Nell’s Top Five

Nell’s Top Five

…Things I Don’t Step Onto An Airplane Without

(…other than the usual, necessary stuff like passport, phone, wallet and such.)

On Sunday evening, me and the husband jumps on a plane to go to Sweden for a vacation. We’re going to spend time hugging our beloved daughter (and her boyfriend), see our families, hang out with friends, celebrate Midsummer (a huge thing for most Swedes), and enjoy Sweden in summer for once (we’re usually only there for Christmas and the cold and darkness, which is a shame because Sweden is lovely in summer).

So I thought I’d make a list of five things I need on a long-ass flight like that. There’s no way to make a 14 hour flight (actually it’s 7+7 hours, because we do a stopover in Dubai, but still) comfortable. I usually can’t sleep on planes because it’s cramped and uncomfortable and I don’t like sleeping surrounded by hundreds of strangers. But with these five things I won’t suffer too badly. Hopefully.

What do you bring on the plane to keep you occupied on a long flight?

1. My tablet, stuffed full of books and music. I usually pick books I’ve already read, comfort reads, so that I know I’ll be happy and content when I read them. Also because I don’t want to risk sobbing on the plane! I also have a few playlists downloaded on my tablet from Spotify. For example Leonard Cohen’s Ten New Songs; it’s the only album I can sleep to, so if I get sleepy, I put it on repeat and hope I can doze away a couple hours. I also have a more upbeat playlist in case I want to entertain myself with happy music and wine 🙂 I also have a sudoku app on my tablet that can keep me entertained for hours.
2. My powerbank. Because even if there’s usually USB ports for charging your devices on planes these days (at least Emirates has them), I don’t want to risk that my batteries die and I won’t be able to do all the stuff in the first point on my list.
3. My fabulous cordless headphones. When it’s time to replace them, I’m buying headphones with noise cancellation, but these are good enough to drown out crying children and the droning of the engines. At least mostly.
4. Notebook, so I can write, and
5. Pen, so I have something to write with. Not a fountain pen though, because they behave strangely at high altitudes.