Travel Tips From a Novice

Just a quickie post since I'm leaving on Thursday and won't post for a minute.

I'm not a person who travels a lot (and y'all know how I hate flying), but I have done my share. I thought I would pass on a few tips that I've learned over the past several years. (NOTE: Things change so none of this is written in stone.)

• 
• Check here to see what the rules are about what you can and cannot take on your flight!
• If you can, try to get luggage where the 2 main pieces match closely in size. Most airlines give you the same weight allowance for both bags (if you are given the option of 2 bags). This time, I get 50lbs for each of my 2 bags (for which I'm paying a very reasonable fee) and I was able to make the best use of every pound. 
• Make sure to "try on" your luggage and carry-ons before you leave. Make sure you can handle the luggage solo (should you have to) and that you are comfortable with the weight of your carry-on items. Can you hold or wear it all without straining your hands or body? Can you walk quite a way holding it all? Can you easily access your money, tickets, and other essentials? True story: I once found myself at DFW, trying to balance one piece of luggage on another because I  had started out with a travel partner who got sidelined during the return trip. It took forever to find a porter to help me out.
• If you are going for an extended stay somewhere (or if you are going to have a lot of excess luggage), it's cheaper at times to use USPS's Flat Rate boxes and mail things ahead. It's fast, insured (to a point) and you can even request items be held for pick-up.
• Invest in empty bottles and containers from the "dollar" shelf at a store. You can take a lot of essentials (shampoo/conditioner, lotions, etc.) by using the containers and tucking them throughout your luggage. Much easier to tighten up your packing space with smaller containers. 
• To save room in bags, you can tuck some things (like your containers from above) into socks or shoes,
• Never, ever pack your essential medications in checked luggage. You might get stranded at a layover, or your luggage could simply get lost or delayed. I had an aunt visit once and we ended up taking her to the local air base to get an emergency replacement of a daily med that was lost with her checked luggage. Her luggage was located - three days after her flight landed.
• Always keep a bit of cash on hand - but also keep a debit or credit card handy. Some (if not most) airlines don't accept cash for in-flight items.  If you don't have (or want a credit card), get a re-loadable Visa or MasterCard. These are available at most big box stores. (By the way, these cards are great for buying things online or applying for trial versions of services.)
• Unless necessary, don't dress to impress. That was fine when air travel was a major, major luxury. These days, you might get stranded somewhere or have to jog half a mile to a gate. Dress for cleanliness, comfort, and neatness. Comfy footwear is essential! If you do make the mistake of wearing tight shoes on a plane (or train, or long auto ride) do not take them off. Your feet might swell and then you have to get your dawgs back into those already tight shoes. (Trust me on this one.  I had a bad experience thirty years ago that I only was able to laugh at about 5 years ago...)
• Keep baby wipes, talcum powder, and deodorant in your carry on - even if you have to get the teensy-tiny trial/travel sizes. Again, you don't know what kind of delays you might run into. Baby wipes are good for freshening the body or, in some cases, getting small stains or lint off clothing. Talcum powder helps keep your body cool and fresh-smelling. I like to dress in layers when I travel (maybe a cami or t-shirt under my outer top) and I will dash the powder in between the layers to keep me comfy. 

