13 February 2015

Free For All Friday No.326

Some of you already know, but this summer Alison and I will be travelling to North America for a grand tour holiday! I will be announcing the meet ups we hope to set up during our stay in the US and Canada, but I will do these one city at a time once I've had a chance to finalise things with the organisers (volunteers) in each city.

It has taken us longer to organise the trip than we ever thought it would, but we have done our first layer of planning and booking and have flights and other forms of transport all booked and accommodation booked at each point of our trip. Alison naturally put me in charge of the diary and where we are going to be on any particular day! I've used a combination of on-line tools and naturally I've duplicated it all in a easy to use paper format too.

There is still quite a bit to do on the planning of each stay but we are quite enjoying it. Our large dining table has various print outs and the common diary print outs.

One of the decisions to make of course is what organisers to bring with me! That will happen of the next few weeks I suspect. Such fun.

I've already started a packing list in my personal size organiser, noting things down that I will want on the journey and always with me. I need to do a test pack of course and decide which bag to use!

This year is going to be one of travelling for me, in a few weeks time I will be traveling to Belgium for the Gillio meet up arranged by Mella.

So after a much longer than normal introduction.... over to you. Do you use your organiser to help plan your holidays/travels?

But as it is a Friday you are of course free to discuss anything related to ring bound planners

Have a great weekend.

14 comments:

  1. What Filofax do people use/recommend using out in the field? I'm studying Archaeology, so far my Malden Ochre A5 is great for in class and taking to work, however as the weather improves my classroom will be outside. Do I keep using my Malden or have a dedicated field filofax?

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    1. For those occasions when the better weather might turn and become not so good, I suggest you have a look at the 'Rite-In-The-Rain' 'All-Weather Field Binder' This comes in normal personal size and therefore takes all personal size inserts. There are secific 'Rite-In-The-Rain inserts. I use the weatherproof paper when I am operating portable with my VHF radio. I've found the paper to be pretty much 'bomb-proof' in outdoor use. Hope that helps.

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    2. Do I detect another radio amateur in the house?
      73 de G8SFR ;)

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    3. Hi David, thanks! I do have an A4 clipboard all weather thingamajig - expensive if I remember correctly. I didn't know the Rite-in-the-rain inserts, notebooks and binders existed, thanks!

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    4. Steve - yes indeed you do. M0HLL

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    5. Hi David, thanks for the information about the "Rite-in-the-Rain"/"All-Weather Field Binder"!

      73 de KC9YD

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  2. Steve, I'm jealous of your travels. Enjoy! How do you decide what Filo, bag and paraphernalia to take?

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    1. Ah good question... my wife will confirm I'm a bit OCD when it comes to packing for a trip. I have a variety of bags and things I use. But I always like to select a bag that is the right size for the trip. Not too big, not too small.
      For short weekend 2-3 night trips I have devised a packing list I use for each trip, it has a check list to make sure I've got all the right things, leads, and adaptors etc. I tend to gather things together in our guest bedroom and then go through a trial pack of the bag I think will be right for that trip. Sometimes this can be weeks before I'm due to go! But it means there are less last minute panics and I know that I will be confident that my carry-on bag if I'm flying is going to be under the weight limit... if it is then that means I might be able to squeeze another organiser in to the bag!

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  3. Although not a great holiday-taker (why would we want to do that when we live in one of the most beautiful places we can imagine?!) I use my FF extensively to collate meeting times, dates, venues and travel details for my business movements. This has always presented soemthing of a problem, since my meetings tend to be concentrated into the small number of days each month when I'm in London, and when I'll have up to seven meetings in a day, followed by days when I'll be at my desk at home and need to schedule tasks, but not much else.

    Current thinking is to add an interleaved page (thanks to Lewis for this idea) for the days when I'm in London and need extra space, leaving other days catered for by the standard Wo2P layout. I do, however, feel the lack of a Wo2P 'grid' format diary such as that offered by Quo Vadis in the Timer17 range. Jotje very kindly mailed me one over to the UK a couple of years back (FF Holland not shipping to the UK direct), but the columns were just a tad narrow. The QV columns are excellent, but then the pages are 5mm wider as well. Ongoing problem, I think.....

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  4. Looking forward to meeting you and Alison for a NY meet up! Since my boyfriend travels a lot for business he has been able to rack up miles which has provided us with many vacations over the years... I have discovered the less to carry thru the days when being the tourist the better. However, for you especially Steve, I would recommend bringing a big huge filo that you can pack and then maybe just a slimline to carry thru the day.. And don't drink on the plane trip or you'll leave the filo in the seat pocket of the plane like I did!

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  5. I, too, am looking forward to your stop in NYC! (Hi Michele!) When I travel, I switch over to my slimline Guildford. I don't need to carry a lot of diary pages when I'm away, so I take just what is necessary. Oddly, for as planned as I am in my every day life, we don't plan things when we're on vacation. I do keep a running list of things we'd like to do, and we do them when we feel like it and/or based on the weather, etc. And I keep track of our activities on my daily pages. I love the slim Guildford because it allows me to slim down what I carry and because it has a secretarial front pocket, perfect for boarding passes and any other pertinent papers. With that said, I've never traveled abroad, so my planning for a big trip, such as yours Steve, might require something a little bigger than a slimline would allow.

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  6. I always use my Filofax to plan; I compulsively not down packing lists and menu plans (we always self cater), lists of things we might want to see and a list of things I might want to buy! I take my whole personal file with me, but sometimes change down to a compact to carry around all day long so as to leave space for a camera and extra bits. Hi everybody, I haven't commented for a while :)
    It's good to be back.

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  7. I'm off to Brussels for a short trip with my lovely wife for a few days shortly. I've printed all the confirmations and have then in the top pocket of my Gillio Compagna. I also have them scanned to Evernote. I have also printed a booking confirmation sheet which I put into my Gillio system which has all the useful information such as references, check in/out times and Eurostar plus internal UK train times - and earlier/later train times. I also printed a list of items I wanted to take and I put that in the system and have added to it since I did it.

    David, excellent idea about the interleave!

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  8. Will there be a meet up in South California? Los Angeles?

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