Feb 15, 2023·edited Feb 15, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden
A very delightful letter, Rebecca. I'll say more in my reply, but just for now I wanted to say that whenever I go anywhere I never take shampoo because the hotel or self-catering place always provide sachets or little bottles. As these places are not exactly inexpensive, ~I always bring a few home. They come in handy when travelling a conference or something. Mind you, one hotel I stayed in didn't have sachets. It had a couple of huge dispensers stuck to the wall in the shower --- one for shampoo and one for conditioner. Took me ages getting them off....
I loved this Rebecca! And empathise with replacing the things and putting them in an OBVIOUS place. Never so obvious to my scattered brain a few months later. And I loved listening to the robin just now whilst in the cacophony of Heathrow-it was a balm of nature in an otherworldly place. I’m enjoying these letters. Terry-I need to go back and catch up on your end of the correspondence. Cheers to you both.
Thank you so much, Sabrina! I love the thought of your listening to my robin while you're waiting to board your flight! I hope you enjoy reading Terry's side of the correspondence too - we have a great time writing to each other. Well, I do - he might say different...! 😉
Sabrina, far be it from me to indulge in self-promotion, but if you subscribe to mine you will be sure of not missing any. When Rebecca and I first started started corresponding, while I was intending to open my letters with some such erudite phrase as "Madam, I refer to your epistle of etc etc", she wanted to open hers with "Yo, Tel". I agree with Rebecca, this has been good fun, and we both have a good laugh, as exemplified by the letter-opening discussion just referred to. Hope you enjoy the correspondence too.
This is utterly brilliant. You and your packing lists sound suspiciously like my other half, who does the exact. same. thing. 😂🤣 Except I’ll be like, you still haven’t packed. And he’s like, yeah but I have a LIST so I’m basically already done. 🫠
Of course. I hope your other half goes hardcore like I do: I have a spreadsheet -- with tick boxes! The only thing not on the list is the suitcase it all goes in. Believe it or not, I actually left THAT behind once.
Ah, tick boxes! I have a column for those. And I have two ways of using the packing list.
If I print the spreadsheet out to carry around with me while I pack, I put a dot in the column when I've put the listed object in the box/bag/pile READY to pack, and then draw a cross through the dot when that object has made it on board the van.
If I operate the spreadsheet directly from my laptop, I'll grey-out rows of packed items as I go along. When the whole list is grey, that's it: I'm packed.
That's all well and good, but as evidenced by my post, the system only WORKS if I'm using the RIGHT list!
Now come on, Terry - whatever did you pack your stuff in instead of the suitcase? I mean, you must have noticed?!
You hadn't PACKED the spreadsheet? How would you have packed to go home?
Oh, hang on. This is one of those impossible-to-answer quandaries. 'If I pack the spreadsheet how will I know to put the suitcase in the car/taxi/bus...?' doesn't really work, does it? 🤔
People: we need TWO copies of the spreadsheet! #problemsolved
Such a lovely read! I wrote a similar Substack recently about my own packing failures, and what it made me realise about life 😂 (can be found here: https://tamzin.substack.com/p/i-am-two-people\) Also HARD relate to the light returning! In Ireland we have a saying that goes, 'Sure there's a grand stretch in the evening,' which people begin to say as early as January 1st. It used to make me laugh as we're still in the depths of winter, but now I see it as a kind of hope and acknowledgement that no matter how cold and dark, the days are getting longer.
"I have a packing list on an Excel spreadsheet which I tailor to every trip, basing each new list on the previous one. I save them all for future reference." Of course you do. Classic Rebecca. It is what I love about you -- your mission to stay organized and ward off evil. I am envious. ha ha ha
🤣 Thanks, Sharron! Now, if only that mission to stay organised never failed...! I love the 'ward off evil' reference - heck, that's going to be my new life's work! Hang on, I'll just start a list..... 😉
Birdsong! Thanks for sharing that snippet. 💙 I also use Excel for my travel packing lists (and itineraries and travel details) in a similar way as you, also saving all the old ones. I will be sure now to triple check that I haven’t left something off that wasn’t needed for a previous trip but that will be needed for an upcoming trip. I am planning a trip to London (first time for me and my daughter) in July, and I have already started a list! ✅
I so enjoyed reading this letter - I love letters! And I have to agree with Terry, easier to go buy a book of stamps than find them in this mess I call a desk. I have a stash somewhere... I love that you have an epistolary index. My IG bio used to read "an epistolary journey". I got exactly zero followers for weeks ... yay for letters - I'll go in and read some more of your exchange with Terry.
