It's All About the Prep!

It's all About The Prep!
Not just advice for actors...




What do you do when you're excited about a trip, but just came back from one? Repack of course!

 and  and yes...



Stay with me here.

In an attempt to be responsible (why are you laughing?), I decided that it would be cost effective and value for money to stay at a hostel instead of languishing in a hotel. Makes sense, right? It's just for a week. 

I study and research and find the closest hostel to where the class is being held. It's called the SMART RUSSELL SQUARE (more on that later).

Press Pic for Smart Russell Square.

I book the hostel, pay the deposit, then start thinking.

Hostels have limited space, and no towels, maybe no pillows, maybe no sheets, maybe no blankets, whatever to do????

First things first.

It's going to be cold. Colder than two months ago. 
And raining. London rains, right? The only pair of rain boots I have for some reason are very heavy and hurt my back. As much as I hate to admit it, it might be time to actually invest in a decent pair of boots.

Not too ugly, right? Plus they're supposed to be good for walking.

Necessity? Could be.

I thought it would be wise to purchase more cuddle duds, this time the extra warm ones. I figured a box of these would be a necessity.

Also, I got the wise idea that wool tights would be helpful. Note to self:  WOOL TIGHTS DO NOT STAY UP! Not to mention are very expensive. So I bought two pair. This was of course before I knew they didn't stay up. I felt like the Beverly Cleary character Ellen Tebbits.


That might be an obscure reference, but if you get it, points to you!


Oh no! I need a travel robe, travel towel, pillow, and all of this other stuff that I didn't need on my more luxurious trek to the UK. Good thing my brand new Virgin Atlantic credit card has a program that offers points through various online shopping sites. Let's hear it for Shop It To Me!

I purchased my travel robe through REI. 
The PakTowel hooded travel robe. Made of microfiber quick drying, antimicrobial fabric.
I also bought a new travel hair dryer, since the one I had developed some type of inexplicable goo excretion. Don't ask. I couldn't answer anyway. I can only assume the hairdryer caught a disease when it was going back and forth to the gym during an unfortunate swimming experiment of mine.

To that I added your typical microfiber travel towel. Toss in my good ol' Dreamie Sleep Sack - yes as seen on TV, but it's nice and soft and keeps the bugs away. A pair of snazzy shower shoes (the same ones my mom made me pack), an inflatable pillow, a super-duper USB converter charger and after going over scenario after scenario of what could possibly impede my comfort, I purchased a rechargeable heating pad.

Mine is blue and not LV, cuz that's just weird.

After all of these added creature comforts, I still felt as if something was lacking. I put in a special request to Edie Baby for a travel size Snuggie made out of microfiber, antimicrobial fabric- there seems to be a theme developing here. Thankfully, Edie Baby was up for the challenge. 

Magellan's just happened to be having a sale on Extra Large Sea Foam Green travel towels! Not the most pleasant color, but that's ok. Three towels and two weeks later, I had a custom made travel length Snuggie to wear that wouldn't grab up nasty germs!

If you're a bit unclear on what a Snuggie is, it looks like this.

Say what you will about the Snuggie (one of us... one of us...), I love them. They're warm, soft and cozy!

Now that I had all of my goodies together, including new thicker socks, a new undershirt and travel hair brush, I had to actually pack them. And in my smaller, hard shell carry-on bag. Yikes!

It took at least seven tries, but I finally rolled and stuffed my afore mentioned 'uniform' and all of the above goodies into the small spinner bag. 

                           Yes, I did that, but I got it in!