Packing lightly? It's not an option

We weren't planning to stay in the States for more than a couple of weeks, so we thought we'd pack lightly. It was a good thought, but it didn't work out.

We started with just one suitcase, but I soon had that filled to capacity and I hadn't packed my shoes yet. We checked the weather in Las Vegas … warm days and cool evenings, so we needed jackets, too. With much reluctance, David hauled out one of the big duffels on wheels. We always bring stuff back with us, so we'd have plenty of extra room. Once I tucked away my shoes, jacket and a sweatshirt and David added his clothes, the available room seemed to dwindle significantly. We remember traveling in Peru for six weeks with just daypacks and the clothes on our backs. What happened to traveling light?

Now it was time to load the electronics. We obviously have too many gadgets. We had to bring two phones … one for the US and one for South Africa … both of which needed chargers. Then we each took a laptop … with power supplies. Then came our iPads. We managed with just one charging cable, but thought a DC adapter would be good in case we wanted to charge in the car and we needed an AC adapter, too.  I had my camera, of course, with extra batteries and a charger. We would overnight in Dubai on the way back, so we needed an adapter to fit UAE outlets. David needed his electric razor and its charger. We were bringing our electric toothbrush which also requires a charger. Then, we thought it would be reasonable to take a hard drive back with us for downloads. I thought I'd take my photo back-up hard drive, too, so I'd have photos available for writing blogs and articles. They each needed a different cable.

As we trudged up the dock lugging all out gear, it wasn't pretty. Too much stuff all crammed into a suitcase and a duffel and a backpack and a carry bag and a purse … you get the picture. Traveling light for us? Not an option.

A Lost Day, a Night in Dubai and My Return to South Africa

Like many international flights, my return Durban flight wasn't scheduled to leave Boston until 10:30pm. I kind of hate the late departure, but it did afford me a chance to get packed and spend the final minutes of our sister time in a more leisurely fashion. We stopped for an early dinner at Legal Seafood (If it ain't fresh, it ain't legal!) before heading to the airport. As usual, Lin and I are not good farewell-ers. We ignore the subject the last days of our visit and then only when we arrive at the airport and I'm unloading luggage at the drop-off do we acknowledge that I'm really leaving … and then the tears begin. Mushy, I know … it's just how it is.

I was feeling a mix of anticipation and melancholy as I watched Lin drive away. I headed into the terminal,  manhandling my 100 pounds of duffels and 30 pounds of backpack and purse to the check-in counter. No trip is remarkable unless there's a bit of drama. There was no check-in counter for Emirates Air! Terminal E is the international terminal at Logan and I had arrived at Terminal E, yet I couldn't find an Emirates Airlines check-in counter. I walked up and down the terminal, then finally asked an Aer Lingus agent (the Irish are always friendly!). “Oh, you're at the wrong terminal. You've got to go back to Terminal C”, and she pointed across the airport. “Is there a shuttle?” I queried. “Quickest to walk”, she said as she gave me directions which I immediately forgot.

I hadn't worn a coat since I hadn't planned on straying far from the car until I got to the airport. It was a bit nippy out, windy and quite dark. The duffels were sitting precariously on the cart … one fell off as I headed out the terminal door. I hefted it back on, made my way to the lower level and proceeded to head across the airport to Terminal C. When you're driving, this isn't drama at all. You just loop around and you're back at the other terminals. When you're walking, it's more a challenge. I knew where I wanted to go; I just couldn't see Terminal C. After losing the darned duffel twice more, passing through a parking lot or two, crossing traffic lanes with my load and dropping the F bomb a couple of times, I managed to get to Terminal C. The queue for Emirates passengers was halfway down the terminal. I got in line … at least there was a check-in counter up ahead. I commiserated with other passengers and by 9pm, I had boarding passes and hotel vouchers. I headed to the Ladies' Room one last time before heading through Security.

