Sunday 17 June 2007

Shop until you drop!

So, this morning, we printed out list of 'stuff' for our RTW elective of joy. We headed off to a mahousive shopping centre in search of goodies.

We started off in Boot's stocking up on basic first aid items (enough to treat a small army I might add) unfortunately our malaria prophylaxis all but bankrupted the pharmacy so we had to leave our prescription so they can order in a few trucks worth of doxycycline.

After replenishing our energy stores with yummyness we went in search of the sandals which will henceforth be known exclusively as 'Action Sandals' (what an amazing sentence that is!) Anyway, after trying on a few pairs of monsterishly hideous 'things' we both settled on relatively acceptable pairs of action sandals.

All was going swimmingly, that was until official looking people started running about, seconds before alarms started ringing out all over the place and incomprehensible tannoy messages were blasted out. We only had one shop left to visit but as we entered we were swiftly evacuated. Not to be defeated we took a trip back to the car to deposit our bags, before wondering back into John Lewis. Unfortunately, part of the centre (the part with the shop we wanted to go to) remained off limits whilst some firemen checked out a smoke alarm so we took up residence on the garden furniture in John Lewis for an hour and proceeded to dream about actually having a garden.

After the all clear was given, we finally made it to our final stop to look at rucksacks and other associated travel goodies. We then spent half an hour removing every single rucksack from the wall and trying them on (Much to the annoyance of the staff.) I finally decided upon a huge red monstrosity which should fit our purposes quite well. With that, our shopping trip was complete, our list of things 'to get' extensively reduced, and with a whole new list of things not to forget. Here is where you lot come in... (I like to make my posts interactive)

We're pretty organised and good at keeping lists but everyone always forgets something so what are your suggestions for things we need to take which we might have forgotten (forget the obvious things, we've got those covered.)

11 comments:

Dr Joey said...

get one of those water bottle bag things...they look a bit like catheter bags but fold up when you are done drinking so you don't have to carry an empty bottle about taking up space.

also, get one of those magic chamois leather type towels - you know, the really tiny ones? and get one of those poncho raincoat things, they go over massive rucksacks and they only cost a couple of quid!

man, i want to go on my elective AGAIN!!

Anonymous said...

A pack of waterproof playing cards.

Ms-Ellisa said...

Anti-mosquito stuff..? Both electricity dependant and non dependant- and the supplies for refills of course.
A small handy fan- in case it gets too hot..?

Anonymous said...

How about a solar charger for all the other gadgets, or for the rechargeable batteries? Might work quite well in hot sunny climes. And you can claim added enviro-geek points.

Plus you never know when you might be up country and need to solar charge your fancy new phone... GPS only works with power.

The Little Medic said...

uk bioscience - That is actually not a bad idea. I didn't even know those existed!

Anonymous said...

There are a bunch of different ones but this one looks quite cool:

http://www.solartechnology.co.uk/products/Solar_chargers/freeloader.asp

ditzydoctor said...

bring sunscreen! and mosquito repellant! :)

ditzydoctor said...

bring sunscreen! and mosquito repellant! :)

ditzydoctor said...

bring sunscreen! and mosquito repellant! :)

ditzydoctor said...

oh craps i'm so sorry i have no idea how i got 3 comments! sorry sorry sorry please delete them!

Anonymous said...

Have you got your holiday reading yet?

If you've not read it already, one to try is Michael Foxton's "Bedside Stories: Confessions of a Junior
Doctor"

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bedside-Stories-Confessions-Junior-Doctor/dp/1843540320

Now out of print, but (if you can find it) a fascinating look at how the British Empire used to run the South Sea Islands, is Arthur Grimble's " A pattern of islands". Glimpse of a vanished world, and that sort of thing.