December 10, 2025 • 42 mins
Shopping for the traveller in your life this Christmas? Tune in as our tech hound and sound producer Alaisdair Leith teams up with host Belle Jackson to bring you our best last-minute gifts.
Also, get planning for your 2026 travels and get holiday maxxing - the art of maximising public holidays to get more time away, without the pay cut.
Our Christmas wishlist includes three great Australian designed products from Belle and Alaisdair's Techxmas trio, with a bonus cheapie perfect for summer holidays.
Zoomlite Glide top-opening suitcase Ditch the space-hogging clamshell suitcase with this Australian-designed case, a smooth-wheeling, hard shell that opens with a lid (and the traditional clam). In in seven colours and three sizes including the Glide Lite, Australia's lightest carry-on wheeled case, at 2kg, zoomlite.com.au
Bahama Flexibraid Fedora travel hat: Crushable, water resistant, UPF50+, packs flat and stylish, this fedora hides bad hair days and protects your skin on your travels, tinamcopenhagen.com.au
Lake Eyre 100% Silk Scarf Take a piece of Australia on your travels with this large format silk scarf featuring the aerial photography of Australian grazier David Taylor, australiascape.com.au
Timekettle Translation Earbuds Lost in translation? Translate 42 languages with these earbud, one for each speaker, and the earbud will translate both ways! timekettle.co
Baseus Universal Travel Adaptor Charge your phone, watch and laptop all with the one charger, all around the world; includes USB C and USB A ports. In black or white, baseus.com
Vacbird Travel Bags For the overpacker in your life, these vacuum compression bags come with the tiniest, USB-powered vacuum. Great for stuffing your daybag full, without the bulk vacbird.com
and a bonus cheapie that's the best little buy...
Torras waterproof phone pouch Before you jump into that lazy river or dive deep in the Maldives, the Torras holds your earbuds, your keys and it floats! Also, touchproof through the watercasing, torraslife.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:02):
Welcome to the World Aways.
Travel Tales to Inspire YourWonderlust.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
Hi everyone.
Welcome to the World Aways.
SPEAKER_02 (00:10):
I bet you thought Kirsty had a really, really bad
head cold, but um, or you're onthe world.
It's me, Belle here, but with metoday in our studio, well, not
in the studio at all, becausewe're never together, um, is our
audio producer uh for the worldof waves, also a prolific music
uh news reviewer, and toreviewer Alastair Lee.
(00:33):
So he is riding Shotgun with metoday.
SPEAKER_00 (00:35):
Hello, it's so good to be back.
It feels like it's been a verylong time.
SPEAKER_02 (00:40):
It has, yeah.
It's been absolutely ages.
I mean, you're always behind thescenes, um, tinkering away with
the podcast.
But um, I like mate, come on,chat about the movies that
you've been seeing and take aswell, which is what we're gonna
do because that's what it holdsyou on today, is to to talk
about um the things that weshould be buying our travel
loving friends for Christmas.
(01:01):
Because, like Yuri, like me, youprobably haven't bought all your
Christmas presents yet.
Have you bought yours?
Are you done?
SPEAKER_00 (01:07):
No, no.
What about you?
Where are you up to?
SPEAKER_02 (01:12):
Oh my god, no, I haven't done a single thing.
Um, I mean, we had we had ourcrisp cringle for our like my
extended family, but everybodyeither brings jump or alcohol,
and that's about it.
So um sometimes you know, pickthrough the wine and try to find
something really interesting.
Um and I yeah, I did go for acouple of Victorians because I
was being very patriotic.
(01:33):
So um uh had a little numberfrom uh I love this label, it's
by Sal's Wines.
They are on the they're on theroad outside going up to from
Melbourne to Sydney, um about anhour out, and they have a label
called Ladies Who Shoot TheirLunch.
And the label all of that wineseries have gone women in 1920s
(01:54):
dungarees with hunting rifles.
And I'm like, I curiously Iidentify with that.
I'm like, bring that wine to me.
So so that was my contribution.
So, but before we get into thetech guide and and and um you
know, let's all cry about thethings that we haven't got
organized before the end of theyear.
We've got a really great holidayhack um for you, which um this
(02:15):
is prepping for next year'stravel.
So the trend is actually calledholiday maxing, so which is the
art of maximizing your holidaysso you get more time off, but
without a whacking great paycut.
So lead us in, Alistair.
SPEAKER_00 (02:29):
Look, I'm guilty of this.
If my boss is listening, he willbe laughing, going, Alistair
does this every single year.
Uh the when we're back inJanuary, I send through my leave
for the entire year and itrevolves around public holiday
every year.
Every year.
It's just it's just how yougotta do it.
SPEAKER_02 (02:49):
So if you haven't organized for Christmas yet,
tell us about how you can, likeif you are able to sneak it in.
You were talking about gettingorganized for the whole year,
but what if Christmas is up andyou haven't got your shifts
organized?
SPEAKER_00 (03:00):
So look, Christmas this year, and I only realized
this last week, is on aThursday.
Uh so 25th of December is aThursday.
Uh Boxing Day is on Friday.
Uh, and then the 1st of Januaryas well is another public
holiday.
Um, so look, you've got sevendays of annual leave.
So you've got the 22nd till the24th of December, and then the
(03:24):
29th till the 31st of December,and the 2nd of January gives you
a whopping 16-day break fromSaturday, the 20th of December,
right through till Sunday, the4th of Jam.
SPEAKER_02 (03:39):
Um main thing.
Oh, yeah.
The trick is you've got to findwhere to go for that now because
it is getting kind of late to bebooking stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (03:46):
Um Well, rumor is you're not using you're not
going down to the um to thepeninsula this year to use your
your little holiday kind of.
Is that correct?
SPEAKER_02 (03:56):
I am yeah, I'm just kind of gonna have a nice nice
lie down.
Yeah, I'm just gonna I'm justgonna face plant on the sand,
and that's and that's about it.
So that's like an hour, that'san hour from home.
I mean, look, it'senvironmentally sustainable,
right?
Because I'm not burning in myown yeah, yeah.
Well what about you?
What are you doing over yourChristmas holidays?
SPEAKER_00 (04:14):
Um, I'm not actually this is the first year I'm not
going away.
Um usually, so my family are inNew South Wales, so usually it's
a epic affair um to yeah, travelto do the tour from Sydney to
Newcastle to Gold Coast, HarveyBay, and travel around.
And this year I've just lefthouse, so we're just not doing
(04:37):
it.
And I couldn't be all thrilledto just have this time to myself
to do what I want.
And I made no plans apart frompool, beach, and just it's been
a year, so I think justdecompressing after this year.
(04:59):
Um, I cannot wait.
Cannot wait.
Hopefully we get more summerweather, please, Melbourne.
SPEAKER_02 (05:06):
Well, is that a sign you're getting older when you're
thinking, oh, I just want tohave a bex and an ice lay down
over Christmas?
SPEAKER_00 (05:12):
Oh, I don't want a bex, I want a margarita.
SPEAKER_02 (05:15):
Um have you got plans for New Year's Eve?
SPEAKER_00 (05:21):
Um, well, actually, so the building that I've just
moved into is one of thesebuild-to-rent comics uh with all
the fancy mod cons.
Um these do New Year's Eve onthe rooftop, and you can see uh
from one side you can see thecity, um, and the other side is
right onto um Port Melbourne.
(05:41):
Um so I will be in that rooftopwine room having drinks with my
neighbors um and a couple ofselect friends with some lovely
food.
Um, yeah, so I can't wait.
What about you?
Where will you be at New Year'sEve?
SPEAKER_02 (05:56):
There's talk of a house party down on the
peninsula, and I'm I'm seeing ifif the if the um fire conditions
allow me, I'm thinking fire pit.
I'm thinking um I'm literallygoing to be dancing around the
fire pit and howling at themoon.
And then what everybody doeswhat everyone does down on the
peninsula is just beforemidnight, you run down to the
(06:16):
beach.
Um some people have been knownto skinny dip down there, but
I'm I'm not advocating that.
I'm not saying night free.
Well and everyone even jumps inthe water or runs around with
marine flares, do not do this athome.
Um we watched you not naked withmarine flares, no.
No, okay, so not naked withflares.
(06:37):
Um, and then you watch thefireworks as they run down the
coastline from from um Sorrentoto Rye, Rosebud, Romana, Mount
Mazar, and then you seesometimes the city ones as well,
sort of popping in the distance.
So we've just got to hopefingers crossed for when on.
But that's how you can get 16days from Saturday, the 20th of
December.
True, true.
It's Sunday, the 4th of January,if you haven't already
(06:58):
workshopped it.
Um so I'm actually lookingforward to the next one, which
is Australia Day.
This is incredible because youcould take four days of annual
leave and get nine days off,like straight off the cuff.
If you didn't get yourselforganized for Christmas and
you're actually working theshifts in between, then this is
the one you need to be workingon next.
So the public holiday, ofcourse, hits on Monday, the 26th
(07:20):
of January, which is like anautomatic um long weekend,
right?
So if you take four annual leavedays from Tuesday, the 27th to
Friday, the 30th, you've gotnine days off from the 24th of
January to the 11th of February,which is which is a an a
cracker, because then of courseyou're out of the school.
You know, the peak season isclosing down because the schools
(07:41):
have gone back, and they alwayssay that the best weather is
happens um in Victoria anyway,the the the week that the kids
go back to school.
SPEAKER_00 (07:50):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (07:52):
Okay, so get the plan, get the diaries out.
Where do we go next?
SPEAKER_00 (07:56):
All right, so Easter.
So 10 days off with just fourdays of annual leave.
This is my favorite one.
Um so Good Friday is the 3rd ofApril, Easter Monday is the 6th
of April.
Um so you can have four leavedays from Tuesday, the 7th of
April, till Friday, the 10th ofApril, and enjoy a 10-day break
(08:18):
from the 3rd to the 12th.
Um now, if you are in thelovely, lovely state of
Tasmania, uh public serviceemployees also have Easter
Tuesday as a public holiday.
How do we advocate for thathere?
Uh so they only need threeannual lead days.
That's crazy.
SPEAKER_02 (08:39):
Oh my goodness.
So, yeah, so I think you've gotto get the diary out and work
out those other um, you know,the long weekend hacks you've
got King's Burns playing.
SPEAKER_00 (08:48):
Always a good interest a trip, that one.
If you use that hack, a good 10days, 10-day break is a good go
to Queensland.
It's starting to get a bitcooler here.
So two or thought up there, getsome last bit of summer sun.
SPEAKER_02 (09:04):
Yeah, to keep keep that tan going through the
winter of discontent.
Um, we've got all of those longweekends too happening um all
around, you know, so that so thefor the way in, you know, for
the rest of the month, likeJune, you've got the King's
Birthday.
It's still weird saying thatactually, instead of the Queen's
birthday.
Yeah, I know, it's still kind ofstill kind of weird.
(09:25):
Um, King's birthday on Monday,the 8th of June.
So that gives you an automaticlong weekend, um, except if
you're in Queensland becausethey have this in October and
September in WA.