• If you happen to have extremely long (or multiple) layovers, you might want to look into paying for a day pass to an airline club room. I detail my experience with one in this post. Well worth it if you are traveling at a personally stressful time or just want to treat yourself.
• Ladies, keep a bandana or headband or some hair clips in your carry on. You might start out having a good hair day but there's nothing like some unexpected stress to ruin that achievement.
• I also suggest not wearing a full face of makeup. Makeup can be drying. The canned in-flight air is drying. It's better to do a little touch-up just before landing on the last leg of your flight. You might want to dab your face with a wet towel or napkin to keep your skin happy.
• Enjoy the layovers. Don't just people-watch; try interacting with other travelers. Of course, you want to be careful, but how often do you get a chance to spend time around people from so many different places? 
• If you are a loner and want to kill time on layovers (or onboard), you can see if your local library has electronic reading/listening services for mobile devices. Make sure to fully download the books for offline use. (I use the Overdrive app to borrow audiobooks from my local library. After downloading the app, all I needed was my library card to sign in an.) You can use the Overdrive app on PC as well as mobile devices. Check a previous post about the app.
• Use the bathroom at every layover if you can. I don't know about you, but once I get on a plane, I don't like to leave my seat. Depending on your location, you're bumping and squeezing past other passengers coming and going. 
• This last tip is one that I am only half-sure about but it's always worked for me so I wanted to share it: Try to download the app for whichever airline you're traveling with. Whenever I have done this and gotten an electronic boarding pass, I've usually been given the wonderful, delightful gift of TSA Pre-check. I'm not sure if it's because of the electronic pass or the credit card tied to my ID and ticket, but it is lovely. I know that you can apply for and pay a fee to get the luxury of pre-check, but I don't have the budget for that. Only once did my pre-check status get ignored and I didn't mind at all because it was during a high-security alert. So, basically, I'm not sure how I got picked for the pre-check so I can't swear how it works. I'll see tomorrow when I do my check-in via the phone app.

For some of you, these tips are ho-hum but, for a lot of people, travel is not an everyday thing. I hope that these tips help make your next flight easier.

Keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I get ready to head out and into a new chapter of my life.

Peace

--Free

**REVIEW** Noosa Yoghurt

(NOTE: Yes, I am supposed to be getting ready to leave next week and shouldn't be using this time to post to the blog. Thing is, blogging is soothing for me. I need some serious soothing right now. In this post, you will learn about something else that helps make me happy.)

Spicy but offset by the dairy, so...

Remember I told yall that I don't want to be that "big" gal on the plane next week? I'm seriously trying to eat healthy right now. The thing about me is, bad stress takes away my appetite. Positive stress, though, turns me into a nibbler! I've been doing too much nibbling the past month. This week, though, I've been drinking lemon/lime water with flaxseed gel. It does block the appetite, but a girl still has to eat.

Enter... Noosa

One day soon, I plan to train myself to really, really like eating cottage cheese. For now, I am totally in love with yogurt - or, "yogurt", per Noosa spelling.

I've tried so many brands of yogurt that I can't remember them all. A few years ago, I fell in love with the texture of Greek yogurt. Still love it. Noosa is an Austrailian unstrained yogurt that is somewhere between "traditional" and Greek (where Greek is strained and has more protein and, to me, is thicker/richer textured) yogurt. What I like about it are the flavor combinations. (By the way, I just checked and saw that another site agrees about the cross of traditional and Greek consistency!

The other day, I actually tried a very, very thick yogurt from Siggi's. It was, in my opinion, almost too thick. Also, I chose a berry mix flavor and wasn't crazy about that particular taste. What I would like to do is use a plain version of Siggi's (or another Icelandic yogurt) in a food dish because the texture would be perfect for that. (You can check Wikipedia for the different types of yogurts.)

But let's get back to Noosa.

Like I said, what I like most are the favor combinations. So far, I have tried most of them. My top flavor pick is the one I first started with some months ago: Strawberry-Rhubarb. Oh my yum, is it good!

For a while, I was only checking for the flavors at Walmart, which is where I found my all-time favorite: Key Lime. They also had Pumpkin (yuk!!!), Blueberry, Raspberry, Peach, Lemon, Honey, Vanilla, and Plain. I tried the Lemon and the Raspberry but kept going back to the two faves.

Then...

I went into the local Carrs-Safeway (where I rarely shop because, well, I'm on a tight budget and Walmart is cheaper) and fell into Noosa heaven.

Now, I'm not usually one to even get near anything do do with a hot pepper - let alone a habanero or  serrano! But these yogurts.... SO good. There is the heat but it's moderated enough by the dairy that, by the time you get the flavor (and heat) of the peppers, your mouth is being cooled down. I like both but the Blackberry Serrano blend is probably my favorite. Today, my niece and her hubby tried a couple of the spicy flavors and gave them a thumbs up. They call the spicy mixes line "Sweet Heat". Perfectly true. I can't wait to try these:

Overall, Noosa has so many flavors, it's going to take me awhile to try them all:

AND these are not all the flavors, believe it or not.

