and handed me a project plan listing all the major tasks, dependencies and resource assignments that needed to be done in preparation for our trip. There were even a couple of checkmarks indicating a couple of completed tasks! No detail is too small for Lei - there are even separate task entries for packing the daypack and the backpack! 

Somehow I don't think my method of planning for a trip would work with Lei. It's pretty simple for me - just some handwritten lists and a guest room bed where, anytime I have something that I want to take with me on my trip, I just plop it on the bed. Ditto for packing the daypack and backpack. I do have to rely on my packing checklist otherwise I'll end up doing something like bringing along no underwear and 12 pairs of socks - not that that's ever happened before! With such limited packing space as my backpack, I have to be extremely careful that I bring EXACTLY what I need and not leave anything out.

Whenever I travel, my main concern is always with getting my travel papers in order and when you go on a tour, there always seems to be additional paper to lug along - vouchers, invoices, travel insurance, etc. I have a separate list for travel papers which I will put together later on this week so I can keep track of everything that I need to bring with me.

At this point, I'm still waiting on confirmation from GAP which hopefully, I will get in the coming week. Our next task will then be to get our visas for both Egypt and Jordan which we take care of when I return from California at the end of this month. In the meantime, Lei is gathering stuff for her backpack....and hopefully, that will keep her sufficiently occupied as patience is definitely not one of her virtues!