Um, so yeah, take the fr tapethe Friday off, then you you
know, take all the Monday, andthen you've got that four-day
weekend, put the put the extracouple of days in there, four
days, and then you've got anine-day consecutive holiday.
(09:47):
Um, Labor Day holidays as well,um, which are all over the shop.
I mean, you've got that's inMarch in Victoria, yay, and in
Tassie.
Um, and in October in New SouthWales.
It's all honestly Labor Day, Inever understood it.
But um, and if you're inMelbourne, because you know, I
am and you are, remember Alicedear, Cup Day, Cup Day, Love Cup
(10:08):
Day, because it's on a Tuesday.
Everybody bunks off on theMonday.
I mean, schools, I think theschools have just given up
because most school was like,um, yeah, we're not we're not
even turning up on Monday.
So you've got a four-dayweekends there.
So um, we took those extra threedays.
You've got the Monday and theTuesday off.
We took the Wednesday, Thursday,and Friday.
(10:29):
Again, it's nine days holiday toplay it with, and you're only
taking three days of annualleave.
That's how I got to the nulldeeps just recently without a
footy screen.
SPEAKER_03 (10:38):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:40):
Yes.
Just work to there over thatover that long nine days.
Flew out on Friday afternoon andgot back on Sunday, exhausted
for work and school on theMonday, but nobody cares because
you've come back lookingfabulous and tanned and
refreshed and and flying aroundthe malls.
Still living on it, baby.
(11:00):
Still living on it.
So have you got I mean, have yougot any actual plans locked in
for 2026?
SPEAKER_00 (11:06):
Look, nothing's locked.
I have an open ticket.
Um, so I shall be goingsomewhere at some point.
Uh, I did have a a trip plannedfor earlier this year that I had
to obviously postpone becauseyou have to move house and you
just don't think about how muchit costs to move house.
unknown (11:25):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (11:25):
And not even financially mentally draining,
it is.
So I'm looking at the firstyeah, I think over Christmas
I'll be locking in some plans.
Um, but I'm up to very highlevel on Duolingo Um with my
Spanish, so I'm feeling a littlebit more confident um to go
somewhere and I can at least askfor coffee and directions to a
(11:49):
hotel if I missed it.
SPEAKER_02 (11:53):
Because you were looking at Colombo, weren't you?
Um Columbia.
Is it gonna happen?
SPEAKER_00 (12:01):
And then yeah, and then moving happened.
So now I'm going back to thedrawing role.
What do I actually want to do?
Um, and all I need to do islisten to 120 episodes uh of the
World of Waits for inspirationand advice.
What about you, Lord?
What are your what are yourtravel plans for 2026?
SPEAKER_02 (12:23):
Well, look, I don't want to bring it up again, but I
want to bring it up again.
When I won the um Travel Riderof the Year Award, Hair Tog, um
I actually won.
I had to say hair toss becauseyou can't see me tossing it, but
Alice Deer can.
Um I actually, the the prize forthat was from Dirging Australia,
and it was two business classtickets um anywhere on their
(12:46):
short haul domestic uh domesticor short haul international
clients.
Unfortunately, it meant I can'tgo to Doha because I would
naturally know I'll be back andin straight into the Middle
East.
But um, you know, they go umthey as well as flying all the
round Australia, they go intothe Pacific, they go, you know,
they're into Fiji and um and Ithink New Caledonia as well.
SPEAKER_00 (13:07):
So Fiji could be nice.
SPEAKER_02 (13:10):
Fiji could be nice.
Yeah.
I'm just you know, you've got toweigh it up.
They are business class ticket.
Is that long enough?
Do I just want to do that?
SPEAKER_00 (13:15):
Oh, yeah, what's the thing work?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:18):
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:20):
So I'm workshopping that you're your holidays.
SPEAKER_02 (13:23):
Well, I'm personally really bummed actually that
Virgin isn't flying to Japananymore.
I don't know why, consideringthe numbers are just it's really
rude.
But um that would have been myfirst call.
Um, I you know, I wanted to dosome of you know, off-piste.
Everyone talks about theovercrowding in in Japan, but
really a lot of that's centeredaround the big humps of Tokyo,
(13:44):
Kyoto, and Osaka.
And then outside that, um, I'vespoken to so many regional
tourism boards who were like,please come down here, come to
your animal joint, and we wantsome of that overcrowding.
SPEAKER_00 (13:56):
So the Goyer.
Go to Nagoya.
SPEAKER_02 (13:59):
I haven't been to Nagoya, and I don't really ski.
I'm a shopping skier, I'membarrassing.
So um, I just shame myself.
So we didn't go there for theski.
But um, I'm hoping, you know,I'm I'm hoping to get back into
the Middle East, of course.
I'll be back there at some pointto um at least to hang out in
Egypt um to see family and youknow, just update all of my
(14:21):
product knowledge there.
Um yeah, I've got a few places.
My brother is in Estonia at themoment, so I may go over and
visit him in Estonia because theother one's in Sweden, which is
just across the ditch.
It's 45 minutes away.
So um if that meant that we hadto meet in Finland, I'd be okay
with that.
SPEAKER_00 (14:38):
What oh, you could do that.
Easy.
SPEAKER_02 (14:41):
I could do that.
Yeah, I just gotta save off abit more.
Buy me at coffee on coffee.com.
Fast.
SPEAKER_00 (14:58):
All right, let's get into our Christmas guide for
tardy travelers.
Um so look, I feel like so muchhas changed in in travel tech
this year when it came tochoosing.
It really is, I'm saying back tobasics.
(15:19):
Um, but some of the basic thingsare infused with tech to elevate
them to a must-have item.
But before I get stuck in, Iknow that you love a bag.
SPEAKER_02 (15:35):
Oh, love a good bag, do you know?
SPEAKER_00 (15:37):
So I know you have one, so please lead us in.
We'll be bagging up bad 2026.
SPEAKER_02 (15:46):
Oh, the must-have bag for 2026.
I've got an actual example, butit is a trend.
It is a bag trend, um, and agrowing trend.
And look, I'm actually going toattribute this to a former guest
on The World of Waits, which isKevin Maloney of the Channel 9
series Travel Guides.
You know Kevin.
Love Kevin.
He's such a great guy.
(16:07):
Um, and you never know where heand Jet are going to be in the
world.
Because the incredible thing iswhen they're dueling that show,
um, they just get told to turnup at the airport and given a
list of uh degree temperaturesof where they're going to um uh
where they're going to be, andthey have to pack their bags for
that.
So um, so they don't know wherethey are.
But the thing, and they alsodon't know where they're gonna
(16:29):
stay.
So they could be staying at theBellagio, or they could be
staying, which is the last timeI saw them when we were both on
the road, was in the back end ofnowhere in um in Borneo, in
Malaysian Borneo, which wascompletely random, and they were
staying in some tree houses.
And what he said to me was theynever take, they never ever
carry with a suitcase that opensin the the clam shell format
(16:51):
that we've seen um has become sopopular in the last decade.
He said that he always travelswith a top opening suitcase.
So that was the way thatsuitcases used to be, you know,
they had a lid and then they hada big base underneath them.
So the problem with those clamones that you've got, like it if
you are like my husband and liketo travel kind of heavy, but
(17:13):
shocking, shocking overpacker.
Um he doesn't have three shirts.
Oh my goodness, three shirts aday.
We have a running joke,actually.
He he literally packs threeshirts every day.
So if he's away for 10 days, hehas 30 shirts in his belt.
Um, I think he put Oh mygoodness, you're terrible.
(17:34):
So the problem is you go to yourhotel, you put your bag down,
and you put it on those flimsylittle weird um um bag stands.
When you open it, you can't youcan't hold the whole thing, like
it doesn't hold hold it open.
So you've got to keep shuttingup, but you crop it up against
the wall.
If you have a top openingsuitcase, you're just unzipping
that top level, glupping it up,and then you've got all of your
(17:54):
suitcase underneath it.
Um and so I was looking aroundfor them, and the best one that
I found that does not take upthat precious real estate in
your hotel reel, which is whatKevin Neiva's talking about, was
I went to Zoom Light, which isan Australian brand.
It's actually a Melbourne brand.
Um has been pr has beenproducing suitcases.
(18:15):
Um in here it well, theydesigned them in Melbourne,
they're made overseas.
Um put a confessional on thisone.
Um the suitcase that I then thenthey have been working on these
ones so that you can either openthem for the lip that falls
about, or you do the top openingon them.
You could do them either way.
So their glide suitcases come ina carry-on, they've got a medium
(18:37):
size, and then they've got thelarge coffin size, which is the
size that my husband's lookingat.
Beautiful colourways, like, youknow, um, that sort of soft
beige that a lot of people arelooking at, the gentle light,
dusty pinks and pebbled.
They've also got a really smartmidnight navy that I was have
been crushing on, and I havebeen putting it to the test.
They've got the gold standard inwheels.
(18:59):
They've got four wheels on thesuitcase.
These are these Japanese Inokowheels.
Um thing about the Zoom light isthey they don't sell in stores.
So you you won't see them instores.
So they sell direct toconsumers.
So you've got to order fromtheir website.
Um, but they do have a 100-dayreturn policy.
And if you want to return thesuitcase, if it's new, um, if
(19:22):
you haven't, of course, taken itto the Maldives or something
like that and bobbed it up, theywill actually send you a label
to send it back.
So you're not thinking, oh, Ican't return it because it's
gonna cost me 70 bucks to sendit back.
Um incidentally, in that range,the glide range, they have one
called the Glide Light, which isthe lightest carry-on case in
(19:43):
Australia, they tell me.
At just I know.
Amazing.
So I would totally have a lookat Zoom Lite.
So zoomlight.com.au, um and theglide is an absolute banger.
So I think that is my top bagtip for you.
SPEAKER_00 (19:59):
Love it.
SPEAKER_02 (20:01):
There you go.
So now um you tell me then,because you're the tech guy, and
and um you know the thing that Ihave actually lost three sets of
these this year.
Tell me.
Tell me what you are.
SPEAKER_00 (20:15):
Or earbuds are we talking about?
SPEAKER_02 (20:17):
Uh go on, tell me tell me a first tip.
Tell me a first tip.
SPEAKER_00 (20:22):
All right, so this is the uh Tim Kettle translation
earbuds.
Um now it will be completely upfront.
It does use AI.
However, this could be AIfinally used for something good.
So the earbuds have uh 42languages built in, and they can
(20:43):
detect 95 accents and dialects.
So basically, the eye in yourears, you give one earbud to the
person you're talking to, andyou keep one in your ear.
You can have a conversation inyour native language, and the
earbud will translate both ways.
SPEAKER_02 (21:06):
Like, you know, the babel fish from the Hijaka's
Guide to the Galaxy, where youstuck a fish in your ear and it
just translated everything.
SPEAKER_00 (21:13):
Very similar.
I hate to say this very similar.
Um so if you're off to stardineout in Epkinch and you're only
on level five on your DuolingoItalian lessons, uh, this could
be a lifesaver for you.
Um it's I don't know, I findthis intriguing.
(21:34):
Um, you know, Google and Appleboth have their own kind of
translation apps on theirphones.