Thank you so much, Michelle! Letters are fun, aren't they? I love your 'Letters from Rome' newsletter, and you're doing such lovely things on your website!
Do read both sides of the Rebecca and Terry correspondence - you can get to know Terry, too!
Thanks for stopping by the website Rebecca and for the encouragement (insert that happy emoji I can't access on this keyboard). Off to read more of your and Terry's letters!
Try this: if you're on a Mac keyboard, hit Control, Command and the space bar at the same time - the emoji menu will pop up.
I've no personal experience of Windows, but Google suggests the Windows key and the full stop/period at the same time. Mind you, that's a search return from 2018, so it might've changed by then! 🤣
Hello! New reader here and I'm already delighted! Heading over to Terry's Substack to catch up on this conversation. Also, as someone who writes almost solely on graph paper, I think it's a brilliant for writing letters! 😁💖
I have a similar list for all the holidays and also one for Christmas and yeah, there are pitfalls to that level of organisation. Lovely read as always.
Feb 17, 2023·edited Feb 17, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden
Great letter again Rebecca!
I had to laugh at not being able to find stuff. I have a drawer specifically for things like that. All the batteries and bulbs are kept in the same place. It's the catch-all drawer that has other things in it too like candles.
In the past when going on vacation, I just used a small notebook to write down all of the things that needed be put into the suitcase. If I ever get to go on vacation again, I'll definitely use a spreadsheet. It will be much easier.
Nice to hear the robin. I'm a birder so I like to photograph, see, and hear them. From so far away, it is neat to hear.
Good idea to always keep stuff like that in the same place. That's the intention here, of course, but the problem is that the drawer is absolutely stuffed, and then we're in a hurry to find the whatever-it-is, and so we can't, and then when the other of us goes to have a look there is already exasperation in the air, and THAT person can't find it either.... and, well, it goes from there!
I like that you're a birder! I love birds, and one of the (many) things I love about Substack is seeing pictures and hearing about the birdlife (and other life) so far away from here. Your robins look very different to ours, and woodpeckers too (we have three native species, one of which is very rare - Google tells me that the US has over a dozen!). We don't have cardinals. And the birds you call 'chickadees'? They're 'tits' over here. We had five of the long-tailed variety on our peanut feeder this week - they're absolutely beautiful.
I have on my list to post some more pictures of the birds in my area. I took a bunch of them. One of the woodpeckers that frequented a tree in the front yard of the house I used to live in, created a unique pattern on the tree, where it constantly pecked in a pattern. It's rather interesting.
Sounds brilliant - I look forward to seeing them, Matt. Wow re your woodpecker!
One morning last year I heard a terrible commotion in the garden - a sparrowhawk had whizzed by to take advantage of the self-service buffet of smaller birds on the feeders, and had taken away a female greater spotted woodpecker - which is quite a large haul for a sparrowhawk, actually. The two of them ended up making a heck of a racket underneath a hedge, and without thinking I shoved my hand into where all the noise was coming from to rescue the woodpecker. Turned out that only SHE was in there - the sparrowhawk was long gone - she was very shocked, and I scooped her up and put her down my shirt to stay warm. She calmed down - so much so that I thought she'd died! - but when I gently inspected her for injuries she was fine, and she flew off as soon as I let her see the world again.
If the hawk HAD been in there with the woodpecker I dread to think what might have happened to my bare forearm - that beak is SHARP.....! My brain didn't have time to be sensible, though.
Feb 17, 2023·edited Feb 17, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden
I don't think I'd have enough guts to stick my hand in some place I didn't know what was happening. I don't think I would ever be able to pick up a bird either. You went above and beyond in your rescue. Thankfully, the hawk was not in there. How would we have gotten along without your writing? You probably wouldn't have been able to write for who knows how long if it had attacked you. I guess you could have used the audio option. ;)
🤣 I hear you, Edward! 🤣
A very delightful letter, Rebecca. I'll say more in my reply, but just for now I wanted to say that whenever I go anywhere I never take shampoo because the hotel or self-catering place always provide sachets or little bottles. As these places are not exactly inexpensive, ~I always bring a few home. They come in handy when travelling a conference or something. Mind you, one hotel I stayed in didn't have sachets. It had a couple of huge dispensers stuck to the wall in the shower --- one for shampoo and one for conditioner. Took me ages getting them off....
Thanks, Terry - a great tip! I have visions of you taking a crowbar to that hotel shower room....! 🤣
😂 It's an essential part of my luggage!
🤣 You do know that these places have CCTV, don't you?
