Sheena's Travel Tips, Part 1

Today's travel tip is a discussion of a very helpful hint passed along to me a few years ago by a good friend from south of the Mason Jar Line. During one of our regularly scheduled Bad Girl Weekends, The Toronto Molson Indy, to be precise, one of our group overbought at the souvenir stands after a long day of sun and liquids and realized the next day that there was no way she could pack of her stuff in the suitcase she had brought.

That's when Sheena learned the lesson of the "Oh Shit Bag". The Oh Shit Bag (OSB henceforth herein) is a medium sized lightweight nylon bag, your choice of colour, that can be easily folded up into a little wad the size of maxipad (or pack of smokes, for Sheena's male readership). Then you just stuff it into a little zipper pocket in the suitcase of choice and weeks, months, maybe even years later when one finds oneself skewing one's contribution to the rise in the trade imbalance, you have a ready-made response to the inevitable "Oh Shit. I Can't Zip Up My Suitcase". Now the secret of a really good OSB is that it must be inexpensive and devoid of any emotional attachment. Because a real OSB will have many owners over many years. As a travel buddy, colleague or relative who doesn't know any better finds themself in a packing dilemma, you establish alliances and cultivate favours by lending your own OSB. And if they understand the meaning of karma, they'll set it free one day too.

The OSB that was gifted to me several months ago by the originator of the tip was put to good use as El Chaperone and I attempted to squeeze 20 pound wooden serving dishes with real authentic horse-shoe handles into a suitcase only to see the curved outline start poking through the zipper seams.

Oh Shit. He said.

And The OSB was whisked out of its secret hiding place. A hero. Yet again.