So you can do this already onyour phone.
However, you may not have phonesignal or you may not have
enough data to do thattranslation.
Uh, and these earbuds don'tdon't require a 5G connection um
(21:56):
or any kind of data.
So it's all built in.
Um, so you don't need thatconnection for this to happen.
So a really good thing for youif you're off somewhere quickly
or you've made a decision andyou just don't, you know, can't
have someone with you totranslate, this would be a
really easy way um, you know, toget around uh without you know
(22:22):
difficulty.
Now it does come into models.
Uh so there is, you know, theseearbuds, which are around about
400 AUD.
Uh, and then there is a more,we'll say, economical model.
Um, and instead of usingearbuds, it uses a screen, a
little screen, not too muchbigger than a phone.
Um at that is around about$300AUD.
(22:46):
So it's not a huge difference.
It just depends on you know whatwhat you're looking for.
SPEAKER_02 (22:53):
And where do you buy them from?
SPEAKER_00 (22:56):
Uh so you can either buy them direct from Tim Kettle,
but you can also buy them onAmazon.
Um, and they are, I think, oh,when I did this, they were on
special, but that was over BlackFriday.
Um but yeah, regular, they youknow go around the 400.
Um for the earbuds, 300 for I'mtold the screen version.
SPEAKER_02 (23:17):
Amazing, because there are some languages that
are really tricky.
And Sheikh, I'm looking at youbecause they say that um the
Czech language is the hardestlanguage in the world to learn,
even harder than like Japanese,which is difficult to be, but
you know, easier to pick up onfirst pronunciation.
Um amazing.
I love it.
Well, that is a fantastic itjust it's just kind of a little
(23:42):
bit mind-blowing.
And we're gonna put these in theshow notes as well.
Um, and you can see we'll putphotos of them on the socials
too.
SPEAKER_00 (23:49):
Now, speaking of uh traditional things that you talk
about, it was no surprise for meto hear that you had a hat.
SPEAKER_02 (23:58):
Oh, the color.
Am I that am I that cliche?
Because I love this hat.
Like I love it.
I love it so much.
I cannot stop recommending itenough.
It is a game-changering hat.
Um, this is the um these uh ifyou know Flexi Braid, it is uh
uh it is a fabric that's beendeveloped in Australia to create
a crushable hat.
(24:19):
Um the designer is a very uhvery clever woman um and who's
given a name to the label, Tinain copenhagen.com.au.
That um look, the reason I thereason I love this hat so much
is that usually when you'retraveling with a hat that you
really like, you don't want itto get crushed.
So you put it in your overheadluggage and then you leave it
there and you never see itagain, and it just circles
(24:42):
around and around the worlduntil it finds a lost property
to live in and decompose for therest of time.
Um, because this one you canjust shove it in your luggage,
it pops up literally new whenyou reach your destination.
So you're never gonna leave itthere.
Um they the group makes um hatsunder a number of different
(25:02):
labels, including Social theCancer Council.
So you've got the fact that it'sgot the 50 plus sun protection,
which for me, like you,Alistair, I mean, we are whitey,
you know, we are like like lookat the sun, watch them burn.
Absolutely.
So um I'm really conscious of ofwearing hats um when I'm about.
And I have had I have had ablack one.
(25:23):
Um actually I've had several ofthem, and um I've absolutely
thrashed it.
I have worn it in um, I've wornit on boats, I've worn it in
height when I'm hiking, becauseit's got an adjustable band on
it as well, so you can tightenit to your hand.
So I wouldn't, I wouldn't wearit in a gale, but you can stand
on the front of a ship and havea small Titanic moment and your
hat most likely won't fall off,right?
(25:44):
Um they dress up an outfit.
Um, but as I said, I've I'vetaken them hiking.
Now you're in museums, you're atsummer parties.
Um, they are super lightweight,they are water resistant,
they've got that little band onthem.
Um, if you are having a bad hairday, but you still need a photo,
all you do, shrug this hat on.
You have instantly fabulous, andyou just like, you know, cut a
(26:05):
little bit of hair out.
You just cover the the theabsolute horror story of hair
that is happening at that momentin time.
Travel is not always pretty andglamorous and stuff like that,
but with its hat, you're prettydamned close.
Can I say Queen Mary of Denmarkwears them?
Can I say she is a very stylishwoman?
Like she is fantastic.
(26:27):
So there's new colourways havejust come out and released for
2026.
And styles, if you want to jumponto the website and take a look
at them, they retail.
I mean, it is an investment fora hat.
They retail between 75 and 85dollars, but guaranteed, as I
said, you're not gonna leavethem on the on the plane.
And it's going to protect youfrom all of the skin cans of
(26:48):
horrors and stuff like that.
And you're gonna look fabulousstill, all you get photos
because a hat just stresseseverything up.
Cannot recommend the tina andcopenhagen.com.au, cannot
recommend it highly enough.
Love it.
Love it.
So look, this is I mean, I'm notgiving you anything that is high
tech, right?
I mean, I'm talking about asuitcase, although the I think
that Zoom Lite would argue thattheir suitcases are actually
(27:10):
very high tech.
SPEAKER_00 (27:11):
A hat that doesn't crush is high tech.
SPEAKER_02 (27:14):
That is high tech, yeah.
But it's got I've got no cane,I've got no cables and I've got
no cords online either.
I am leaning on you for thatone.
So it hit me with your next umessential Christmas gift.
SPEAKER_00 (27:27):
So uh it is a it's a a universal travel adapter.
I know it sounds boring.
But stick with me.
Um, much to the absolute displayof my partner when I pack a
powerboard in my suitcase.
Uh, this little device can helpwith space.
(27:49):
Uh, it can also charge yourmobile devices as well around
the world.
So you don't need to be luggingevery single plug uh and power
pack you have with you.
So it's from um Basus.
It is the Universal TravelAdapter.
Uh so it works in Europe, USA,Asia, and Australia for wall
(28:11):
outlets.
It also has built into thisadapter USB-C and USB-A.
So that automatically eliminatesyour phone charger, your iPad
charger, your tablet charger.
If you charge headphones with aUSB-C charging um things like
gaming devices, so NintendoSwitch 2, your handheld gaming,
(28:35):
Steam Decks, all of that cancharge through this one travel
adapter.
You do not need anything else.
That's pretty big for me.
Um, you can also charge yourlaptop.
And if you have an Applesmartwatch, uh you can also um
just throw your watch on thetravel adapter attachment uh and
(28:58):
charge your Apple Watch.
So for me, it's a game changerbecause I don't need to, I no
longer need to put my seven plugoutlet into my suitcase, the big
long thing.
Um this will just do it all,which um, you know, also for you
(29:19):
know, for you, Bell, if you'retraveling a lot while working,
you don't need to pack yourlaptop charger and all of that.
You could do it all from thisone adapter.
And it's quite small, it's notbig at all.
So it's from Asus and it's auniversal travel adapter.
SPEAKER_02 (29:36):
Awesome.
So roughly how much of theseones?
SPEAKER_00 (29:39):
Bell, there are color options if you want to go
that one step further.
Uh so the set the 70 watt blackis 48.75.
The 70 watt off-white is 53.32.
So you're playing paying apremium for your free colour
option there.
Um, and if you want the 45 wattversion, that only comes in
(30:00):
black, um, and that's$60.94.
It's probably uh good to knowthat you can charge up to six
devices at the same time.
Uh, so if you want to do seven,eh, no luck.
Um, but yeah, you can do six,which you know is handy if
everyone had one of these.
(30:22):
There's all your devices doneand dusted.
Um just a little disclaimer,it's not a voltage converter.
Um, so if you did need toconvert the voltage, you would
need to plug that into thisdevice first.
SPEAKER_02 (30:38):
Right.
Okay, I think they're great.
I do travel with a with a with amulti-adapter.
What I like about these is whenyou are sometimes when you're
actually using the power in theseat on the flight, and they are
not and they're not universal.
Um, so you've got to have anadapter with you.
Like I think that's a reallyclever little thing to to have
it.
Like it's small enough that youcould have it in your in your
(31:00):
bag and just whack it in on theplane when you're if you're
working on your laptop orsomething like that while you're
traveling.
That sounds like a that theyeah, that is, I mean, these are
really essential things thatthat we use when, you know, when
we're traveling, these sorts ofthings, you know, these these
um, I mean, those translationearbuds I've never used and they
sound fantastic.
But these other ones, like ifyou are looking for a stocking
(31:21):
stuffer, that is a fine, finestock stocking stuffer.
Um and and I'm gonna say, I'mgonna say, well, I keep calling
them my tech, but they're notreally.
I'm going to give you umanother, another, another of the
um products that I always travelwith, which is scarves.
I obsess about scarves.
I have the most phenomenal scarfcollection, which started long
(31:44):
before I started working in theMiddle East.
Um, and they do, they havereally good scarf action.
I um I have a number of reallylarge format scarves.
And the great thing about themis that they can be used um to
dress up an outfit because for avery long time the standard
travel riders outfit was blacktrousers, black shirt, and a
(32:05):
different scarf, maybe some bigearrings on there, and everybody
had this and with just the scarfthat changed.
Like if you had to travel youknow, sometimes around doing
light aircraft stuff and youcould only take a seven kilo
suitcase or something, you know,um soft bag or something like
that.
It was all about the rotatingscarf.
And and I've got a travel writerfriend, Bev, I'm shouting out to
(32:25):
you, who actually culls herscarves each couple of years and
and shares them around to herfriends to give them an extra
life, which I think is reallylovely.
Bev Melza, shouting out to you.
Um the scarf, the the the theprint techniques for scarves
have really evolved um inparticularly in the last decade.
We're seeing a lot ofphotography that's placed on
(32:46):
large format scarves.
So if you've got um if you'vegot a scarf with a particular
print on it, um, I did go for anAustralian, uh, an Australian
one because you can get um, youknow, you're just taking a
little piece of homeless youwant people like ours to have a
look at your scarf and you cansay, well, actually, this is an
aerial photograph photograph ofLake Air, which is of course
(33:09):
beautiful, yes, stripes ofdifferent colours, like you've
got the the the white whites,but then you've also got, you
know, at sunset, you'll have thered earth and then um the dusky
purples as the as especially ifyou've got water or wildflowers
even at the time wheneverthey're shot.
So I have been crushing a littleon this hundred percent silk
scarf um by uh by a group calleduh you can buy it on a website
(33:32):
called Australian Skate.
And these are um they're 100%silk um and just a gorgeous gift
because also remembering thatsilk hacks down to absolutely
nothing.
And that's what um and that'swhat makes it such a great gift
to give travelers because it'salso great for it, you know, it
doesn't catch your skin, so it'sreally good for your skin if
(33:54):
you've got it designed for along period of time.
Photographs are taken by anAustralian grazier, his name is
David Tamer, and so he's flyingover Australia all the time in
light aircraft, rememberingparticularly those fixed wings
fly really low to the ground.
If you are hunting for stockthat you've got, you know, if
you've got cattle running aroundin the middle of nowhere, and he
started taking photos of it fromthe air and um and then it
(34:17):
became this series of silkscarves.
