The Travel Thief

I really don't watch the news anymore because I feel it tends to focus on a lot of dramatic life pieces ( STUDIES FOUND THAT BREATHING WILL NOW GIVE YOU CANCER!  STAY TUNED!!! ). With this ban on media centered on indifference, I tend to be a bit late to the story when something big happens.  Case in point, Notre Dame cathedral in Paris catching fire. I was at lunch at work and coworkers starting talking about it, and I honestly thought it was the college in the US and not the church in Paris.  Strike one for my mental empathy sensors. I checked Facebook and saw my friend that was in Paris on her vacation and listed Notre Dame as one of her top sights to see had in fact seen it that morning.  She posted a sad picture of the smoke plume from a distance and it felt bittersweet that she was able to see it but then watched it be destroyed. Scrolling further through my Facebook feed, nearly everyone posted a link to an article, a live feed or their own personal pictures...

I will admit that I am not someone who knows how to enjoy "Sun and Fun" types of vacations.  That being said, once a year we go somewhere that specializes in that with a fun group of friends and have a blast.  This year we went to Aruba and stayed at the Riu Antillas Palace hotel.  It was all inclusive and adults only which was a selling point for us. Anyone who had been to Aruba before thought we were crazy for staying at an all inclusive on the island.  The food on the island is great quality and there are lots of choices.  However, the value of this resort to keep the trip affordable because the one night we went out was expensive.  Plus, with 6+ people, coordinating 3 meals a day plus drinks, snacks etc is too much hassle on a short trip.  When we wanted lunch, we spent exactly 10 mins gathering together, brushing the sand off and getting seated at a restaurant.  We all could do our own thing and not have to worry about This was my first tim...

I love to read the"behind the scenes" lists about airline travel and one particular fact from such a list sticks with me.  Flight attendants say their least favorite drink to serve in flight is diet coke.  Diet Coke takes up to 3 times longer to pour than other drinks due to its fizzy nature. https://www.thisisinsider.com/flight-attendants-hate-diet-coke-2017-7 And there is a real reason behind it!  Regular coke is made with sugar which increases the surface tension and viscosity in the drink - and in real terms that means bigger bubbles are forming.  If you ever played with bubbles as a kid, think about how the larger bubbles floating in the air would burst first and the tiny little bubbles would be the last to burst. This tiny air travel science lesson was all to say that I was surprised that on my United flight this week napkins were advertising Diet Coke specifically.  Not Coke, or Coke products, but Diet Coke, the bane of airline drink service.  Wh...

I'm an anglophile.  I blame my mother for raising me on PBS shows in the 80s which were almost completely British programming.  Considering that this was a time before cable, it makes sense given the lack of options coming through on the antenna. One of the things I was looking forward to in Hong Kong was some of this British imprint on Chinese culture. Even though the British officially departed 20 years ago, this tradition of afternoon tea has taken hold in Hong Kong. Hong Kong definitely has a strong tea culture in general (I love milk tea! More on that at a later time) so it is no wonder that this remained. Afternoon tea is credited to the Duchess of Bedford for beginning this trend. Dinner used to be late and large so getting there from breakfast was a challenge.  The Duchess of course was having her dinner fashionably late as was the style of the 1800s, but we girls all know that you're going to get hangry waiting that long. Thus, afternoon tea was born! Though t...