Don't Leave Home Without It!

I’ve just come back from a hectic book tour, events every night for 2 weeks, including 9 cities in 9 days. I’m a pretty seasoned traveler, as are my fellow Jungle Red Babes, so I thought I'd learned what to take and what not to take with me.

I made several mistakes this time: I left my tiny backup hairdryer at home, thinking I’d be staying in top of the line hotels. Well, the hotels were top of the line, but I came out of the shower, hair dripping, in one sumptuous bathroom to find no hairdryer.
“It’ s with the towels, madam,” they said when I called the front desk.
“No it’s not,” I replied.
They promised to send one up. I waited and waited while my hair dried going in directions I didn’t want it to go. I called down again and told them that I had a car coming for me in ten minutes and I needed that hairdryer NOW. If I’d had my tiny backup all would have been well.

Mistake two: I did not bring my own tea bags. I presumed that luxury hotels might actually have tea bags. Several had no coffee or tea making equipment. We were supposed to order eight dollar a pot room service. One had a very fancy kettle and a variety of herb teas, but no black tea, which I’m sure you realize all English people must have at four o’clock on the dot. And when I ordered a pot of tea—it came with no milk. What were they thinking?

Oh, and there was another thing I forgot this time—Bandaids. I had one hotel with a platform bed, bigger than the mattress on top of it. In the darkness of the middle of the night I hit my leg on the corner of the platform and it started to bleed like crazy. I thought of calling down to reception, but I was in my skimpy nightgown and I felt like a fool. So I sat with a wet towel pressed to it until the bleeding stopped.

So there are lessons learned for the next trip. Never assume that because the hotel is fancy, it will have what you need.

When I travel I carry certain items I consider indispensable.
1. My pocket pillow. Round inflatable pillow that goes in my back on long plane and car trips. The difference between arriving in pain or not.
2. Miniature flashlight. You never know when a hotel may lose power and it’s not good to be in the dark in a strange place.
3. Ear plugs and eye mask for those too bright and too loud rooms.
4. iPod with soothing music for annoying airport delays, also containing photos of loved ones to remind me what’s really important in life.
5. At least one book to read (to be replaced by Kindle within the next week. Or maybe Nook. I’m still debating.
6. A scarf or pashmina. Planes can be freezing.
7. Flash drive with back ups of all current work.
And if you add the three I left behind this time, that makes ten.

So which items can’t you leave home without?

Thoughts on Luxury

RHYS; I've just finished the first draft of my latest Royal Spyness book called Royal Blood, and the whole premise of these books is a heroine trying to survive with no money among those who are used to palaces and yachts on the Med.

There is a sale at Bloomingdales this weekend and it dawned on me that I don't need anything. Isn't this one of the big ironies of life? Now I have money to buy clothes, I really don't need any more. Now that I have money to get a good perm, straight hair is in. Now I could go out to expensive restaurants whenever I like, I have to watch what I eat

And this got me thinking about luxury and dreams, fulfilled and unfulfilled. When I was young one of my fantasies was to stay at a Five Star hotel and having room service. This dream was fulfilled early on as my husband worked for an airline and we stayed at places like the Taj in India where our every whim was catered to. Recently I've been on book tours and stayed at plenty of first class hotels, and had to order room service as I don't get back from an event until nine-thirty or ten. And I'm usually so tired that I don't appreciate the decor in the room (unless it's very weird, like one tres modern room last year that was all white curtains to knee height and everything black below that.

So what is luxury to me now? Time. Today I noticed that some of the maples were turning red and I realized that summer was over and I didn't spend a single day sitting on a beach or in the shade with a good book and a cool drink. It's my own fault, of course. I could choose not to write two books a year and spend the summer just hanging out. But it's hard to say no when things are going well. And it do enjoy the writing, and the touring. And I have to confess that I know myself. If I had nothing to do all summer, I'd find something. I don't veg out easily.

Time is one luxury I still crave. I can think of some luxurious travel I haven't yet accomplished--a good safari, a cruise around the Eastern Mediterranean and up the Nile. But apart from that I'm really quite content. I don't crave Prada or diamonds. I enjoy eating at a top restaurant occasionally, if the food is something I couldn't cook myself. But if I had to choose my perfect day, it would be a picnic in a beautiful spot with good cheeses, crusty bread, chilled wine--and maybe a few oysters or a cold lobster--it is supposed to be luxury after all. And I've discovered that what is important to me is the people I'm sharing my time with. I'm happy surrounded by friends and family.