They are around$150 each.
Um and like this is not a it'snot a unique gift, but it in the
sense that you can you can getall sorts of things printed on
scarves and scarves, you can getall sorts of prints from all
over the world.
But I just like that they wereAustralian landscapes that
you're taking on.
SPEAKER_00 (34:37):
I think that proves a very unique territory.
SPEAKER_02 (34:39):
I think you could Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for that.
All right, so that's mine.
That is my last one.
What about you?
Come on, hit me.
Right, tell me what improve mytravel life.
SPEAKER_00 (34:49):
Okay, well, this might not improve your travel
life, but uh if you're if yourhusband is listening, uh this
might be for a great gift forhim.
I promise that she did not putme up to this.
I added this of my own of my ownvolition.
Uh now it is backbird travelbags.
(35:12):
Um, though I will admit I am ahorrendous overpacker, intent on
packing for every single seasonand situation.
These are an absolute godsend.
Uh, so they easily will let youpack as much as you need uh and
then shrink it down in yourluggage.
Um, they also come in differentsizes.
(35:33):
So if you're going on a daytrip, uh so if you're gonna do a
cursey and cycle through umtowns and towns and towns, you
can take your swimwear, towels,all of that.
Um because the actual pump to umto vacuum down the bags is tiny.
(35:54):
I'm talking like palm of yourhand tiny.
Uh and it's USB C powered.
Uh, so it also is perfect fortravel because you could team
that up with your um Basustravel adapter, and you're good
to go.
And you can there are you canbuy many different sizes.
(36:15):
Uh so there are you knowdifferent costs depending on
what bags you need.
Um, the largest bag uh is$86 AU.
Uh so it's actually not a badprice, especially if you do
travel regularly.
You can also use them at home ifyou just want to um, you know,
vac down your winter clothes umor your summer clothes in the
(36:37):
off-season, you can do that aswell.
SPEAKER_02 (36:39):
So that's the problem.
Wait a minute, we're in wearingMelbourne.
So one day you're gonna bewearing your winter clothes, and
then the next day you're gonnawear your summer clothes.
SPEAKER_00 (36:46):
You know, you say this, and I literally last last
week, two weeks ago, packed mywinter clothes and I put them
into my storage locker in my inmy new house, which is you know,
two towers away, uh, and realizethat I left myself with no
(37:07):
jackets or jumpers, and what amistake that was.
SPEAKER_02 (37:11):
Yes, because we just froze our chops off.
SPEAKER_00 (37:13):
Yes.
Even today, anyway.
Uh so look, will this stop mefrom overpacking?
Definitely not if they encourageme to do more.
But it will help with my luggagelimits.
And I think that um the thingthat I'm probably most excited
for is if you do go on a daytrip, I feel that backpack to
(37:35):
the brim, baby.
Uh so this would be a greatlittle um a great little device
to kind of make some more roomfor other things that aren't
just Alistair's clothes, becausewho knows when I might need that
third t-shirt.
SPEAKER_02 (37:51):
Oh, I tell you, honest, honestly, like that's
phenomenal.
So I think you're both singingfrom the same hymn sheet from
that one.
I think that would just make himabsolutely pack even more.
I th I think that's a greatdevice because we all know that
size matters, right?
So I mean, look, interestingly,I've just received a clutch of
(38:12):
compression stacks from ZoomLite to try out.
So I'm gonna report back on themin a later podcast because
that's and I'm just gonna holdthem up for you, Alice, dear.
That's what Wheel Lightsactually originally famous for,
and they've got a set of threeum in there.
So I'm gonna give them a littlerun as well.
Yeah, so not the vacuum pack,not the vacuum packed section.
(38:33):
But honestly, my bag becomes anabsolute dog's breakfast by the
end of my trips as well.
So I think they're gonna try toorganize me a little better.
And I reckon I've got a tripcoming up in late February, so
I'm gonna give them a run forthat one.
Um, so that is our six.
Have you got anything else weneed to tell them?
SPEAKER_00 (38:52):
Look, we're coming into summer, so I did want to
throw in just like a bonus tip.
Um, because I think a lot ofpeople forget about their
phones.
So most phones these days, I'mgonna say 99% are waterproof,
which is fantastic.
If you know you accidentallyfall in the pool or someone
(39:14):
pushes you in as a joke, you'renot gonna completely lose your
phone or do that thing where youhave to stick it in rice that
may have worked, may have not.
I'm on the house.
SPEAKER_02 (39:24):
Yeah, no, it didn't work, it didn't work.
SPEAKER_00 (39:27):
So look, it's great, but when they are submerged,
water gets inside.
And look, it can take hours forthem to dry out before you can
charge them again.
So if that happens when you'reon low battery, your phone's
probably gonna die.
I also have uh concerns aboutwanting to keep the phones for
longer.
So if you're having water insidethem regularly, it's not great
(39:49):
for their longevity.
So before you jump into thatlazy river or dive deep into the
male dives with Bill, um grabone of these.
They work.
Really well at home and abroad.
Um, I did put a link in the shownotes to one that I recommend
from a Taurus.
Uh basically, it is like alanyard that you get at a
(40:13):
festival.
Now, stick with me.
You can put your phone in here,but it also has touch access.
So even if your fingers are wet,you can still press the buttons
through the fabric and use yourphone as normal, which is
fantastic.
That's what you want.
You can also put your earbuds inhere, your keys.
(40:37):
What?
And bonus, it floats.
Oh so if you want to go to thelazy river at Wet n Wild, you
can have this tied to your armor around your neck and flow
down that river, baby, and notbe concerned about your devices.
They will be kept dry and intactin one of these.
(41:02):
Um, I think it's somethingthat's gaining more traction.
I've seen a lot of travelbloggers using these recently
and saying that yeah, they willnow no longer travel without
them because they're just it'salso a great replacement for a
bag.
If you're having a beach day ora water day and you don't want
to lug stuff around with you, oryou have to put stuff in
(41:23):
lockers, you can still have yourphone and some essentials with
you as well.
SPEAKER_02 (41:29):
I think you've got to check though, too, whether or
not it fits your phone as well,because they are they do come in
different sizes done.
They I mean the round that whenI appear that I mean I've got it
Samsung, sorry.
Um, yeah, it's the one that Itook a look at that because I
went and had a little squeeze onit for you.
So this one was uh about$33,which is um rehamped value, I
(41:54):
think.
Um and that fit uh well it justsaid a Samsung Galaxy and a
Galaxy Z fold as well as as theiPhones.
So because that's the problemwith a lot of that waterproof
housing in the past, you had tobuy it very specific for the
phone that you had.
And then if you lost that phone10 seconds later or somebody
nicked it from you in London, haha, um, then yeah, I mean, you
(42:18):
know, you've lost the housing oryou take the housing off.
You just have to chuck thathousing away because it dated
when the phone's dated as well.
But this is it's like a it'sessentially like a ziplock bag,
isn't it?
Like a heat.
SPEAKER_00 (42:29):
Essentially, yeah, just a little bit better
quality.
And I guess if you're not ifyou're not iPhone like me or
Samsung with Bell, um, it alsocovers a lot of other brands,
though Google Pixels are all inthere as well.
Um, from the two right throughto the 10.
Uh the Sony Feriors, the AsusRogue Phones, um, Huawei and
(42:52):
Oppo One Plus and Xiaomi arethere as well.
Um wow.
Two colour options, black orwhite, uh, which is great.
I'm a white person when it comesto accessories.
Um and look, if you've gotAmazon Prime, they're currently
on sale um for 41.13.
They're usually 54.85 for thewhite or 39.48 for the black.
SPEAKER_03 (43:18):
Gosh.
SPEAKER_02 (43:20):
Yeah, I think I gave you the US dollar price.
I mentioned the US dollar priceearlier.
Which is which is brilliant,because I'm I mean, I I I'm
always a bit fearful of these,but I actually did see quite a
lot of people using them in theMaldives recently, and they were
selling them at the dive shops.
And everybody was swearing thatit was it was it was fine.
I mean, I was I was relying onsome GoPro footage um that that
(43:44):
the hotel had been shooting.
So I was like, oh, I don't know.
I'm I'm you know, I'm a bitscared, but but I reckon having
seen them now in action, I thinkI'm going to I'm gonna come good
with them.
Yeah, maybe I'll take them outin the bay in Port Shmilot.
Because you know you can swimwith seals out there.
There's some seal colony thatyou can go swimming with you
just out like literally 20minutes offshore from Melbourne.
(44:05):
It's absolutely amazing.
So maybe I'll Yeah, yeah.
So um that's that's one of mythings that I keep, you know, um
I've been writing about recentlyis about these gorgeous seal
colonies.
I mean, the dolphins are there,but they sort of run around and
then they get sick of you.
Where seals are basically notthey are the Labrador of the
Sea.
In fact, Arabic Arabic name forseal is Kalgulbach, which is dog
(44:28):
of the sea because they are sodog-like.
And nobody goes and plays withthem.
And so when you turn out,they're like, oh my god, let's
go! And they are justincredible.
And these would be such a greatthing to take.
What a great little last-minuteChristmas present, Alistair.
I actually think out of all ofthose, I mean, the translation
earbuds are phenomenal, but thisis also like 45 bucks and you're
going underwater and trollingunderwater.
(44:49):
Amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (44:50):
Right.
And you know, even if you'rejust going to the pool, you can
just use it there as well.
SPEAKER_02 (44:54):
So what are you gonna fill there, though?
That's not what are you gonnafill in the pool?
SPEAKER_00 (45:01):
Well, it's more about browsing, I think.
Um I've yeah, been spending alot of, well, the two nice
afternoons we've had.
Um I spent just watching reelsin the tool, and it's been
fabulous.
SPEAKER_02 (45:16):
Yeah, right.
Okay.
All right.
I I had not thought of that one.
Awesome suggestions.
I mean, I did think in Sylvia'sAll I Wanted for Christmas was a
new power bank.
But um, I'm going to change itto that um little cracker of a
Taurus um silk cover, uh likewaterproof diplock bag for my
phone.
I'm gonna I'm gonna change that.
(45:36):
Look, I'm just I'm such a cheatdate, honestly.
So awesome.
All right, William.
So we're going to put those allin the show notes.
We'll throw some photos up, takea look in socials as well,
because we will put a flat layof all of the images that we've
chosen.
We've chosen white.
Um so just to wrap it up, we'vechosen my three, which are the
zoom light top opening suitcase,the travel hat by Tina M.
(45:58):
Copenhagen, which is a umsquishable hat.
And then I've also got thosegorgeous silk scalps from
Australianscake as well.
And Alistair's three and a half,three plus bonus, which are
yours.
SPEAKER_00 (46:11):
Uh so I've got the Tim Kettle translation earbuds.
So if you're popping off toanother country on a whim, you
can take these with you and notworry about not being able to
speak with the locals if they'reusing a different language.
Um, the basus universal traveladapter, so you don't need to
lug around your extension boardand embarrass your partners.
(46:31):
Uh the Vacbird travel bags, uh,so you can stuff more into your
suitcase.
And then the last little bonusone was the waterproof phone
pouch.
