Thanksmas Day 9

Any one else feeling like I could have just done the 5 days of Thanksmas? This is a lot of feelings going out each day! Anyway, we're here. Day 9 of Thanksmas.

To give us all a bit of respite from the emotional journey of reflecting, today I'm going to share some of the things I've learned that have made the last year easier. Pretty much any one who has met me knows that if there's a mental situation that involves losing a wallet, a dancing leprechaun and some kind of outfit malfunction - I've had it. And generally T-minus five minutes before some REALLY big meeting. These veritable romps of story telling have changed the way I travel, how I manage meetings and movements and lastly, the things I carry in my bag along the way.

1. Don't Uber in the city, don't even drive. That goes for Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. Don't. Use the Limebikes, or the Obikes, or the Melbourne city bikes (whatever they're called), or walk. But don't use a car, I'm saying this specifically about this kind of transport, because the use of trams, buses etc are a given. But once in town I found I would try Ubering everywhere. Which is fine, when you first start and you're not well known and you have maybe 2 or three meetings. But mental when it starts to get busy. My record to date is 32 km - 12 meetings - all on time for the bonus - and the same Limebike. In Sydney. In one day. Granted, some of these meetings were in the same place. But still! The added bonus about being on a bike in between your meetings, aside from obvious health benefits - is you cannot do anything but ride the bike. No staring at your phone to answer an email, no in between calls. For me, that meant when I got to my next meeting I was actually ready for it, because I could really think about it as I was riding along, instead of being distracted by my phone.
2. This one may only apply to a small segment of readers. But you must keep a container of dry shampoo on hand. Things happen right before you get on a plane. Sometimes these 'things' involve you having to go into work. This means it's likely you're about to get on a Jetstar flight and the two people who had the misfortune of being sat on either side of you - will tsk hurrumph and roll their eyes at you for a solid hour as eau de maggot emanates from your hair. This problem is largely solved by dry shampoo and the strongest smelling Axe for men body spray you can find. Sure, now you smell like someone who has an unhealthy love of motorcross and V8 racing, but somehow this is a more palatable option.
3. Never, and I mean never wear your noise cancelling headphones at the airport. Just don't. Pack them away in your bag. Put them around your neck as though you're about to DJ the coolest dance party Tiger Air has ever seen. But don't wear them at the terminal. Of course, you can, if you want to. You can fly in the face of danger and watch a Netflix episode, or listen to calming music, absolutely. But in these days of 'silent' terminals why risk it? Because those headphones are going to do their job and cancel out the entire world. And you're going to be glad of the respite and, potentially, relax at the end of a successful day of negotiating. And it's likely, that whilst you're relaxing and your head phones are noise cancelling, that the last and only flight back to Canberra from Adelaide will leave without you. And because you've done such a great job relaxing, and the headphones at noise canceling. You may not realise it, until 30 mins after the plane has gone. It could happen. It has happened. This is a PSA, the only one of this blog series. So don't let it happen to you dear reader.

Much thanks to Limebike, I still don't know how your business model works, but I'm a fan. To noise canceling headphones, I do love you, except at terminals. To the Virgin Air Hosts who saw me, sitting at the terminal. Who surely could tell by looking at me that I was exhausted and really wanted to be on that plane back to Canberra, but instead let me finish my Netflix episode uninterrupted. And finally, to you dry hair shampoo and AXE Ice Chill body spray.