Globechadder

1. Pack a Mouse Pad! If one thing good came out of some recent RFP work, it was that after it was complete, I was able to use the 600 page series of documents as a mouse pad. The desktop in my hotel room is glass, which does not really mix well with the lasers of an optical mouse. The con to this is that even after submitting the RFP; I have to look at it every day.
2. No matter what happens, take one bag for business! This bag will differ by case, but in the circumstance of Australia (because they are much more formal than Americans), it would definitely be a suit bag with two suits and 4 shirts. I would also bring my personal carry-on pack if there was even a possibility that I would venture out on my own, which of course there would be!
3. Regardless of everything else, do not rush it. After all, it is all that you may have for the next month. On this trip, I had to rush a lot of my packing and I brought pieces of some things that I wanted (ex. no power cable… /me clenches fist in air) and all out forgot other things. (See #1, 9, and 10) I do not even have enough trance on my iPhone to get my job done sufficiently, and with 100MB of internet use per day, I cannot download more.
4. Either have a business bag that can double as a normal day pack, or bring a small, but separate day pack. I’d prefer the former. I think that it may be easier to combine these two if I had a smaller laptop. I’ll have one of these before the RTW trip.
5. Go ahead and ramp up my search for some travel boots that can mix as hiking and going out shoes. They do not need to be water proof like my Merrells, but then those stand out if you are going out for the night. Why can those types of shoes not look like normal shoes again?  I need something that can work for mild hikes, not kill my feet when holding my pack, be able to be cleaned quickly, and look dressy enough for a dinner. Also, I realize that I still need my dress shoes for work, but that stands on its own. For workouts and such, I plan to switch to the Vibram five-finger shoes.
6. Obviously new nail clippers that can surpass the Australian travel security since they found my last pair too offensive, or maybe they just liked them, too.
7. Plan for no internet, three sports channels, one repetitive new channel, the Disney channel, and a final channel that is touch and go. AKA, plan for being too tired to go out at night and not having a damn thing to do in a dimly lit room. I’ll go ahead and complain about not having enough of my music collection again, too.
8. Expandable Mouse! I forgot my usually mouse in my other work bag, which is a smaller wireless mouse. Luckily, however, I managed to bring a gift that LB got me from Brookstone one Christmas. It is a small binder that contains everything one would need for a laptop on the go, including a baby mouse (but not like the ones that my leopard gecko used to eat). This little guy is great for sporadic use, but when you are copying and pasting pieces of requirements and design documents all day, you just wish you did not have a pinkie finger anymore.
9. I do not even really know how I left my workout gloves at home, but I am sure that it has a lot to do with the fact I did not have time to prepare my packing. At the last-minute, I was literally throwing things in my suitcase. It was essentially a fail of the first degree.
10. Finally and most importantly, I would certainly make sure that I bring my driving license and my bank card. These actually are pretty important, even when you are not in the States. I would have loved to head down to Tasmania, but it seems that the best way to do this, especially on a shortened schedule is by automobile, well, ferry and then automobile. The bank card is simply important for getting money. It is funny how places actually want payment for services and product.

Finally, it is important to mention that this is an extended, international business trip. On a personal trip, I am actually able to survive without a mouse pad.