Uh honestly, if there's a bodyof water, I'll be jumping into
it.
So this is a must-have,must-have for me.
SPEAKER_02 (46:51):
Me too, absolutely.
All right, gang, get into thewater and get with those gifts.
We are next week kicking off oursummer series, some of our
favorite interviews from thepast year.
So you can kick back in the poolwith your newly covered phone
for some evening listening fromaround the world.
So thanks so much, Elista, forjoining us.
Gorgeous to have you on.
SPEAKER_00 (47:11):
Thanks for having me.
Have a great Christmas and newyear, everyone.
SPEAKER_02 (47:16):
And you'll see us again next week.
And Alistair will see you backin the background.
And it will defrost you nextChristmas, just like Mariah
Carey.
SPEAKER_00 (47:25):
I will I will take that mantle.
SPEAKER_01 (47:38):
That's a wrap for the world awaits this week.
Click to subscribe anywhere youlisten to your favorite pods.
Thanks for listening.
See you next week.
Welcome to the World Aways.
Travel Tales to Inspire YourWonderlust.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
Hi everyone.
Welcome to the World Aways.
SPEAKER_02 (00:10):
I bet you thought Kirsty had a really, really bad
head cold, but um, or you're onthe world.
It's me, Belle here, but with metoday in our studio, well, not
in the studio at all, becausewe're never together, um, is our
audio producer uh for the worldof waves, also a prolific music
uh news reviewer, and toreviewer Alastair Lee.
(00:33):
So he is riding Shotgun with metoday.
SPEAKER_00 (00:35):
Hello, it's so good to be back.
It feels like it's been a verylong time.
SPEAKER_02 (00:40):
It has, yeah.
It's been absolutely ages.
I mean, you're always behind thescenes, um, tinkering away with
the podcast.
But um, I like mate, come on,chat about the movies that
you've been seeing and take aswell, which is what we're gonna
do because that's what it holdsyou on today, is to to talk
about um the things that weshould be buying our travel
loving friends for Christmas.
(01:01):
Because, like Yuri, like me, youprobably haven't bought all your
Christmas presents yet.
Have you bought yours?
Are you done?
SPEAKER_00 (01:07):
No, no.
What about you?
Where are you up to?
SPEAKER_02 (01:12):
Oh my god, no, I haven't done a single thing.
Um, I mean, we had we had ourcrisp cringle for our like my
extended family, but everybodyeither brings jump or alcohol,
and that's about it.
So um sometimes you know, pickthrough the wine and try to find
something really interesting.
Um and I yeah, I did go for acouple of Victorians because I
was being very patriotic.
(01:33):
So um uh had a little numberfrom uh I love this label, it's
by Sal's Wines.
They are on the they're on theroad outside going up to from
Melbourne to Sydney, um about anhour out, and they have a label
called Ladies Who Shoot TheirLunch.
And the label all of that wineseries have gone women in 1920s
(01:54):
dungarees with hunting rifles.
And I'm like, I curiously Iidentify with that.
I'm like, bring that wine to me.
So so that was my contribution.
So, but before we get into thetech guide and and and um you
know, let's all cry about thethings that we haven't got
organized before the end of theyear.
We've got a really great holidayhack um for you, which um this
(02:15):
is prepping for next year'stravel.
So the trend is actually calledholiday maxing, so which is the
art of maximizing your holidaysso you get more time off, but
without a whacking great paycut.
So lead us in, Alistair.
SPEAKER_00 (02:29):
Look, I'm guilty of this.
If my boss is listening, he willbe laughing, going, Alistair
does this every single year.
Uh the when we're back inJanuary, I send through my leave
for the entire year and itrevolves around public holiday
every year.
Every year.
It's just it's just how yougotta do it.
SPEAKER_02 (02:49):
So if you haven't organized for Christmas yet,
tell us about how you can, likeif you are able to sneak it in.
You were talking about gettingorganized for the whole year,
but what if Christmas is up andyou haven't got your shifts
organized?
SPEAKER_00 (03:00):
So look, Christmas this year, and I only realized
this last week, is on aThursday.
Uh so 25th of December is aThursday.
Uh Boxing Day is on Friday.
Uh, and then the 1st of Januaryas well is another public
holiday.
Um, so look, you've got sevendays of annual leave.
So you've got the 22nd till the24th of December, and then the
(03:24):
29th till the 31st of December,and the 2nd of January gives you
a whopping 16-day break fromSaturday, the 20th of December,
right through till Sunday, the4th of Jam.
SPEAKER_02 (03:39):
Um main thing.
Oh, yeah.
The trick is you've got to findwhere to go for that now because
it is getting kind of late to bebooking stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (03:46):
Um Well, rumor is you're not using you're not
going down to the um to thepeninsula this year to use your
your little holiday kind of.
Is that correct?
SPEAKER_02 (03:56):
I am yeah, I'm just kind of gonna have a nice nice
lie down.
Yeah, I'm just gonna I'm justgonna face plant on the sand,
and that's and that's about it.
So that's like an hour, that'san hour from home.
I mean, look, it'senvironmentally sustainable,
right?
Because I'm not burning in myown yeah, yeah.
Well what about you?
What are you doing over yourChristmas holidays?
SPEAKER_00 (04:14):
Um, I'm not actually this is the first year I'm not
going away.
Um usually, so my family are inNew South Wales, so usually it's
a epic affair um to yeah, travelto do the tour from Sydney to
Newcastle to Gold Coast, HarveyBay, and travel around.
And this year I've just lefthouse, so we're just not doing
(04:37):
it.
And I couldn't be all thrilledto just have this time to myself
to do what I want.
And I made no plans apart frompool, beach, and just it's been
a year, so I think justdecompressing after this year.
(04:59):
Um, I cannot wait.
Cannot wait.
Hopefully we get more summerweather, please, Melbourne.
SPEAKER_02 (05:06):
Well, is that a sign you're getting older when you're
thinking, oh, I just want tohave a bex and an ice lay down
over Christmas?
SPEAKER_00 (05:12):
Oh, I don't want a bex, I want a margarita.
SPEAKER_02 (05:15):
Um have you got plans for New Year's Eve?
SPEAKER_00 (05:21):
Um, well, actually, so the building that I've just
moved into is one of thesebuild-to-rent comics uh with all
the fancy mod cons.
Um these do New Year's Eve onthe rooftop, and you can see uh
from one side you can see thecity, um, and the other side is
right onto um Port Melbourne.
(05:41):
Um so I will be in that rooftopwine room having drinks with my
neighbors um and a couple ofselect friends with some lovely
food.
Um, yeah, so I can't wait.
What about you?
Where will you be at New Year'sEve?
SPEAKER_02 (05:56):
There's talk of a house party down on the
peninsula, and I'm I'm seeing ifif the if the um fire conditions
allow me, I'm thinking fire pit.
I'm thinking um I'm literallygoing to be dancing around the
fire pit and howling at themoon.
And then what everybody doeswhat everyone does down on the
peninsula is just beforemidnight, you run down to the
(06:16):
beach.
Um some people have been knownto skinny dip down there, but
I'm I'm not advocating that.
I'm not saying night free.
Well and everyone even jumps inthe water or runs around with
marine flares, do not do this athome.
Um we watched you not naked withmarine flares, no.
No, okay, so not naked withflares.
(06:37):
Um, and then you watch thefireworks as they run down the
coastline from from um Sorrentoto Rye, Rosebud, Romana, Mount
Mazar, and then you seesometimes the city ones as well,
sort of popping in the distance.
So we've just got to hopefingers crossed for when on.
But that's how you can get 16days from Saturday, the 20th of
December.
True, true.
It's Sunday, the 4th of January,if you haven't already
(06:58):
workshopped it.
Um so I'm actually lookingforward to the next one, which
is Australia Day.
This is incredible because youcould take four days of annual
leave and get nine days off,like straight off the cuff.
If you didn't get yourselforganized for Christmas and
you're actually working theshifts in between, then this is
the one you need to be workingon next.
So the public holiday, ofcourse, hits on Monday, the 26th
(07:20):
of January, which is like anautomatic um long weekend,
right?
So if you take four annual leavedays from Tuesday, the 27th to
Friday, the 30th, you've gotnine days off from the 24th of
January to the 11th of February,which is which is a an a
cracker, because then of courseyou're out of the school.
You know, the peak season isclosing down because the schools
(07:41):
have gone back, and they alwayssay that the best weather is
happens um in Victoria anyway,the the the week that the kids
go back to school.
SPEAKER_00 (07:50):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (07:52):
Okay, so get the plan, get the diaries out.
Where do we go next?
SPEAKER_00 (07:56):
All right, so Easter.
So 10 days off with just fourdays of annual leave.
This is my favorite one.
Um so Good Friday is the 3rd ofApril, Easter Monday is the 6th
of April.
Um so you can have four leavedays from Tuesday, the 7th of
April, till Friday, the 10th ofApril, and enjoy a 10-day break
(08:18):
from the 3rd to the 12th.
Um now, if you are in thelovely, lovely state of
Tasmania, uh public serviceemployees also have Easter
Tuesday as a public holiday.
How do we advocate for thathere?
Uh so they only need threeannual lead days.
That's crazy.
SPEAKER_02 (08:39):
Oh my goodness.
So, yeah, so I think you've gotto get the diary out and work
out those other um, you know,the long weekend hacks you've
got King's Burns playing.
SPEAKER_00 (08:48):
Always a good interest a trip, that one.
If you use that hack, a good 10days, 10-day break is a good go
to Queensland.
It's starting to get a bitcooler here.
So two or thought up there, getsome last bit of summer sun.
SPEAKER_02 (09:04):
Yeah, to keep keep that tan going through the
winter of discontent.
Um, we've got all of those longweekends too happening um all
around, you know, so that so thefor the way in, you know, for
the rest of the month, likeJune, you've got the King's
Birthday.
It's still weird saying thatactually, instead of the Queen's
birthday.
Yeah, I know, it's still kind ofstill kind of weird.
(09:25):
Um, King's birthday on Monday,the 8th of June.
So that gives you an automaticlong weekend, um, except if
you're in Queensland becausethey have this in October and
September in WA.
Um, so yeah, take the fr tapethe Friday off, then you you
know, take all the Monday, andthen you've got that four-day
weekend, put the put the extracouple of days in there, four
days, and then you've got anine-day consecutive holiday.
(09:47):
Um, Labor Day holidays as well,um, which are all over the shop.
I mean, you've got that's inMarch in Victoria, yay, and in
Tassie.
Um, and in October in New SouthWales.
It's all honestly Labor Day, Inever understood it.
But um, and if you're inMelbourne, because you know, I
am and you are, remember Alicedear, Cup Day, Cup Day, Love Cup
(10:08):
Day, because it's on a Tuesday.
Everybody bunks off on theMonday.
I mean, schools, I think theschools have just given up
because most school was like,um, yeah, we're not we're not
even turning up on Monday.
So you've got a four-dayweekends there.
So um, we took those extra threedays.
You've got the Monday and theTuesday off.
We took the Wednesday, Thursday,and Friday.
(10:29):
Again, it's nine days holiday toplay it with, and you're only
taking three days of annualleave.
