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Oh No! I didn't want to SEND THAT email yet!

Best email tip to prevent embarrassment

Have you ever sent an email…then wished you hadn’t? When composing an email, most people work from top to bottom. So you likely do this: Click/tap New Message Enter the recipient(s) Maybe add a Reply-To address Enter the email subject Compose message Add attachments Perhaps select or type your Signature Send I suggest you do NOT create an email in that order. Think about it… It’s always easy to get distracted, especially when traveling. While traveling, you’re likely working on an iPhone/Android, maybe a tablet — a smaller screen than when working on a desktop/laptop computer. You are more rushed when traveling because who wants to do email when the world awaits. It’s far too easy to send your words prematurely before you’ve thought them out To avoid embarrassment, create your email this way instead… Click/tap New Message DO NOT enter anything in the To, CC, or BCC fields. Skip […]


an informational text

Text & Email Advice for Travelers

Travel a while and your texts can become mysterious puzzles. Here’s how to make sure your text, or the other person’s remain helpful and informational long after your first meeting or your entire trip. Advice to make your first-time message recipient know…


Possibly drugged – even when with her husband

This event happened to a woman who was traveling with her husband in Peru. As you will see it was in a very respectable and well-liked place. She shared this and is allowing me to share it to remind us that we all need to remember to trust our instincts. This post is all her own words. Drugged, or a freak drug interaction… My husband and I, both in our mid-40s, were in Lima, Peru. We met up with a friend of mine, a Peruvian man in his mid-50s, for lunch. At the restaurant, Punto Azul, which is known to have an excellent reputation, I ordered a Pisco Sour. At the last minute I changed my mind and ordered a bottle of Rose wine. My friend decided to drink my Pisco Sour. As lunch wore on, he started really slurring his words. He apologized profusely and said he hadn’t really […]


Great Gifts for Travelers – under $15 1

When you’re seeking a great gift for a traveler — something this person can actually use while traveling — you ask friends for ideas and read “gift guides” but do they actually help? Are they realistic for this person’s travel? Can you afford them? (Did you know that per Fortune Magazine, More Than a Third of Americans Return Gifts They Receive Over the Holidays?)

wrapped gifts

Great Gifts for Travelers from $15-$30 1

This is what I call my Get-Real Gift Guide for People Who Travel because so many gifts given to a person who travels simply aren’t realistic as things a person can actually use while traveling. For a plane maybe, but not for the duration. If your friend must carry one-trick items for the entire time she/he is away, that isn’t actually helpful.

wrapped gifts

Travel regulations by country during Covid

Travelers and want-to-travelers want to know: Where can I travel now/next month/in November/in 2021? This map, published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), doesn’t predict the future but it helps you know what rules for flying into a country are in place at this time. You can use it for free during the Covid-19 crisis. It doesn’t show announced openings or land or sea info though. It’s called the Interactive Coronavirus (Covid-19) Travel Regulations Map (powered by Timatic).


More tourist scams

No matter how you travel or where you travel, somewhere there are scammers waiting to take what’s yours. Don’t let scams ruin your travels, holiday, vacation. Be wiser than them by knowing the scams.


Philippines Scammer Thieves: Gina in pink. Baya facing away.

Even grandmothers can con and drug you 2

This scam happened to a woman visiting the City of Manila in the Philippines. She is fine now but shared it so others may learn and avoid it. Others have reported something similar in other countries, even to a man in Japan. The getting-drugged part is extremely common but it typically happens to young travelers in bars, not a mid-day to mother, to an older woman.

The sad thing is that she enjoyed what she felt was an authentic experience with local women and she’d have been happy to pay for it — without being drugged and robbed.


British Pub Quiz Night – in Los Angeles

I’ve loved neighborhood pubs in England and Ireland when I lived or visited there. However, I wouldn’t typically have entered even a British style pub in Los Angeles.

But my British friend’s long-time friend from England told him about The Fox and Hounds, “a proper British pub” and it had a Quiz Night. That clinched our decision. On a Wednesday evening, we headed over Laurel Canyon…

Good, relaxed quiz, prizes, a new cider for me, great Steak n’ Ale Pie, Steak n’ Kidney Pie for my friend. I’ll definitely bring more people to The Fox and Hounds.