Now you tell me😨
I loved this Rebecca! And empathise with replacing the things and putting them in an OBVIOUS place. Never so obvious to my scattered brain a few months later. And I loved listening to the robin just now whilst in the cacophony of Heathrow-it was a balm of nature in an otherworldly place. I’m enjoying these letters. Terry-I need to go back and catch up on your end of the correspondence. Cheers to you both.
Hope you enjoy reading them, Sabrina.
Thank you so much, Sabrina! I love the thought of your listening to my robin while you're waiting to board your flight! I hope you enjoy reading Terry's side of the correspondence too - we have a great time writing to each other. Well, I do - he might say different...! 😉
I use ChatGPT to write mine: saves hours
🤣
Sabrina, far be it from me to indulge in self-promotion, but if you subscribe to mine you will be sure of not missing any. When Rebecca and I first started started corresponding, while I was intending to open my letters with some such erudite phrase as "Madam, I refer to your epistle of etc etc", she wanted to open hers with "Yo, Tel". I agree with Rebecca, this has been good fun, and we both have a good laugh, as exemplified by the letter-opening discussion just referred to. Hope you enjoy the correspondence too.
This is utterly brilliant. You and your packing lists sound suspiciously like my other half, who does the exact. same. thing. 😂🤣 Except I’ll be like, you still haven’t packed. And he’s like, yeah but I have a LIST so I’m basically already done. 🫠
🤣 You've made me laugh out loud with this, Jill! Thank you so much! 🤣
Of course. I hope your other half goes hardcore like I do: I have a spreadsheet -- with tick boxes! The only thing not on the list is the suitcase it all goes in. Believe it or not, I actually left THAT behind once.
Ah, tick boxes! I have a column for those. And I have two ways of using the packing list.
If I print the spreadsheet out to carry around with me while I pack, I put a dot in the column when I've put the listed object in the box/bag/pile READY to pack, and then draw a cross through the dot when that object has made it on board the van.
If I operate the spreadsheet directly from my laptop, I'll grey-out rows of packed items as I go along. When the whole list is grey, that's it: I'm packed.
That's all well and good, but as evidenced by my post, the system only WORKS if I'm using the RIGHT list!
Now come on, Terry - whatever did you pack your stuff in instead of the suitcase? I mean, you must have noticed?!
I packed everything in the suitcase, but forgot to take the suitcase.
Oh, I SEEEEEE!!! Sorry, Terry. 🤣😳
Yes, because the flaw in the system was that the suitcase wasn't listed on the spreadsheet. 😨
You hadn't PACKED the spreadsheet? How would you have packed to go home?
Oh, hang on. This is one of those impossible-to-answer quandaries. 'If I pack the spreadsheet how will I know to put the suitcase in the car/taxi/bus...?' doesn't really work, does it? 🤔
People: we need TWO copies of the spreadsheet! #problemsolved
Such a lovely read! I wrote a similar Substack recently about my own packing failures, and what it made me realise about life 😂 (can be found here: https://tamzin.substack.com/p/i-am-two-people\) Also HARD relate to the light returning! In Ireland we have a saying that goes, 'Sure there's a grand stretch in the evening,' which people begin to say as early as January 1st. It used to make me laugh as we're still in the depths of winter, but now I see it as a kind of hope and acknowledgement that no matter how cold and dark, the days are getting longer.
Thanks, Tamzin! Your post about packing failures has made me laugh out loud - AND subscribe to your 'Stack! - thank you so much for the link! 😊
I love the phrase 'a grand stretch in the evening'! 🙌 🇮🇪
Oh that’s lovely to hear, and thank you so much for subscribing! Hope you enjoy it ✨
"I have a packing list on an Excel spreadsheet which I tailor to every trip, basing each new list on the previous one. I save them all for future reference." Of course you do. Classic Rebecca. It is what I love about you -- your mission to stay organized and ward off evil. I am envious. ha ha ha
Ha! <Scoff> If Rebecca was REALLY organised she'd have a spreadsheet listing all the spreadsheets she has.
Oh she probably already does that, but is just not ready to tell anyone.
I don't doubt it! I've met her sort before 😂
LOL! Shhhhh....!!!
😉
🤣 Thanks, Sharron! Now, if only that mission to stay organised never failed...! I love the 'ward off evil' reference - heck, that's going to be my new life's work! Hang on, I'll just start a list..... 😉
Birdsong! Thanks for sharing that snippet. 💙 I also use Excel for my travel packing lists (and itineraries and travel details) in a similar way as you, also saving all the old ones. I will be sure now to triple check that I haven’t left something off that wasn’t needed for a previous trip but that will be needed for an upcoming trip. I am planning a trip to London (first time for me and my daughter) in July, and I have already started a list! ✅
Yay - I'm glad it's not just me, Amy! And when it works, it works, right?!