That's how I got to the nulldeeps just recently without a
footy screen.
SPEAKER_03 (10:38):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:40):
Yes.
Just work to there over thatover that long nine days.
Flew out on Friday afternoon andgot back on Sunday, exhausted
for work and school on theMonday, but nobody cares because
you've come back lookingfabulous and tanned and
refreshed and and flying aroundthe malls.
Still living on it, baby.
(11:00):
Still living on it.
So have you got I mean, have yougot any actual plans locked in
for 2026?
SPEAKER_00 (11:06):
Look, nothing's locked.
I have an open ticket.
Um, so I shall be goingsomewhere at some point.
Uh, I did have a a trip plannedfor earlier this year that I had
to obviously postpone becauseyou have to move house and you
just don't think about how muchit costs to move house.
unknown (11:25):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (11:25):
And not even financially mentally draining,
it is.
So I'm looking at the firstyeah, I think over Christmas
I'll be locking in some plans.
Um, but I'm up to very highlevel on Duolingo Um with my
Spanish, so I'm feeling a littlebit more confident um to go
somewhere and I can at least askfor coffee and directions to a
(11:49):
hotel if I missed it.
SPEAKER_02 (11:53):
Because you were looking at Colombo, weren't you?
Um Columbia.
Is it gonna happen?
SPEAKER_00 (12:01):
And then yeah, and then moving happened.
So now I'm going back to thedrawing role.
What do I actually want to do?
Um, and all I need to do islisten to 120 episodes uh of the
World of Waits for inspirationand advice.
What about you, Lord?
What are your what are yourtravel plans for 2026?
SPEAKER_02 (12:23):
Well, look, I don't want to bring it up again, but I
want to bring it up again.
When I won the um Travel Riderof the Year Award, Hair Tog, um
I actually won.
I had to say hair toss becauseyou can't see me tossing it, but
Alice Deer can.
Um I actually, the the prize forthat was from Dirging Australia,
and it was two business classtickets um anywhere on their
(12:46):
short haul domestic uh domesticor short haul international
clients.
Unfortunately, it meant I can'tgo to Doha because I would
naturally know I'll be back andin straight into the Middle
East.
But um, you know, they go umthey as well as flying all the
round Australia, they go intothe Pacific, they go, you know,
they're into Fiji and um and Ithink New Caledonia as well.
SPEAKER_00 (13:07):
So Fiji could be nice.
SPEAKER_02 (13:10):
Fiji could be nice.
Yeah.
I'm just you know, you've got toweigh it up.
They are business class ticket.
Is that long enough?
Do I just want to do that?
SPEAKER_00 (13:15):
Oh, yeah, what's the thing work?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:18):
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:20):
So I'm workshopping that you're your holidays.
SPEAKER_02 (13:23):
Well, I'm personally really bummed actually that
Virgin isn't flying to Japananymore.
I don't know why, consideringthe numbers are just it's really
rude.
But um that would have been myfirst call.
Um, I you know, I wanted to dosome of you know, off-piste.
Everyone talks about theovercrowding in in Japan, but
really a lot of that's centeredaround the big humps of Tokyo,
(13:44):
Kyoto, and Osaka.
And then outside that, um, I'vespoken to so many regional
tourism boards who were like,please come down here, come to
your animal joint, and we wantsome of that overcrowding.
SPEAKER_00 (13:56):
So the Goyer.
Go to Nagoya.
SPEAKER_02 (13:59):
I haven't been to Nagoya, and I don't really ski.
I'm a shopping skier, I'membarrassing.
So um, I just shame myself.
So we didn't go there for theski.
But um, I'm hoping, you know,I'm I'm hoping to get back into
the Middle East, of course.
I'll be back there at some pointto um at least to hang out in
Egypt um to see family and youknow, just update all of my
(14:21):
product knowledge there.
Um yeah, I've got a few places.
My brother is in Estonia at themoment, so I may go over and
visit him in Estonia because theother one's in Sweden, which is
just across the ditch.
It's 45 minutes away.
So um if that meant that we hadto meet in Finland, I'd be okay
with that.
SPEAKER_00 (14:38):
What oh, you could do that.
Easy.
SPEAKER_02 (14:41):
I could do that.
Yeah, I just gotta save off abit more.
Buy me at coffee on coffee.com.
Fast.
SPEAKER_00 (14:58):
All right, let's get into our Christmas guide for
tardy travelers.
Um so look, I feel like so muchhas changed in in travel tech
this year when it came tochoosing.
It really is, I'm saying back tobasics.
(15:19):
Um, but some of the basic thingsare infused with tech to elevate
them to a must-have item.
But before I get stuck in, Iknow that you love a bag.
SPEAKER_02 (15:35):
Oh, love a good bag, do you know?
SPEAKER_00 (15:37):
So I know you have one, so please lead us in.
We'll be bagging up bad 2026.
SPEAKER_02 (15:46):
Oh, the must-have bag for 2026.
I've got an actual example, butit is a trend.
It is a bag trend, um, and agrowing trend.
And look, I'm actually going toattribute this to a former guest
on The World of Waits, which isKevin Maloney of the Channel 9
series Travel Guides.
You know Kevin.
Love Kevin.
He's such a great guy.
(16:07):
Um, and you never know where heand Jet are going to be in the
world.
Because the incredible thing iswhen they're dueling that show,
um, they just get told to turnup at the airport and given a
list of uh degree temperaturesof where they're going to um uh
where they're going to be, andthey have to pack their bags for
that.
So um, so they don't know wherethey are.
But the thing, and they alsodon't know where they're gonna
(16:29):
stay.
So they could be staying at theBellagio, or they could be
staying, which is the last timeI saw them when we were both on
the road, was in the back end ofnowhere in um in Borneo, in
Malaysian Borneo, which wascompletely random, and they were
staying in some tree houses.
And what he said to me was theynever take, they never ever
carry with a suitcase that opensin the the clam shell format
(16:51):
that we've seen um has become sopopular in the last decade.
He said that he always travelswith a top opening suitcase.
So that was the way thatsuitcases used to be, you know,
they had a lid and then they hada big base underneath them.
So the problem with those clamones that you've got, like it if
you are like my husband and liketo travel kind of heavy, but
(17:13):
shocking, shocking overpacker.
Um he doesn't have three shirts.
Oh my goodness, three shirts aday.
We have a running joke,actually.
He he literally packs threeshirts every day.
So if he's away for 10 days, hehas 30 shirts in his belt.
Um, I think he put Oh mygoodness, you're terrible.
(17:34):
So the problem is you go to yourhotel, you put your bag down,
and you put it on those flimsylittle weird um um bag stands.
When you open it, you can't youcan't hold the whole thing, like
it doesn't hold hold it open.
So you've got to keep shuttingup, but you crop it up against
the wall.
If you have a top openingsuitcase, you're just unzipping
that top level, glupping it up,and then you've got all of your
(17:54):
suitcase underneath it.
Um and so I was looking aroundfor them, and the best one that
I found that does not take upthat precious real estate in
your hotel reel, which is whatKevin Neiva's talking about, was
I went to Zoom Light, which isan Australian brand.
It's actually a Melbourne brand.
Um has been pr has beenproducing suitcases.
(18:15):
Um in here it well, theydesigned them in Melbourne,
they're made overseas.
Um put a confessional on thisone.
Um the suitcase that I then thenthey have been working on these
ones so that you can either openthem for the lip that falls
about, or you do the top openingon them.
You could do them either way.
So their glide suitcases come ina carry-on, they've got a medium
(18:37):
size, and then they've got thelarge coffin size, which is the
size that my husband's lookingat.
Beautiful colourways, like, youknow, um, that sort of soft
beige that a lot of people arelooking at, the gentle light,
dusty pinks and pebbled.
They've also got a really smartmidnight navy that I was have
been crushing on, and I havebeen putting it to the test.
They've got the gold standard inwheels.
(18:59):
They've got four wheels on thesuitcase.
These are these Japanese Inokowheels.
Um thing about the Zoom light isthey they don't sell in stores.
So you you won't see them instores.
So they sell direct toconsumers.
So you've got to order fromtheir website.
Um, but they do have a 100-dayreturn policy.
And if you want to return thesuitcase, if it's new, um, if
(19:22):
you haven't, of course, taken itto the Maldives or something
like that and bobbed it up, theywill actually send you a label
to send it back.
So you're not thinking, oh, Ican't return it because it's
gonna cost me 70 bucks to sendit back.
Um incidentally, in that range,the glide range, they have one
called the Glide Light, which isthe lightest carry-on case in
(19:43):
Australia, they tell me.
At just I know.
Amazing.
So I would totally have a lookat Zoom Lite.
So zoomlight.com.au, um and theglide is an absolute banger.
So I think that is my top bagtip for you.
SPEAKER_00 (19:59):
Love it.
SPEAKER_02 (20:01):
There you go.
So now um you tell me then,because you're the tech guy, and
and um you know the thing that Ihave actually lost three sets of
these this year.
Tell me.
Tell me what you are.
SPEAKER_00 (20:15):
Or earbuds are we talking about?
SPEAKER_02 (20:17):
Uh go on, tell me tell me a first tip.
Tell me a first tip.
SPEAKER_00 (20:22):
All right, so this is the uh Tim Kettle translation
earbuds.
Um now it will be completely upfront.
It does use AI.
However, this could be AIfinally used for something good.
So the earbuds have uh 42languages built in, and they can
(20:43):
detect 95 accents and dialects.
So basically, the eye in yourears, you give one earbud to the
person you're talking to, andyou keep one in your ear.
You can have a conversation inyour native language, and the
earbud will translate both ways.
SPEAKER_02 (21:06):
Like, you know, the babel fish from the Hijaka's
Guide to the Galaxy, where youstuck a fish in your ear and it
just translated everything.
SPEAKER_00 (21:13):
Very similar.
I hate to say this very similar.
Um so if you're off to stardineout in Epkinch and you're only
on level five on your DuolingoItalian lessons, uh, this could
be a lifesaver for you.
Um it's I don't know, I findthis intriguing.
(21:34):
Um, you know, Google and Appleboth have their own kind of
translation apps on theirphones.
So you can do this already onyour phone.
However, you may not have phonesignal or you may not have
enough data to do thattranslation.
Uh, and these earbuds don'tdon't require a 5G connection um
(21:56):
or any kind of data.
So it's all built in.
Um, so you don't need thatconnection for this to happen.
So a really good thing for youif you're off somewhere quickly
or you've made a decision andyou just don't, you know, can't
have someone with you totranslate, this would be a
really easy way um, you know, toget around uh without you know
(22:22):
difficulty.
Now it does come into models.
Uh so there is, you know, theseearbuds, which are around about
400 AUD.
Uh, and then there is a more,we'll say, economical model.
Um, and instead of usingearbuds, it uses a screen, a
little screen, not too muchbigger than a phone.
Um at that is around about$300AUD.
(22:46):
So it's not a huge difference.
It just depends on you know whatwhat you're looking for.
SPEAKER_02 (22:53):
And where do you buy them from?
