An Ode to my MacPac…

As I was recently rooting around in my loft for something, I found my big macpac, and realised I’ve had it for 10 years this year. It’s the best rucksack I’ve ever bought, it has a lifetime guarantee, and it’s EXTREMELY well-made, so I thought it was worthy of a little shout-out.

I bought my matching big and little macpacs in 2007, before going to Nepal for a year.

My big macpac has gone with me to Nepal, India, Malaysia, Singapore, France, Liverpool, South Sudan, India again, Nepal again, Kashmir, Oxford, the USA, The Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Iraq, Jordan, Canada, USA again, Australia again, Senegal, Kenya, Iraq again, and Senegal again.

Other than an unfortunate incident once where my Big Mac got ripped in an airport and needed to be patched (I sent it off to macpac and they fixed it up and shipped it back to me), it has held up remarkably well! In Nepal I used to keep it empty under my bed, but padlocked as my passport was in there, and when I lost the key, I had to beg the locksmith to cut through the padlock carefully not to damage the zip!

It’s incredibly comfortable, exactly the right size, and I love that it unzips like a proper suitcase instead of rooting around in a normal rucksack. I also love that you can fold in and zip up the straps when checking it in at airports so they don’t get damaged en-route.

My little macpac has gone with me EVERYWHERE in the last 10 years. It’s literally my everyday bag, it carries my laptop into work everyday, it goes with me on mini-breaks and weekends, and in addition to all of the countries my big mac has been to it has ALSO been with me to Qatar, Madrid, Italy and Switzerland!

Obviously daily use for 10 years has left my little mac a bit grubby, but considering what it’s been through, it’s holding up INCREDIBLY well! It’s even still mostly waterproof, as I learned after a can of tonic water exploded inside it once in the Philippines…

This little bag goes with me pretty much everywhere, is still sturdy and comfy after 10 years, and it zips onto the front of Big Mac (although I hardly ever do that).

So, all in all, as a fairly frequent traveller, I give these bags 10 out of 10 and highly recommend them for your travelling adventures.

🙂

Early Warning Signs…

Wednesday 3rd October 2012

Looks like it’s time for another chatty newsletter from me! You lucky lucky people!

London 2012

I have to admit, I honestly wasn’t all that bothered about the Olympics at first. With the exception of Wimbledon, I don’t generally get excited about any form of organised sport, and I don’t have a whole lot of national pride to bandy about. I am for the most part wholly unpatriotic, and couldn’t give a monkey’s whether or not we, as an island, are better than other geographical locations at Football or Rugby or Cricket etc.

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S.A.D. and the incredible adventures of Spidercat

Saturday 11th August 2013

Hello again my lovelies!
It has been AGES since my last chatty update, so it MUST be time for another one!
This one has become quite epic (quel surprise!) as there’s almost 3 month’s worth of news to cram in, so I am going to divvy it up into some little subsections like a proper newsletter!

Saving the world…
Let’s see, work has been busy busy busy, so not much to report there, except that since finally launching our first e-learning course, I am now officially tech support for an awful lot of complete morons out there in the ether…
The most typical problems are “can’t log in” – mostly solved by checking that their caps lock isn’t on when typing in their password etc. I have also had two people email me to tell me that they don’t have internet access. Hard to know how to respond to that via email without insinuating that they must be at least slightly retarded, but nevertheless we were able to establish that by emailing me their problem, they have in fact actually accessed the internet…..
And so on.

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Jumping out of cakes and so on…

Thursday 10th May 2012

Hello again!

Must be time for another scintillating update from Maya!

Let me see, since I last wrote, I have been on a wee holiday to the US to surprise my friend E and attend another friend (Suzie’s) wedding, which was lovely! Saw some very beautiful Rocky Mountains in Colorado, and discovered that lasagna takes twice as long to cook at higher altitude! Then I drove a big truck on the wrong side of the road in Dallas, got a pedicure and attended a wonderful and unique wedding! I also briefly became the Bride-Whisperer and my main duties included keeping the bride sane (which mostly involved topping up her rum and coke) while distracting her tee-total mother with questions about punch, chicken salad and the correct way to drape organza!…

🙂 Continue reading

Do you believe in Dinosaurs?

Thursday 16th February 2012

Well, well, well, it’s been MONTHS since my last update!
You poor people! You must have been positively gasping for a nice long, chatty update on Maya’s life….
No?
Well, tough, cos that’s what you’re getting.

So, what’s new in the world of Maya?

Well, I’ve now been happily installed in my lovely house for over 6 months, and it’s starting to feel all comfortable and homey. I have made the obligatory sacrifice to the carpet gods and spilled the ceremonial red wine, so it is now offcially mine!
I have painted and decorated on a couple of walls, just because I can, and thanks to some expert advice from my mother have been able to populate my garden with some hibernating plants that will hopefully pop up and be lovely in spring and summer…. Continue reading