Moleskine City Guide

New Moleskine, Jan 2007, Canon Digital Rebel XT 

Indulge me for a moment while I tell you about my most recent journal purchase, my new Moleskine City Guide for London.

I heard about these little gems last year, but it was too late for the Rome trip last spring and, well, we hadn’t heard about this London assignment yet. But a few weeks ago, I ordered one from Powells Books online.

At first, I was skeptical that this would be of any more use to me than my normal journal plus say, a Michelin guide (or Lonely Planet or Rick Steves, or Eyewitness Travel guides, all of which I am not giving up by the way). I bought this one because I like Moleskine notebooks and thought a dedicated London journal that I use for my three years there would be a nice souvenir. At the very least, it could be a place for me to record and somewhat organize all of my favorite places in London.

Let me say—I Love it. Notice the capital “L”?

Here’s what you get:

3”x5” Moleskine

Personal Data Page

Three bookmarking ribbons

I. General Information

a. a fold out key map and metro map—I use this every day and I’m not even there yet!

b. Tube Station index—very helpful, and again I use this every day

c. Transport page (numbers and websites for airports, train, boat, car rental, bicycle rental, scooter/motorcycle rental, helicopter rental and balloon rental)

d. Useful Information pages

i. Travels/Planning Memo (place to write your destination/itinerary, the date, and notes)

ii. Measures and Conversions (ah, the metric system!)

iii. International Sizes

iv. A handy ruler along the side of one page (in case you need to measure anything smaller than 5.25”)

II. Topography (very handy!)

a. City Maps

b. London in Detail (zoomed in map)

c. Street Index

III. For Notes and Thoughts (23—or 46 back and front—unlined blank pages suitable for drawing, gluing on, writing)

IV. City File (4 pages per section—or 8 back and front—with laminated, flush cut tabs). This is great! I’ve started entering restaurants, museums, and places of interest. I drew little boxes next to the places of interest so I can tick them off once I go.

a. Food: places, legends, recipes

b. Drinks: bars, wineries, stories

c. Sleep: places, dreams, adventures

d. People: names, faces, encounters

e. Places: info, shopping, art

f. Books, Movies, Music

g. Personal Tabs (You get a sheet of tab labels printed with: Kids, Gestures, Events, Exhibitions, Musts, Sport, Getting Around, Galleries, Museums, To Avoid, Web, Miscellaneous, Theatre, Markets, Words, and 20 blank. Right now, these are sitting in the very handy back pocket).

V. Loose Notes for Quick Message (GASP! Tear something OUT of my Moleskine?! These are four sheets, each divided into eight perforated sections for when you want to give someone a note, write an itty bitty shopping list, whatever)

VI. Enclosures

a. Translucent Sheets for Tracing Itineraries (self sticking tracing paper, pre-cut for placing over the map pages so you can plan your walk, or remember how to get back to your flat). These are on a slip out piece of cardstock, tucked neatly into the Moleskine’s awesome back pocket.

b. Adhesive Labels for Personalizing (see IV g)

These City notebooks are available for: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Prague, Rome and Wien. Supposedly, this year they will be released for: (Spring) Boston, New York, San Francisco, Washington and (Fall) Chicago, Los Angeles, Montreal, Seattle.

They’re about $17, by the way.

Oh, enough about the notebook. What about our move?
Um…I said this yesterday, but the waiting game is so frustrating that I will say it again today. Apparently, once Mr. DJ’s work papers arrive (5-10 days), we will need to submit them and our assorted papers to the British Consulate for our visas. By mail this takes up to 10 days. If we want it faster, we can fly to LA, Chicago or New York (why isn’t there one here in Texas?). So, we are still fine-tuning our timing. It is very time consuming.

And more time-consuming stuff, I started my inventory for the international movers. It’s pretty tedious work. I just want to be done with it and all the packing. We have to be finished with our packing by Saturday because Sunday is filled with birthday activities for Roxi. We decided not to have a big party this year (too many parties already plus this move got in the way), but we’re still doing stuff with family and a few friends.

Last night, my friend M brought us dinner from Carrabbas. Isn’t she awesome? M + W will be celebrating their first wedding anniversary next week, so happy anniversary you guys!