SPEAKER_00 (22:56):
Uh so you can either buy them direct from Tim Kettle,
but you can also buy them onAmazon.
Um, and they are, I think, oh,when I did this, they were on
special, but that was over BlackFriday.
Um but yeah, regular, they youknow go around the 400.
Um for the earbuds, 300 for I'mtold the screen version.
SPEAKER_02 (23:17):
Amazing, because there are some languages that
are really tricky.
And Sheikh, I'm looking at youbecause they say that um the
Czech language is the hardestlanguage in the world to learn,
even harder than like Japanese,which is difficult to be, but
you know, easier to pick up onfirst pronunciation.
Um amazing.
I love it.
Well, that is a fantastic itjust it's just kind of a little
(23:42):
bit mind-blowing.
And we're gonna put these in theshow notes as well.
Um, and you can see we'll putphotos of them on the socials
too.
SPEAKER_00 (23:49):
Now, speaking of uh traditional things that you talk
about, it was no surprise for meto hear that you had a hat.
SPEAKER_02 (23:58):
Oh, the color.
Am I that am I that cliche?
Because I love this hat.
Like I love it.
I love it so much.
I cannot stop recommending itenough.
It is a game-changering hat.
Um, this is the um these uh ifyou know Flexi Braid, it is uh
uh it is a fabric that's beendeveloped in Australia to create
a crushable hat.
(24:19):
Um the designer is a very uhvery clever woman um and who's
given a name to the label, Tinain copenhagen.com.au.
That um look, the reason I thereason I love this hat so much
is that usually when you'retraveling with a hat that you
really like, you don't want itto get crushed.
So you put it in your overheadluggage and then you leave it
there and you never see itagain, and it just circles
(24:42):
around and around the worlduntil it finds a lost property
to live in and decompose for therest of time.
Um, because this one you canjust shove it in your luggage,
it pops up literally new whenyou reach your destination.
So you're never gonna leave itthere.
Um they the group makes um hatsunder a number of different
(25:02):
labels, including Social theCancer Council.
So you've got the fact that it'sgot the 50 plus sun protection,
which for me, like you,Alistair, I mean, we are whitey,
you know, we are like like lookat the sun, watch them burn.
Absolutely.
So um I'm really conscious of ofwearing hats um when I'm about.
And I have had I have had ablack one.
(25:23):
Um actually I've had several ofthem, and um I've absolutely
thrashed it.
I have worn it in um, I've wornit on boats, I've worn it in
height when I'm hiking, becauseit's got an adjustable band on
it as well, so you can tightenit to your hand.
So I wouldn't, I wouldn't wearit in a gale, but you can stand
on the front of a ship and havea small Titanic moment and your
hat most likely won't fall off,right?
(25:44):
Um they dress up an outfit.
Um, but as I said, I've I'vetaken them hiking.
Now you're in museums, you're atsummer parties.
Um, they are super lightweight,they are water resistant,
they've got that little band onthem.
Um, if you are having a bad hairday, but you still need a photo,
all you do, shrug this hat on.
You have instantly fabulous, andyou just like, you know, cut a
(26:05):
little bit of hair out.
You just cover the the theabsolute horror story of hair
that is happening at that momentin time.
Travel is not always pretty andglamorous and stuff like that,
but with its hat, you're prettydamned close.
Can I say Queen Mary of Denmarkwears them?
Can I say she is a very stylishwoman?
Like she is fantastic.
(26:27):
So there's new colourways havejust come out and released for
2026.
And styles, if you want to jumponto the website and take a look
at them, they retail.
I mean, it is an investment fora hat.
They retail between 75 and 85dollars, but guaranteed, as I
said, you're not gonna leavethem on the on the plane.
And it's going to protect youfrom all of the skin cans of
(26:48):
horrors and stuff like that.
And you're gonna look fabulousstill, all you get photos
because a hat just stresseseverything up.
Cannot recommend the tina andcopenhagen.com.au, cannot
recommend it highly enough.
Love it.
Love it.
So look, this is I mean, I'm notgiving you anything that is high
tech, right?
I mean, I'm talking about asuitcase, although the I think
that Zoom Lite would argue thattheir suitcases are actually
(27:10):
very high tech.
SPEAKER_00 (27:11):
A hat that doesn't crush is high tech.
SPEAKER_02 (27:14):
That is high tech, yeah.
But it's got I've got no cane,I've got no cables and I've got
no cords online either.
I am leaning on you for thatone.
So it hit me with your next umessential Christmas gift.
SPEAKER_00 (27:27):
So uh it is a it's a a universal travel adapter.
I know it sounds boring.
But stick with me.
Um, much to the absolute displayof my partner when I pack a
powerboard in my suitcase.
Uh, this little device can helpwith space.
(27:49):
Uh, it can also charge yourmobile devices as well around
the world.
So you don't need to be luggingevery single plug uh and power
pack you have with you.
So it's from um Basus.
It is the Universal TravelAdapter.
Uh so it works in Europe, USA,Asia, and Australia for wall
(28:11):
outlets.
It also has built into thisadapter USB-C and USB-A.
So that automatically eliminatesyour phone charger, your iPad
charger, your tablet charger.
If you charge headphones with aUSB-C charging um things like
gaming devices, so NintendoSwitch 2, your handheld gaming,
(28:35):
Steam Decks, all of that cancharge through this one travel
adapter.
You do not need anything else.
That's pretty big for me.
Um, you can also charge yourlaptop.
And if you have an Applesmartwatch, uh you can also um
just throw your watch on thetravel adapter attachment uh and
(28:58):
charge your Apple Watch.
So for me, it's a game changerbecause I don't need to, I no
longer need to put my seven plugoutlet into my suitcase, the big
long thing.
Um this will just do it all,which um, you know, also for you
(29:19):
know, for you, Bell, if you'retraveling a lot while working,
you don't need to pack yourlaptop charger and all of that.
You could do it all from thisone adapter.
And it's quite small, it's notbig at all.
So it's from Asus and it's auniversal travel adapter.
SPEAKER_02 (29:36):
Awesome.
So roughly how much of theseones?
SPEAKER_00 (29:39):
Bell, there are color options if you want to go
that one step further.
Uh so the set the 70 watt blackis 48.75.
The 70 watt off-white is 53.32.
So you're playing paying apremium for your free colour
option there.
Um, and if you want the 45 wattversion, that only comes in
(30:00):
black, um, and that's$60.94.
It's probably uh good to knowthat you can charge up to six
devices at the same time.
Uh, so if you want to do seven,eh, no luck.
Um, but yeah, you can do six,which you know is handy if
everyone had one of these.
(30:22):
There's all your devices doneand dusted.
Um just a little disclaimer,it's not a voltage converter.
Um, so if you did need toconvert the voltage, you would
need to plug that into thisdevice first.
SPEAKER_02 (30:38):
Right.
Okay, I think they're great.
I do travel with a with a with amulti-adapter.
What I like about these is whenyou are sometimes when you're
actually using the power in theseat on the flight, and they are
not and they're not universal.
Um, so you've got to have anadapter with you.
Like I think that's a reallyclever little thing to to have
it.
Like it's small enough that youcould have it in your in your
(31:00):
bag and just whack it in on theplane when you're if you're
working on your laptop orsomething like that while you're
traveling.
That sounds like a that theyeah, that is, I mean, these are
really essential things thatthat we use when, you know, when
we're traveling, these sorts ofthings, you know, these these
um, I mean, those translationearbuds I've never used and they
sound fantastic.
But these other ones, like ifyou are looking for a stocking
(31:21):
stuffer, that is a fine, finestock stocking stuffer.
Um and and I'm gonna say, I'mgonna say, well, I keep calling
them my tech, but they're notreally.
I'm going to give you umanother, another, another of the
um products that I always travelwith, which is scarves.
I obsess about scarves.
I have the most phenomenal scarfcollection, which started long
(31:44):
before I started working in theMiddle East.
Um, and they do, they havereally good scarf action.
I um I have a number of reallylarge format scarves.
And the great thing about themis that they can be used um to
dress up an outfit because for avery long time the standard
travel riders outfit was blacktrousers, black shirt, and a
(32:05):
different scarf, maybe some bigearrings on there, and everybody
had this and with just the scarfthat changed.
Like if you had to travel youknow, sometimes around doing
light aircraft stuff and youcould only take a seven kilo
suitcase or something, you know,um soft bag or something like
that.
It was all about the rotatingscarf.
And and I've got a travel writerfriend, Bev, I'm shouting out to
(32:25):
you, who actually culls herscarves each couple of years and
and shares them around to herfriends to give them an extra
life, which I think is reallylovely.
Bev Melza, shouting out to you.
Um the scarf, the the the theprint techniques for scarves
have really evolved um inparticularly in the last decade.
We're seeing a lot ofphotography that's placed on
(32:46):
large format scarves.
So if you've got um if you'vegot a scarf with a particular
print on it, um, I did go for anAustralian, uh, an Australian
one because you can get um, youknow, you're just taking a
little piece of homeless youwant people like ours to have a
look at your scarf and you cansay, well, actually, this is an
aerial photograph photograph ofLake Air, which is of course
(33:09):
beautiful, yes, stripes ofdifferent colours, like you've
got the the the white whites,but then you've also got, you
know, at sunset, you'll have thered earth and then um the dusky
purples as the as especially ifyou've got water or wildflowers
even at the time wheneverthey're shot.
So I have been crushing a littleon this hundred percent silk
scarf um by uh by a group calleduh you can buy it on a website
(33:32):
called Australian Skate.
And these are um they're 100%silk um and just a gorgeous gift
because also remembering thatsilk hacks down to absolutely
nothing.
And that's what um and that'swhat makes it such a great gift
to give travelers because it'salso great for it, you know, it
doesn't catch your skin, so it'sreally good for your skin if
(33:54):
you've got it designed for along period of time.
Photographs are taken by anAustralian grazier, his name is
David Tamer, and so he's flyingover Australia all the time in
light aircraft, rememberingparticularly those fixed wings
fly really low to the ground.
If you are hunting for stockthat you've got, you know, if
you've got cattle running aroundin the middle of nowhere, and he
started taking photos of it fromthe air and um and then it
(34:17):
became this series of silkscarves.
They are around$150 each.
Um and like this is not a it'snot a unique gift, but it in the
sense that you can you can getall sorts of things printed on
scarves and scarves, you can getall sorts of prints from all
over the world.
But I just like that they wereAustralian landscapes that
you're taking on.
SPEAKER_00 (34:37):
I think that proves a very unique territory.
SPEAKER_02 (34:39):
I think you could Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for that.
All right, so that's mine.
That is my last one.
What about you?
Come on, hit me.
Right, tell me what improve mytravel life.
SPEAKER_00 (34:49):
Okay, well, this might not improve your travel
life, but uh if you're if yourhusband is listening, uh this
might be for a great gift forhim.
I promise that she did not putme up to this.
I added this of my own of my ownvolition.
Uh now it is backbird travelbags.
(35:12):
Um, though I will admit I am ahorrendous overpacker, intent on
packing for every single seasonand situation.
These are an absolute godsend.
Uh, so they easily will let youpack as much as you need uh and
then shrink it down in yourluggage.
