Personal

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A Clothing Tip For the Ladies

I’m in an area where the outside weather tends to be hot but inside temperatures in public places are cool to cold. How do you dress for this? You don’t want to overheat while walking around outside, but dragging a coat or sweater is a pain.

The solution is to carry a pashmina scarf. They are inexpensive, super lightweight, take up no space at all, and can make all but the most casual outfit look a little dressy.

I tend to carry two, one that’s a wool blend for really chilly locations or spitting rain, and another that is a shiny rayon blend that looks dressy. I have a dozen pashminas in all colours to coordinate with any outfit. You can pare your wardrobe down to basic colours and then use a pashmina to add a pop of colour.

You can also use your pashmina to cover up when visiting religious shrines; to protect you from the sun, wind, or rain; as a bag to carry things; as a pillow or blanket while traveling; as a beach cover up; and more.

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Is New Orleans Safe?

I’ve been getting comments and emails about how dangerous New Orleans is or feels and to be really careful.

My guide today brought up this issue and said that New Orleans’ recovering tourism industry can’t afford to take tourist security lightly. If you’re not feeling safe, then you’re in an area where you shouldn’t be, or you had too much to drink at a pub on Bourbon Street and wandered into the wrong alley. Plainclothes police abound. The usual precautions for tourist areas (watch your belongings) are in order, of course, but you’re not going to get mugged wandering around Decatur Street at any time.

I’m going to be exploring the French Quarter exclusively on foot, so I’m not concerned about my safety. I’ll just be keeping a tight hand on my valuables, the way I would anywhere else.

I can’t wait to start exploring!

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Comment Policy For This Blog

I’ve been meaning to post a comment policy for ages. This post is not a result of any particular comments I’ve received lately but rather a piece of administrative housekeeping.

Thank you to everyone who comments on this blog. It lets me know that I am not posting in a vacuum. I get really excited when I open my email and a ton of comments pour in!

So the official Travels With Miranda stance on comments is:

-I receive all comments by email, regardless of the age of the post. So you do not need to email me to let me know you commented on an older post.

-All comments on this blog are moderated unless you are a previously approved commenter. So if your comment does not show up, please do not recomment. I will get an email with the comment and if it is legitimate, I will approve and reply to it.

-Legitimate comments with a lot of links or no text (such as someone just commenting with an emoticon or with a punctuation mark) may end up in my comment spam folder. I do not get these comments by email. I go through the spam folder every few days and usually catch the odd legitimate comment, but if I don’t, please don’t be insulted. I get hundreds of spam comments every day and out of the thousands each month, I might get one legitimate comment in there.

-I reserve the right to edit comments. For example, sometimes someone will post a comment with typos and then comment to apologize for the typos. I will delete the second comment and fix the first one (I will not correct typos until the commenter points them out). Another example is someone who has an afterthought; I might merge the two comments together. A third example is someone who posts erroneous information and then follows up with the correct info, I will delete the incorrect information.

-I do not heavily moderate comments, unless I feel that they are particularly inflammatory and will not lead any valuable discussion. I will never delete a comment from someone respectfully disagreeing with me or offering a contrary opinion.

-If your troll comment is particularly good, you may warrant a post where I will mention you by name and post your contact information.

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Kind of Like BC In Winter

So, I’m THIS close to the Gulf Coast and it is actually warm out there, but it’s raining and the next few days will be grey and overcast. Darn it! I would have been glad for chilly temps with sunny skies. Oh, well, no sense looking a gift horse in the mouth. Tomorrow, I will get to frolic on a beach off the Gulf of Mexico! Now, where did I put the sandals?

Tomorrow’s plan is a bit zippy as I want to cover a lot of ground, but I really don’t want to spend tons of time in the area since I am planning to be in New Orleans for a week. But by the end of the day, I will have most definitely and not just technically been to Florida!

Question: how did I get to be so lucky?

Answer: I worked my ass off to get here. These kinds of lives have to built. They don’t happen on their own.

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Done With Telus

George at Telus probably thinks he hung up with the most unreasonable bitch on the planet tonight. Let’s just say I was a tad… short with him. I made sure to direct my words at Telus, not him specifically, but he got the message loud and clear that he better not get into this customer retention spiel.

Telus, like all Canadian telecom companies, sucks. I’ve parted ways in the same manner with Bell and Vidétron. I really don’t know what I’ll be doing for internet, mobile or otherwise, when I get back to Canada, but I’ve been sending Telus $40 a month for too long just to keep my account open. It was time to slam that door shut. They’ve provided great internet service, I’ll grant them that, but customer service has been vile and their prices usurious.

I sent an email several weeks ago asking to cancel my account and included my phone number. I got two emails from George claiming that he called me and asking for a number to reach me at. I guess the phone number in bold 72 point red font in the second email finally got his attention.

Verizon has spoiled me for life. If was wealthy, I’d pay their crazy Canadian data charges to never again have to deal with Canadian telecom companies. They are just so vile.