These are some of the newest:

These 3 are amazing!

This is what Noosa has to say about its ingredients;

What’s the secret to amazing yoghurt? It’s simple: whole milk, a touch of honey, and purée made with real fruit.

This is what Noosa looks like opened and unstirred.

Can eat it stirred or not...

I have tried eating the yogurts stirred and unstirred. I like to stir the ones that have spicy flavors but, sometimes, I will eat the Strawberry/Rhubarb without mixing it. Depends on my mood.

Nutrition-wise, Noosa is a bit heavy on the sugars and fats, according to some sources. (And I'm mad that I didn't get to review samples like this person did a few years back! LOLI guess it depends on what kind of nutrition you look for in your personal diet. Since I was (and will definitely again be) doing a Keto-based diet - heavy on fats and low on carbs - the sugar bothers me but not for my carb-up days when I carb-cycle. Also, just about, anything can be bad for you if you don't practice moderation. As a treat, I prefer Noosa to ice cream, candy, chips, or soda. Right now, since I'm pretty much on a diet of citrus water and yogurt, I'm good with the calories in Noosa. If I could stick to the Plain and Honey flavors, I'd be ahead of the game.

For more detailed info, check the FAQs for Noosa. They even give the recipe for the Blueberry flavor so you can see the ingredients used. You can also find a coupon on the site.

Finally, this is what caught my eye when checking for how "healthy" Noosa is. This is right from their site:

"noosa yoghurt is made with milk from happy cows never treated with rBGH. Our delicious purées are built on a foundation of all-natural fruit, always picked at the peak of ripeness and pureed to luscious perfection. noosa yoghurt is a great source of calcium and protein, and contains live, active cultures, and probiotics (often called good bacteria). Probiotics are living organisms that help maintain balance in your digestive tract, boost your immune system and replenish the other good bacteria in your body."

So, if you were looking to try a new brand or find some awesome flavors, I think you should grap a coupon from the site and give Noosa a gho (you'll get that joke if you read the FAQs!)

Peace
--Free


P.S.: I started writing this post earlier in the week. When the niece and nephew came in from Arizona today, I picked up more Raspberry/Habenero and (first time) Pineapple/Jalapeno. All three of us like the Raspberry better. The Pineapple is nice but is very mild with a lot less heat than the other spicy flavors. I still the that, of the spicy ones, my favorite is now the Blackberry/Serrano.

Moving Means More Than Goodbye

                                                         
As I get ready to leave Alaska (no, really, this time I mean it!), I have been thinking what that means. 

I'm not just moving away from a place. I'm moving away from a routine. I am shedding and leaving behind places that evoke strong memories. I still can't drive past Lucky Wishbone Restaraunt without thinking of both my mother and sister. One day, I drove past a certain park and remembered a long-ago birthday party we threw there for one of the kids and I had to pull over because I started sobbing.

Leaving Anchorage means that I won't wake up and see myself surrounded by the mountain ranges. It means no more summers with 18 hours of sunlight. I'm not going to see moose just randomly strolling through the front yard. Leaving here means leaving behind the doctors and staff who saved my life and got me through these years of this disease. I'll miss those people so much. I will even miss the familiar faces of the clerks at the local Walmart and Carrs-Safeway. I will miss the way the air smells on a cool morning.


It's not just the people either. Leaving here means leaving sights and sounds and landmarks that I've known from the time I was about 7 years old.

Today, I sold my little travel trailer and, silly as it sounds, I was just so happy that the lady who bought it really appreciates it. Her face was lit up with joy like mine was when I got the trailer. I could see that she was making plans for how to use it and decorate it and fix it up. Although selling the trailer makes me so very sad, I was happy that it went to this wonderful person.

I'm going to be selling my car. I'll miss that car! It's going to be another familiar thing that I'm leaving behind. It's the last car that I will remember driving with my sister in the passenger seat.

The other day, my niece and I were talking and I told her that I hate change. It's true, too. I like having a familiar routine. I like knowing where my favorite places are to shop. I like knowing at least three different routes to get to the store or hospital or to a restaurant. I like knowing the weather patterns and the best and worst roads to travel on when it's snowing or raining.