So, dear JRR sisters--what is your definition of luxury and how has it changed?

HALLIE: Like you Rhys, I find myself at this point in my life extremely contented. Knock wood, and I do all the time: good health, happy kids, and husband who laughs at my jokes are basically what I want in this life, and I have them.

Having said that, the one luxury I yearn for is flying first class. But every time I go to book a flight, an upgrade seems like a ridiculously expensive indulgence, even when we’re using frequent flyer miles. But I recently flew to Australia scrunched into Coach for 18+ hours and 3 Valium barely blunted the jealous rage I felt toward those folks in first class getting treated to filet mignon and champagne as they lounged in their fully reclining seats. And to add insult to injury, what's playing on our ceiling mounted TVs? The Food Channel. PLUS, and this really burned me, those entitled folks up in first class kept coming back to use the bathroom in coach.

I reminded myself, once upon a time just getting to travel to a place as far away and fabulous as Australia would have been my dream of luxury. Australia IS fabulous. Good thing it's not closer or it would overrun with Americans.

RHYS: Oh Hallie, I agree one hundred percent. Traveling first class--now that's a luxury I do crave. I'm heading to Australia and about to face the dreaded flight in coach. Just one teeny weeny real bestseller--that's all we need!

JAN: It's not that I'm immune to a nice dinner, a lovely hotel or first class airefare (I agree with Hallie, especially on a long fight, and especially when you have long legs), but for the most part, luxury is wasted on me. My husband took me to the St. Regis Hotel in New York, and basically, it made me uncomfortable. I really don't need a butler showing me where the bathroom is or how to work the TV. (A remote? oh, how unlikely.)I prefer a smaller, more modest hotel with character, and I even prefer to carry my own bags.

I'm with Rhys, to me luxury is time with the people you love. And of course, really good seats at a Red Sox game.

RO: Yup. Time is the greatest luxury for me right now. Every once in a while I have a found day and I find myself looking over my shoulder - as if my conscience will be there telling "you really should be doing this.." And space. I don't really want a bigger house, but I'd love more of a buffer between me and the outside world. Not seeing another house from my window is a big thing to me.Lest you think that I have achieved some higher state where only intangibles like time and space mean anything to me.. I flew business class to Dubai last month and coach back and let me tell you, business is way better. Other luxuries..? Good champagne, professional blowdrys, personal trainer, my ridiculously expensive dermatologist..that's all I'm prepared to reveal right now.

ROBERTA: I guess we're all down home kind of girls--or else not willing to admit otherwise:). A number of years ago, we did stay at the Ritz in Palm Springs because it was a business trip and we could write it off. The experience irritated my hub to death as they nickled and dimed us even though the room itself cost a fortune. Why not roll it all in to the already whopping fee instead of charging an extra twenty bucks for valet parking, a cup of coffee in the am, etc? We ended up parking a half mile away and hiking to the hotel rather than paying the extra--just for the principle.

But I'm like the rest of you--first class on a long flight means a lot. Last summer we flew to Istanbul and used miles (a lot of them!) to upgrade to business. Feather pillow, reclining seats, tasty meals--it made the overnight flight and arrival a lot less painful. We flew coach on the way home and it was truly like rats crammed into a cage. The stewardess had to come and mediate a fight right in front of us over the angle of incline in someone's seat.

HANK: Luxury? For me? Right now, it would be being able to relax. Somehow I'm having a difficult time with that. I always think--there's MORE I should be doing. Writing, planning, promoting, organizing, mailing, blogging. Working on my stories at the station. Not to mention laundry and cooking and fall clothes and--I even had to force myself to go out and pick the dahlias, a project I usually adore.

Last night at 11 PM, I was stuffing envelopes. And I thought--well, this is pretty hilarious!

But, like Hallie, my husband laughs at my jokes. And we allow ourselves great wine and food. And my big luxury--nice closets. And expensive shower gel. Yes, I admit it.

RHYS: What a serene and saintly bunch we are. Nobody wanted face lifts, botox or visits to a spa--although now that I write about it I think a week at a desert spa retreat doesn't sound so bad.So, dear friends--any sinful luxuries or cravings?