Vital Necessity: Portable Loudspeakers

Sadly, only a few hotels have yet realised that it is really a vital travellers' necessity that you can plug your portable music player into the sound system of your room. Until I can rely on them having this basic equipment, I have no choice but to travel with my TravelSound thingy.



Talking about travels... Earlier today, there was a big contract signed, which will keep me busy for most of the next five years, including loads of trips to India.

But now, or to be more precise in an hour, I'll be checking out here in Bangalore to return to Toño :) Time to get into the shower and then to pack my TravelSound.

Vital Necessity: Maraschino

I use Maraschino not only to make Charlotte Russe. The main purpose for having Maraschino (Marasca cherry cordial) in our household is Macedonia.



Macedonia (also known as fruit salad) gets a significant boost in flavour if you add a decent shot of Maraschino.

Vital Necessity: Meat Mincer

No, I'm not actually making my own meatloaf or burgers, my thoughtful sister gave me a handy meat mincer...



... to make the filling for pear bread.

Vital Necessity: First Coffee in Bed

The first thing Toño & I negotiate in the day is, who is getting the papers and who is making coffee. There are only a few other things I can think of, I like to start the day with, than spending almost an entire hour enjoying papers and coffee :) The worst for me, is to rush out of bed, quick shower & shave and out of the house. I just need some time to say hello to the day. Otherwise I'm kind of off the rails for the entire day.

At home we have a top notch coffee maker. But when I'm on a trip, I have to find other means to solve the logistics. Most hotel rooms have a kettle and some bags of instant coffee, but usually far to few to satisfy my caffeine addiction. Hence I have travel with a glass of instant coffee.



Instead of reading the paper, I was typing this in bed while having a couple of cups. Now I'm ready for the new week. May it be a prosperous one, for all of us.

Vital Necessity: Hugs

It was like the scales fell from my eyes when I woke up knackered this morning after I hardly could fall asleep last night (although I was quite worn out), and then saw this picture on Mr. HCI's twitter stream:



Yes, I miss Toño and being hugged by Toño. Bedlam sleeping patterns are another downside of business trips. And it could be cured so easily.

Vital Necessity: Comfort Food

I'm in India again. I don't mind travelling, but I also like to be home and one thing I associate with being home is comfort food such as this pasta dish, which Toño made last Sunday:



If you want to know how Toño made this dish, then see here. But instead of Swiss chard, I bought some spinach. Both work just fine. And Toño fries the chicken a bit in a pan, before he ads it to the sauce. This way, it comforts even more.

Vital Necessity: Travel Shoeshine Set

Because polished shoes are a vital necessity.

Vital Necessity: Messenger Bag

I hardly leave the house without my messenger bag. For over ten years, this has always been a black Timbuk2. But with winter approaching and thus cycling occurring again most in the dark, I decided to try a more reflective model this morning:



As you can see on the arrows, it's a British model, however, no car tried to overtake me on my right (so far).

My messenger bag usually contains at least:

• 2 mobbies (private & work)
• grab & shoot (Lumix DMC-LX3)
  
• towel
• speedos
• goggles
• pool subscription
  
• agenda
• some fruits
• some pens
• some memory sticks
• iPod
• some hotel reward cards
• some aspirin.

If I'm not about to cycle there is also something to read.

Vital Necessity: Laundry Sorting Bags

Washing clothes is a tedious enough task, sorting soiled apparel prior to this is even worse. Thus a system, which takes over this task when clothes are disposed to be laundered, is a vital necessity. Like we have this 3 bags for coloured, white & wool:



The bags are fastened to the frame with press-studs. You can easily detach a bag and drag it to the washing machine. Your precious hands will never come even close to the soiled garments.

Vital Necessity: Jam Funnel

Supposedly there are people out there trying to make jam without having a jam funnel at hand.