Yay to your London trip! I bet you'll have a ball! 🙌
I so enjoyed reading this letter - I love letters! And I have to agree with Terry, easier to go buy a book of stamps than find them in this mess I call a desk. I have a stash somewhere... I love that you have an epistolary index. My IG bio used to read "an epistolary journey". I got exactly zero followers for weeks ... yay for letters - I'll go in and read some more of your exchange with Terry.
Thank you so much, Michelle! Letters are fun, aren't they? I love your 'Letters from Rome' newsletter, and you're doing such lovely things on your website!
Do read both sides of the Rebecca and Terry correspondence - you can get to know Terry, too!
Thanks for stopping by the website Rebecca and for the encouragement (insert that happy emoji I can't access on this keyboard). Off to read more of your and Terry's letters!
😊 Yay, Michelle!
Try this: if you're on a Mac keyboard, hit Control, Command and the space bar at the same time - the emoji menu will pop up.
I've no personal experience of Windows, but Google suggests the Windows key and the full stop/period at the same time. Mind you, that's a search return from 2018, so it might've changed by then! 🤣
Hello! New reader here and I'm already delighted! Heading over to Terry's Substack to catch up on this conversation. Also, as someone who writes almost solely on graph paper, I think it's a brilliant for writing letters! 😁💖
Oh, I'm so pleased, Kerri! Welcome!
Graph paper is pretty good, isn't it? Makes for neat paragraph indents, if that's your jam!
I have a similar list for all the holidays and also one for Christmas and yeah, there are pitfalls to that level of organisation. Lovely read as always.
It's all fine until it goes wrong, right, Melanie?! In my experience at least! And thank you so much. 😊
Great letter again Rebecca!
I had to laugh at not being able to find stuff. I have a drawer specifically for things like that. All the batteries and bulbs are kept in the same place. It's the catch-all drawer that has other things in it too like candles.
In the past when going on vacation, I just used a small notebook to write down all of the things that needed be put into the suitcase. If I ever get to go on vacation again, I'll definitely use a spreadsheet. It will be much easier.
Nice to hear the robin. I'm a birder so I like to photograph, see, and hear them. From so far away, it is neat to hear.
Thanks, Matt!
Good idea to always keep stuff like that in the same place. That's the intention here, of course, but the problem is that the drawer is absolutely stuffed, and then we're in a hurry to find the whatever-it-is, and so we can't, and then when the other of us goes to have a look there is already exasperation in the air, and THAT person can't find it either.... and, well, it goes from there!
I like that you're a birder! I love birds, and one of the (many) things I love about Substack is seeing pictures and hearing about the birdlife (and other life) so far away from here. Your robins look very different to ours, and woodpeckers too (we have three native species, one of which is very rare - Google tells me that the US has over a dozen!). We don't have cardinals. And the birds you call 'chickadees'? They're 'tits' over here. We had five of the long-tailed variety on our peanut feeder this week - they're absolutely beautiful.
I have on my list to post some more pictures of the birds in my area. I took a bunch of them. One of the woodpeckers that frequented a tree in the front yard of the house I used to live in, created a unique pattern on the tree, where it constantly pecked in a pattern. It's rather interesting.
Sounds brilliant - I look forward to seeing them, Matt. Wow re your woodpecker!
One morning last year I heard a terrible commotion in the garden - a sparrowhawk had whizzed by to take advantage of the self-service buffet of smaller birds on the feeders, and had taken away a female greater spotted woodpecker - which is quite a large haul for a sparrowhawk, actually. The two of them ended up making a heck of a racket underneath a hedge, and without thinking I shoved my hand into where all the noise was coming from to rescue the woodpecker. Turned out that only SHE was in there - the sparrowhawk was long gone - she was very shocked, and I scooped her up and put her down my shirt to stay warm. She calmed down - so much so that I thought she'd died! - but when I gently inspected her for injuries she was fine, and she flew off as soon as I let her see the world again.
If the hawk HAD been in there with the woodpecker I dread to think what might have happened to my bare forearm - that beak is SHARP.....! My brain didn't have time to be sensible, though.
I don't think I'd have enough guts to stick my hand in some place I didn't know what was happening. I don't think I would ever be able to pick up a bird either. You went above and beyond in your rescue. Thankfully, the hawk was not in there. How would we have gotten along without your writing? You probably wouldn't have been able to write for who knows how long if it had attacked you. I guess you could have used the audio option. ;)
If I'd thought about it, I don't think I would have either, Matt! 🤣
I'm not sure how well I'd get on with dictation software....!