Um, they also come in differentsizes.
(35:33):
So if you're going on a daytrip, uh so if you're gonna do a
cursey and cycle through umtowns and towns and towns, you
can take your swimwear, towels,all of that.
Um because the actual pump to umto vacuum down the bags is tiny.
(35:54):
I'm talking like palm of yourhand tiny.
Uh and it's USB C powered.
Uh, so it also is perfect fortravel because you could team
that up with your um Basustravel adapter, and you're good
to go.
And you can there are you canbuy many different sizes.
(36:15):
Uh so there are you knowdifferent costs depending on
what bags you need.
Um, the largest bag uh is$86 AU.
Uh so it's actually not a badprice, especially if you do
travel regularly.
You can also use them at home ifyou just want to um, you know,
vac down your winter clothes umor your summer clothes in the
(36:37):
off-season, you can do that aswell.
SPEAKER_02 (36:39):
So that's the problem.
Wait a minute, we're in wearingMelbourne.
So one day you're gonna bewearing your winter clothes, and
then the next day you're gonnawear your summer clothes.
SPEAKER_00 (36:46):
You know, you say this, and I literally last last
week, two weeks ago, packed mywinter clothes and I put them
into my storage locker in my inmy new house, which is you know,
two towers away, uh, and realizethat I left myself with no
(37:07):
jackets or jumpers, and what amistake that was.
SPEAKER_02 (37:11):
Yes, because we just froze our chops off.
SPEAKER_00 (37:13):
Yes.
Even today, anyway.
Uh so look, will this stop mefrom overpacking?
Definitely not if they encourageme to do more.
But it will help with my luggagelimits.
And I think that um the thingthat I'm probably most excited
for is if you do go on a daytrip, I feel that backpack to
(37:35):
the brim, baby.
Uh so this would be a greatlittle um a great little device
to kind of make some more roomfor other things that aren't
just Alistair's clothes, becausewho knows when I might need that
third t-shirt.
SPEAKER_02 (37:51):
Oh, I tell you, honest, honestly, like that's
phenomenal.
So I think you're both singingfrom the same hymn sheet from
that one.
I think that would just make himabsolutely pack even more.
I th I think that's a greatdevice because we all know that
size matters, right?
So I mean, look, interestingly,I've just received a clutch of
(38:12):
compression stacks from ZoomLite to try out.
So I'm gonna report back on themin a later podcast because
that's and I'm just gonna holdthem up for you, Alice, dear.
That's what Wheel Lightsactually originally famous for,
and they've got a set of threeum in there.
So I'm gonna give them a littlerun as well.
Yeah, so not the vacuum pack,not the vacuum packed section.
(38:33):
But honestly, my bag becomes anabsolute dog's breakfast by the
end of my trips as well.
So I think they're gonna try toorganize me a little better.
And I reckon I've got a tripcoming up in late February, so
I'm gonna give them a run forthat one.
Um, so that is our six.
Have you got anything else weneed to tell them?
SPEAKER_00 (38:52):
Look, we're coming into summer, so I did want to
throw in just like a bonus tip.
Um, because I think a lot ofpeople forget about their
phones.
So most phones these days, I'mgonna say 99% are waterproof,
which is fantastic.
If you know you accidentallyfall in the pool or someone
(39:14):
pushes you in as a joke, you'renot gonna completely lose your
phone or do that thing where youhave to stick it in rice that
may have worked, may have not.
I'm on the house.
SPEAKER_02 (39:24):
Yeah, no, it didn't work, it didn't work.
SPEAKER_00 (39:27):
So look, it's great, but when they are submerged,
water gets inside.
And look, it can take hours forthem to dry out before you can
charge them again.
So if that happens when you'reon low battery, your phone's
probably gonna die.
I also have uh concerns aboutwanting to keep the phones for
longer.
So if you're having water insidethem regularly, it's not great
(39:49):
for their longevity.
So before you jump into thatlazy river or dive deep into the
male dives with Bill, um grabone of these.
They work.
Really well at home and abroad.
Um, I did put a link in the shownotes to one that I recommend
from a Taurus.
Uh basically, it is like alanyard that you get at a
(40:13):
festival.
Now, stick with me.
You can put your phone in here,but it also has touch access.
So even if your fingers are wet,you can still press the buttons
through the fabric and use yourphone as normal, which is
fantastic.
That's what you want.
You can also put your earbuds inhere, your keys.
(40:37):
What?
And bonus, it floats.
Oh so if you want to go to thelazy river at Wet n Wild, you
can have this tied to your armor around your neck and flow
down that river, baby, and notbe concerned about your devices.
They will be kept dry and intactin one of these.
(41:02):
Um, I think it's somethingthat's gaining more traction.
I've seen a lot of travelbloggers using these recently
and saying that yeah, they willnow no longer travel without
them because they're just it'salso a great replacement for a
bag.
If you're having a beach day ora water day and you don't want
to lug stuff around with you, oryou have to put stuff in
(41:23):
lockers, you can still have yourphone and some essentials with
you as well.
SPEAKER_02 (41:29):
I think you've got to check though, too, whether or
not it fits your phone as well,because they are they do come in
different sizes done.
They I mean the round that whenI appear that I mean I've got it
Samsung, sorry.
Um, yeah, it's the one that Itook a look at that because I
went and had a little squeeze onit for you.
So this one was uh about$33,which is um rehamped value, I
(41:54):
think.
Um and that fit uh well it justsaid a Samsung Galaxy and a
Galaxy Z fold as well as as theiPhones.
So because that's the problemwith a lot of that waterproof
housing in the past, you had tobuy it very specific for the
phone that you had.
And then if you lost that phone10 seconds later or somebody
nicked it from you in London, haha, um, then yeah, I mean, you
(42:18):
know, you've lost the housing oryou take the housing off.
You just have to chuck thathousing away because it dated
when the phone's dated as well.
But this is it's like a it'sessentially like a ziplock bag,
isn't it?
Like a heat.
SPEAKER_00 (42:29):
Essentially, yeah, just a little bit better
quality.
And I guess if you're not ifyou're not iPhone like me or
Samsung with Bell, um, it alsocovers a lot of other brands,
though Google Pixels are all inthere as well.
Um, from the two right throughto the 10.
Uh the Sony Feriors, the AsusRogue Phones, um, Huawei and
(42:52):
Oppo One Plus and Xiaomi arethere as well.
Um wow.
Two colour options, black orwhite, uh, which is great.
I'm a white person when it comesto accessories.
Um and look, if you've gotAmazon Prime, they're currently
on sale um for 41.13.
They're usually 54.85 for thewhite or 39.48 for the black.
SPEAKER_03 (43:18):
Gosh.
SPEAKER_02 (43:20):
Yeah, I think I gave you the US dollar price.
I mentioned the US dollar priceearlier.
Which is which is brilliant,because I'm I mean, I I I'm
always a bit fearful of these,but I actually did see quite a
lot of people using them in theMaldives recently, and they were
selling them at the dive shops.
And everybody was swearing thatit was it was it was fine.
I mean, I was I was relying onsome GoPro footage um that that
(43:44):
the hotel had been shooting.
So I was like, oh, I don't know.
I'm I'm you know, I'm a bitscared, but but I reckon having
seen them now in action, I thinkI'm going to I'm gonna come good
with them.
Yeah, maybe I'll take them outin the bay in Port Shmilot.
Because you know you can swimwith seals out there.
There's some seal colony thatyou can go swimming with you
just out like literally 20minutes offshore from Melbourne.
(44:05):
It's absolutely amazing.
So maybe I'll Yeah, yeah.
So um that's that's one of mythings that I keep, you know, um
I've been writing about recentlyis about these gorgeous seal
colonies.
I mean, the dolphins are there,but they sort of run around and
then they get sick of you.
Where seals are basically notthey are the Labrador of the
Sea.
In fact, Arabic Arabic name forseal is Kalgulbach, which is dog
(44:28):
of the sea because they are sodog-like.
And nobody goes and plays withthem.
And so when you turn out,they're like, oh my god, let's
go! And they are justincredible.
And these would be such a greatthing to take.
What a great little last-minuteChristmas present, Alistair.
I actually think out of all ofthose, I mean, the translation
earbuds are phenomenal, but thisis also like 45 bucks and you're
going underwater and trollingunderwater.
(44:49):
Amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (44:50):
Right.
And you know, even if you'rejust going to the pool, you can
just use it there as well.
SPEAKER_02 (44:54):
So what are you gonna fill there, though?
That's not what are you gonnafill in the pool?
SPEAKER_00 (45:01):
Well, it's more about browsing, I think.
Um I've yeah, been spending alot of, well, the two nice
afternoons we've had.
Um I spent just watching reelsin the tool, and it's been
fabulous.
SPEAKER_02 (45:16):
Yeah, right.
Okay.
All right.
I I had not thought of that one.
Awesome suggestions.
I mean, I did think in Sylvia'sAll I Wanted for Christmas was a
new power bank.
But um, I'm going to change itto that um little cracker of a
Taurus um silk cover, uh likewaterproof diplock bag for my
phone.
I'm gonna I'm gonna change that.
(45:36):
Look, I'm just I'm such a cheatdate, honestly.
So awesome.
All right, William.
So we're going to put those allin the show notes.
We'll throw some photos up, takea look in socials as well,
because we will put a flat layof all of the images that we've
chosen.
We've chosen white.
Um so just to wrap it up, we'vechosen my three, which are the
zoom light top opening suitcase,the travel hat by Tina M.
(45:58):
Copenhagen, which is a umsquishable hat.
And then I've also got thosegorgeous silk scalps from
Australianscake as well.
And Alistair's three and a half,three plus bonus, which are
yours.
SPEAKER_00 (46:11):
Uh so I've got the Tim Kettle translation earbuds.
So if you're popping off toanother country on a whim, you
can take these with you and notworry about not being able to
speak with the locals if they'reusing a different language.
Um, the basus universal traveladapter, so you don't need to
lug around your extension boardand embarrass your partners.
(46:31):
Uh the Vacbird travel bags, uh,so you can stuff more into your
suitcase.
And then the last little bonusone was the waterproof phone
pouch.
Uh honestly, if there's a bodyof water, I'll be jumping into
it.
So this is a must-have,must-have for me.
SPEAKER_02 (46:51):
Me too, absolutely.
All right, gang, get into thewater and get with those gifts.
We are next week kicking off oursummer series, some of our
favorite interviews from thepast year.
So you can kick back in the poolwith your newly covered phone
for some evening listening fromaround the world.
So thanks so much, Elista, forjoining us.
Gorgeous to have you on.
SPEAKER_00 (47:11):
Thanks for having me.
Have a great Christmas and newyear, everyone.
SPEAKER_02 (47:16):
And you'll see us again next week.
And Alistair will see you backin the background.
And it will defrost you nextChristmas, just like Mariah
Carey.
SPEAKER_00 (47:25):
I will I will take that mantle.
SPEAKER_01 (47:38):
That's a wrap for the world awaits this week.
Click to subscribe anywhere youlisten to your favorite pods.
Thanks for listening.
See you next week.
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