My good friend Kirsty Wilson from Travel Tips Plus wrote a blog post last week entitled ‘Souvenirs:  Postcards from Travel Destinations”.

I posted the link onto our Facebook page asking:

“Do you keep all the PostCards you receive?”

Kirsty's Fridge Door

Photo: Travel Tips Plus

“I keep them!” piped up Charley Jones

And Sarah Mitchell responded:

“I don’t but my sister-in-law recently showed me a shoebox full of postcards I’d sent to her kids over 15 years of international travel. It was a very cool record. I had forgotten about some of it.”

Despite the best of intentions, one does forget!

Sarah’s statement brilliantly exemplifies how even a few words, in this case on the back of a postcard, is all it takes to bring back otherwise forgotten travelling adventures ~

So… next time you are away and writing a few postcards, take a few moments to jot down the equivalent of a postcard to yourself in a small notebook jotter, and at the end of the holiday pop it in an envelope (with a selection of pretty local stamps) and post it home to yourself  ~ Postmarked envelopes are like passport stamps in that they mark where you were and when. On your return you’ll have the fun of receiving mail from this far flung location with a neatly parcelled chapter full of memory joggers encapsulating your latest escapade.

Check out my Best Kept Travel Secrets for other ways to

*highlight your holiday adventures*

Tuesday Tip :

At the end of each month I jot down on one of our Map Journals what has been the main highlight for that month, so at the end of the year (and for the fun of future reminiscing) I’ll have the year simply summarized on a single sheet ~

The highlight for May was the expansion of our Map Magnet range! Back in January we launched the first of our Map Magnets, which covered 22 regions across the country ~ We’ve added a further 8 areas so now we have 30 Map Magnets covering most of Australia!

And for something new for me…. here is a little video clip ~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tp-kclvroY

Click on the ‘2010‘ tag to see a synopses of my year at a glance

Tuesday Tip:

Map Journals are great for ‘simply’ summarizing where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing ~ on a single sheet

March & April 2010

Within days of returning from the Sydney Trade Fair at the start of March, I flew off to Scotland (click  ‘Scotland‘ under ‘Tag Cloud’ or ‘Great Britain‘ under ‘Topics Talked About’ in the column to your right to read all about that trip!)

Up, Over & Out of Australia

Each month this year I’m entering a highlight into one of the jotting boxes so at year’s end I’ll have a visual keepsake for 2010 ~

Click on the ‘2010‘ tag to see my year at a glance :D

I’ve been nominated by Kirsty Wilson of TravelTipsPlus to participate in Tripbase’s “3 Best Kept Secrets”

“Congratulations on being nominated in Tripbase’s Best Kept Travel Secrets Project! Two months on, and we’re amazed at the response we’ve had. Over 100 travel bloggers have participated so far, sharing their Best Kept Travel Secrets on far-flung destinations, hidden hotels, exotic foods and expert travel tips.” – Katie from Tripbase.com.

So here are what were (up until now!), my three best kept travel secrets :

1. Don’t take a generic tome type travel journal with you ~ They’re heavy, have no connection with the place you are travelling, and are often hard to ‘start’ due to a fear of messing up that first pristine page and so spoiling what is to follow!

Do buy small thin notebooks (I like the A6 size) made in the area you are travelling, or at the very least the country you are in! You’ll have the associated story of its purchase from a local news-stand owner, stationery vendor or artisan at a market; and it’ll ooze the culture with local language and design on its cover, and paper with its own unique feel.

Being small it will quickly fill, which is just what you want, as it’s now ready for popping in an envelope, with a beautiful local stamp (or two), and posting home to yourself.

Post your small notebooks home as they fill

Postmarked envelopes are like passport stamps in that they mark where you were and when; and when you finally return home each envelope will reveal a neatly parcelled chapter of your journey.

2. Don’t separate the telling of the tale from the experience ~ By leaving the recounting of your travelling tales to an evening homework exercise!

Homework

Do incorporate your notebook/journal into daily activities like you do with taking photos –

Keep it handy – i.e. with your wallet and camera.

So when asking the concierge for directions, give them your small notebook to draw a mud map of how to find where you’re going, and note the name of your accommodation (partly so you can find your way back!)

Mudmaps are a great addition

When asking a local to take your photo, get them to also jot down the name of the location you’re in (You’ll be amazed how handwriting styles vary across the world)

And when getting your wallet out at a restaurant, get your notebook/journal out too and ask the waiter to write the name of where you have just dined.(different scripts all add to the flavour!)

With the outline of your day now recorded for you by other people, avoid filling in the gaps with wordy compositions of woolly fluff!

Keep it simple and quick (there’s travelling to be done!). You’re only after memory triggers that will later help you recall the whole story –

So… jot down the ‘where’ you are, or ‘what’ you are doing, and then checklist each of your five senses with a word or two that expresses how they are responding to the place/experience ~

For example: ‘rainforest’: epiphytes (what you see), whip-birds (what you can hear), composting leaf litter & humidity (what you can smell), soft-moss (touchy feely), rich leafy lushness (a taste that is in the air).

I find the last one, what you can ‘taste’, often the most revealing! Incredible how atmospheres taste so different and are such brilliant scene setters

3.Don’t throw away used tickets and receipts ~ It is the day-to-day by-products, which are integral to the journey that can provide your best recall associations and be your most treasured mementos.

