Shopaholic? Me?

I went round looking for some textbooks for my son while I was in Malta. As I am from a Maltese background, I thought it would be great to teach him some Maltese as well as give him some cultural background. In fact I think it is one of the Maltese peoples strength that due to their multi cultural back ground, we can fit in and practically blend in anywhere!! At least I believe many can!!

I was looking in particular for id-Denfil and il-gojjin by Tony C Cutajar, but in all honesty I did not look very hard choosing to enjoy the holiday instead!! You cannot blame me. I was however informed that the books are out of print… so if anyone has any old copies of these books and no longer wants them… I will be glad to take them off your hands. Apparently you cannot always shop to your hearts content!

Talking about travel, the one thing I truely believe in is having travel insurance. First of all if the worst happens at least you are covered and not stranded in some strange country. Trust me, I have been robbed in Amsterdam, sick in Hong Kong (food poisoning), and lost luggages in many a country!!

At least if you have insurance and either keep the receipts or have proof of all your purchases (credit card bill), then perhaps you stand a chance of being able to replace all your goodies. I know I would have been devastated if after my trip to Milan I lost all my shoes. Mind you my favourite pairs did travel in my handluggage to prevent them getting lost!! Still the thought of another trip to replace them would be of some condolence!

The important bit is having enough insurance. I mean having a £300 lost luggage allowance when it was a Louis Vuitton Bag and Manolo shoes simply won’t cover it. So do your bit and trawl for insurance quotes before choosing one. Last but not least… if you travel more than once a year, annual insurance is always a better financial option.

The great bit about holidays is the shopping – obviously!! However conversion rate optimization isn’t always possible. First of all… leaving exchanging money till the airport is quite the opposite as you most likely get the worst rates possible. If you pay by credit card, you are also at your banks mercy. There is also the issue that if you exchange too much cash, you might lose out when converting money back to your own currency. Or worse still not exchange enough and have to find a high street Shylock to exchange your cash. The best bit of advice is never accept a shop or hotels own exchange rate as that can be quite costly to say the least.

I guess that in terms of costs, perhaps that is one of the few benefits of the Euro. Still give me the Lire, the Franc, the Mark any day. There was an element of fun with having a foreign currency in a foreign market!!

I am off on holiday. I must say I love holidays. The only drawback to holidays is sorting out the pets. The fish are the easiest to sort out. Just pop in one of these slow eroding food tablets and voila you are sorted. Cats and Dogs get more complex. Do you drag them and their pet beds to a friend or relatives house? Or do you send them to a boarding place? Or do you have someone go over? Thankfully I don’t have any dogs… and cats are more self sufficient… so I opted for a friend to go over.

Now time to start my holidaying!!

It is such a good thing that we can buy faucets online because mum just told me we need one for our house which we rent out and with my being so far away, it makes life so much easier to order online and have it delivered directly to her. It also means that she does not have to go out of her way on my behalf. I love the world we live in today. It is all about convenience.

Here is the sad thing, being pregnant I could to a certain extent eat anything I want but pregnancy is being a natural appetite suppressant. I mean imagine… I have even gone off chocolate. The portions I can eat are a quarter of what I used to eat. Mind you I am craving snacks like crisps, quavers and junk food! And sadly that means I am putting on weight faster than I’d like. Hopefully the extra weight will fall off with breastfeeding.