Starting lists for South Africa

By Janet Carr on September 12, 2024

Our trip to South Africa is still more than three months away, but I love the anticipation of a trip. It is often the best part. Starting lists is a way of stretching out the excitement.

I normally do travel lists and daily to dos in my regular ringed planner, keeping everything in one place. However, I throw my planner pages away after I have finished them, meaning I lose my memories unless I archive them somehow. Just as my chequebook stubs used to be a lovely 'journal' of what I did each month, my planning and reminders for trips serve as more of a scrapbook and journal than an actual journal would.

I am using an A5 notebook which is slim, light and has a strong leather cover with an elastic closure. It will contain:

lists (see below)
a page for each day with space for notes on food, weather and appointments
places to paste in receipts small mementoes such as stickers

The different lists would be

Before the trip

Presents (I buy these during the year as I find them so I need to remember what and where they are)
Cat Supplies (we have a live-in cat sitter so we stock up on food and sand beforehand)
Packing lists

During the trip

Buy (my favourite South African beauty products, snacks, clothing brands)
Eat
Visit
Do
Blog

After the trip

Laundry
Post
Gifts to my Swedish family

Because I am so far away from my home country, it is impossible to take weekend trips there (it's a two-day trip just to get there) or order things online. This means I take great delight in making lists of all the good things I want to eat and buy, and all the loved ones I want to see.

Because I will be working while I am away, I will be taking a ringed planner as normal for bookings and lessons. This will probably be a pocket size with small rings so it will take up less space than the one I use every day.

You will note that, after my summer hair disaster, Potion 9 is top of the list. There is nothing anywhere that matches it and I have never seen it in South Africa. I am determined to not forget it again!