So, yeah, leaving a place means more than saying goodbye to people you love. Leaving means starting over.

And yet...

                                            

I'm looking forward to being close to new people and places. Before long, I will have a new favorite place to get my clothes and food. I will learn the faces and names of my doctors and their staff.

                                                              

Before long, I won't just be familiar with a new place and new routines. I'll be calling another place "home".

Peace
--Free

**REVIEW** HBO Now Trial Subscription (Android app)

Let me start by saying I'm really glad that I got to use the trial subscription. As you guys know by now, I plan to be living in another state very, very soon. I don't own (and really don't want to) own a TV set, I get all my news and entertainment via my computer and phone.

So...

I wanted to test out some alternatives to Netflix, Hulu, and cable subscriptions. When I saw that the HBO Now app had a trial, I went for it.

                                         

The PROS: 

The service is pretty nice. I like that it can be used on a phone or tablet or PC. You can add your selections to a Watchlist. That was great. The viewing selections haven't been bad this month. I don't watch a lot of movies until long after they are first released so it's always a treat to binge watch when I'm doing things like... Oh, I dunno but let's say, packing. (Sidenote: I have packed 15 boxes of assorted sizes - from Medium and Large USPS Flat Rates to Medium cardboards from UHaul. I will never in my life move again if it involves my packing anything more than a suitcase!)

Anyway.

I watched some stand-up comedy (I laughed so much at Adele Givens that I got a stitch in my side); The Wizard of Lies (about Bernie Madoff) was soooo fascinating, and my favorite documentary was Mommy Dead and Dearest - which is about a crime involving a mother and daughter named Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard. (If you like documentaries or true crime, this one will be riveting. I first heard of it via a podcast.)

So, yes, the selections were great and I might even actually get a full subscription somewhere down the line. However...

The CONS:

The app (online and via phone) is a bit clunky. The Search mechanism is downright hideous. It's case-sensitive! Also, it's not great for guessing at partial actor/movie names. Probably I missed a lot of offerings just because I got tired of scrolling and scrolling.

The streaming was bad, bad, bad! At one point while watching Ride Along 2, the video locked up for over ten minutes.  This freezing up happened (for not quite as long) with almost every video I watched. I thought it might be my phone or PC, but every other kind of video was fine. (It still might be a user-related problem.) Those were minor cons compared to - I don't even know how to label this so I'll call it ...


The SUPER CON:

I'm glad that I and so careful with my budget, which is why I like to test things out with a trial plan.

"Trial" subscriptions can be sneaky and I have, in the long ago past, ended up being billed for a service I didn't like. All because I forgot about the end-of-trial date. It happened only once. After that, I learned to bill to a reloadable debit card or - and this is what I usually do - I mark every calendar I use with a big ol'  "DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!" notice set for a week before the end date. I hadn't run into a lot of cancellation problems. Until now.

It's a good thing that I have a week-ahead cancellation system because it's kinda hard to cancel HBO Now. I don't know if this is just my experience, but - oh my aching head was it a pain in the butt.

I've been mostly using the service via my PC so when I got the calendar alert to cancel, that's where I signed in. The first place I went was to my Profile. There is no "cancel service" button anywhere else that I could see. From my Profile, I selected Billing Information. And that's where things got annoying.

There is no Cancel option on the Billing screen. There was a notice that I purchased the service via Google Play and a detail of "paid through" date of the subscription. There is no Cancel option shown but there is a Manage Subscriptions button. Alrighty then.

Guess what? When I used the Manage Subscriptions option, it led me offsite to the Google Payment Center. From there, I should be able to "manage" (aka cancel) the service.

Nope.

I basically went back and forth a couple of times (between the HBO Now site to Play store to Payment Center) before I just changed the Payment Method in my Google payments from my debit card to my Google Play Balance (a whopping $0.52). But I still wanted to get the service properly canceled.

What I ended up doing was contacting Google Help. And thank goodness I did get the help I needed. The rep was very nice. She got the service canceled and I am a little less stressed.

Bottom line: the service is pretty good but you better be ready to deal with the cancellation process.

That's it for now, folks. I am ragged tired and I still have many miles to go, as they say.

Peace
--Free