Do save ephemera such as headed paperwork, ticket stubs, local food wrappings and coasters and keep in a ziplock bag to be posted home every week or so, as and when your small notebook journal is filled.

There is something about holding a handwritten notebook and mementos that you once held and used when away in far flung lands that seems to magically bridge the gap across time.

Something a blog, in its virtual reality, can never do

Mementos and ticket stubs

SUMMARY -

1. Buy a small local notebook/journal to post home every week or two.

2. Incorporate your journalling into your daily activities by getting people you encounter to write in the pertinent place names of where you’re eating, sleeping and visiting, while you simply fill in how your senses are responding to the experience.

3. Keep headed receipts, entry tickets and travel mementos in ziplocks to post home with each notebook as they fill.

Spending time with travel memories fulfills your journey

Ok, as part of Tripbase’s project, I now have to nominate five other bloggers to share their 3 best kept travel secrets. Here are my nominations:

• Rita’s Outback Guide
• Brooke vs the World
• Our Hiking Blog
• Miss Kish
• Cairns Family Holidays

Tuesday Tip 5:

Do you ever get to the end of a year and say -

Where did the time go?

What did I do? Where did I go? And when exactly was that?

Book type journals are great for all the detail, but they just don’t cut it for seeing the year at a glance.

So for each month of this year I’m going to jot just one or two highlights in each of the boxes on a Map Journal so when I get to December the year 2010 will be laid out before me ~

simply summarized on a single sheet!

January 2010

I get the impression this year has started brightly ~

Click on the ‘2010‘ tag to see my year at a glance

Tuesday Tip 3:

“Im not sure where to start”

Making the first mark on a new Map Journal can be a bit daunting ~

Artists have sketch pads to practice on, so…

If you feel nervous about making a mess or a mark you’re not going to be happy with, make some cheap photocopies of some of the jotting boxes (for your personal use only of course!)

Now you can really let loose

However, this is only a short term confidence builder! Don’t practice and plan so much that the entries become contrived -

Spontaneity is the key to really sparking those memories back to life in years to come!

Tuesday Tip 2:

Some of my most fun and memorable travel started on a spontaneous whim

With no time for preconceived notions to be formed, there are no expectations to live up to and, the experience can only be judged as it happens ~

Jotting spontaneous notes rather than planning and preening journal entries is the same!

By worrying about the perfect opening phrase, the essence of the moment can be totally missed in a contrived composition.

Unlike a conventional book type journal, Map Journals have no beginning, no middle nor end so entries can be made randomly, and spontaneously, in any one of the boxes that surround the map.

Feel elated about an amazing experience/sight? Jot down how you feel now while it is fresh and vibrant in your mind – The important thing is not to think about it – let spontaneity capture the moment and you’ll be forever connected to that time and place…

Outside the Wollumbin toilets, in amongst the leaf litter...

“The essence of pleasure is spontaneity” Germaine Greer

Tuesday Tip 1:

Where it all began

Journey Jottings Map Journals came into being when I returned from a trip to the Northern Territory and felt my written journal just didn’t cut it when it came to showing and sharing with  family and friends where I’d been and what I’d been doing.

Personal tomes of the written word are wonderful for quiet reflective moments of solitary reminiscing, but what I needed was something more visually appealing, and something that would simply summarize my trip on a single sheet.

Since our first edition Map Journal (which we now fondly refer to as “market research”) I have taken it through a few metamorphoses over the years until now it’s in a 4th edition.

Since joining the social media realms of Twitter and Facebook I’ve had the fun of chatting to people holidaying and travelling around Australia (or wishing they were holidaying and travelling around Australia) and I’ve been asked for tips and tricks for getting the most benefit from their Map Journal.

As with anything new, or unfamiliar, its great to get a few pointers so I thought I’d apply some of  my Tuesday blog posts to a ‘Tuesday Tips’ session.

So… any questions for the inaugural post next week?

Add a comment here, or email me to ask!

I’ve been contacted by a High school whose theme for their end of year 12 graduation valedictory is to be Dr Seuss’ ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go’

“Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.  And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”

To mark the start of their life’s journey beyond school they wish to honour the occasion by giving each student a Journey Jottings Map Journal for tracking their future trails & tales ~

What a charming symbolic idea for stepping out into the world

In a recent blog post from Seth Godin he stated:

“Nostalgia is a basic human emotion

Kodak created a billion dollar industry by giving people a tool to feed their nostalgia. We don’t take pictures because we want to know what we’re seeing now… we already know that. We take pictures because it makes us feel good to know that years later, when nostalgia for that moment comes around, we’ll be ready.”

Traveller's Treasure Trove

I agree!

Its amazing how many people I have spoken with who say they wished that they’d written down even the odd place name when travelling, but they felt quite convinced at the time that it was all so vivid how could they forget? Yet 2 years on, they’re really disappointed that they can’t even recall the name of that pretty little town where they had such a wonderful al fresco lunch

...tracking my trails & tales

Godin goes on to say as an ‘Aside’ that “when doing something important, like launching a big project, or a new company, or running some sort of campaign designed to change things, keep a scrapbook. Not a note book, a tool for writing down facts. A scrapbook. Include photos and quotes and clippings and events. Two reasons. First, you’ll be glad later (I still have scrapbooks from some of my previous projects) and more important, because it will remind you that you’re doing something important and that time is precious.”

Time is precious and travelling is important