12 Critically Important Travel Notes

1. My uniform of black yoga pants, black tee, black pumas + LV and diamond studs usually works fine for travel. A shortage of water for laundry on the island meant I wore a white tee on this return trip. Not so good. I was almost saved by orange Havianas. Not quite.
2. Some airports you have to take your shoes off, some you don't. The ones where you do it's bad to wear flip flops. It's good to have Purell. Just pour it on said flip flops after you have walked with naked toes across that icky floor. Insert feet.
   
3. The Stockholm airport deposits you right into the center aisle of a Duty Free shop, once you come through security. Leaving people like me stunned and unable to proceed in a linear fashion. All I remember is the words Must Have. They were printed in many places.
4. I will need to carry a camera round my neck, if I intend to continue blogging about travel. And to know what that camera does, of course.
5. I do think that older couples, he in a blue blazer and khakis, she wrapped in a shawl and wearing large gold shell earrings, look terribly dignified.
6. SAS service is fantastic. The flight attendants smile at you. They appear to mean it. They do a good job of pretending if they don't mean it.
7. It's not terribly fun when your plane aborts a landing. You might have to shriek a little bit. "Woo!" is sufficient.
8. It's unclear why business class, given all the stuff they give you wrapped in plastic, doesn't also provide trash bags.
9. O'Hare is torture. New methods are devised every day. As a result, I can tell you nothing of use. Just prepare your soul.
   
10. Fathers who travel with two young children and then read Alice in Wonderland to them on a Kindle are endearing.
11. I've never come home from vacation before without a stressful job awaiting me. It's a pretty nifty system.
12. Impatience gets you nothing. At least in airports.