As I was finishing up in the Ladies', I heard a woman ask for help. “My aunt has fallen and can't get up.” A large, elderly woman was lying on the floor in the handicapped stall with a slim, younger woman standing beside a wheelchair. Try as we could, we couldn't manage to get the hefty lady back into the wheelchair. Both ladies were frustrated and crying. I searched around nearby for a security guard or anyone who could help, but there was no one in sight. Back at the check-in counter, I asked one of the agents to get help for a woman who had collapsed in the restrooms. She panicked a bit, but finally made a call. I checked my watch. It was getting close to boarding time. I rushed back to the Ladies' and told the niece I'd called for help. I waited with them another 10 minutes … making small talk. The tears and fears abated as I saw two medics coming down the hall. I pointed them in the right direction and hightailed it through Security. I thankfully boarded the plane with no time to spare, got situated and hoped for a glass of wine as soon as possible. No such luck. Airplane paperwork discrepancies had us waiting at the gate for another 90 minutes before take-off. The flight was long and crowded. Folks were chatty, the 500 available movies were unappealing and I was sleepy. I fell asleep long enough to miss my dinner and beverage service.

About 13 hours later, we arrived in Dubai. My layover for my Durban flight was 15 hours, but Emirates was providing a hotel room for me. I had hoped to get a quick tour of the city via taxi, but it was too late for any exploring and I was tired. The queue for Immigration and Customs was long, followed by a long walk to another queue waiting for the hotel shuttle and yet another queue for hotel check-in. Emirate's Copthorne Hotel was beautiful and quite a surprise. I hadn't expected much, but it was lovely.

A comfy bed and hot shower was just what the doctor ordered. I slept fitfully, afraid of oversleeping and missing my flight, but I still felt rested in the morning. A buffet breakfast was included with my complimentary room and I lingered over a cup of tea before heading on the shuttle back to the airport. I thought I might get some pix on the way back to the airport, but fog blanketed the area and I saw nothing.

With lots of time to spare, I grabbed a cup of coffee and snagged an hour of free internet time to call David and check emails. As I write this, I'm still at the airport in Dubai. I've chatted with David and I'm about to board the flight for Durban. The agent says it's on time. Wish me luck and no more drama!

We Now Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programming...

This is a guest post from Gentry Anderson, the developer at justalittlefurther.com

Over the last couple of years that I've been working on justalittlefurther.com, I've learned so much. I went from being someone who could barely keep her Facebook profile up to date to someone who updates this blog daily, manages the social media and marketing and successfully put together an eStore in which to sell our eBooks. I've even learned some HTML (the language of the internet) in order to manage justalittlefurther.com better. However, learning all that has made it clear to me that I have so much more to learn. It's akin to being in Spanish 101 … I can introduce myself and find a bathroom, but I'm far from fluent.

My lack of fluency became obvious this week when justalittlefurther.com got hacked. In fact, on Sunday morning, Google had blocked over 11,000 Wordpress websites because of this hack and unfortunately justalittlefurther.com was one of them.

After searching the internet for a solution, it became clear to me that I was not tech-savy enough to fix this myself. I immediately got in contact with our website hosting company and while they promised to fix the issue, they were buried up to their necks in the same requests from other clients and we would have to get in line. It would take a week to fix. Unacceptable! That's when I discovered Hack Repair by doing a thorough search on the internet.

One phone call and our site was visible again in 30 seconds. He was hired. After a few hours he had our site cleaned up of all malware and by that evening we were no longer being blocked by Google or any other search engine. Hallelujah! What a relief.

In the process I learned a lot regarding internet security and wanted to share that information. You don't have to have a blog to be hacked. In fact, if you access the internet for e-mail or social media, you can be hacked. Just look at all those famous actresses whose naked pictures are now all over the internet or the Sony hack presumed to come out of North Korea.

Nothing we do can fully protect us from being hacked. However, these are steps you can take to have a safer internet experience. Some of these things I've learned over the years as I've used the internet and some of these things I got from helpful articles on Hack Repair and other websites.

Passwords Change them often and make them strong. The first thing I did after I realized we had been hacked was to change the passwords to our Wordpress site. I also changed the passwords on our Facebook account, email and our web hosting site. Candidates for password reviews are your e-mails and social media sites, such as Facebook. I use Lastpass to help me create, maintain and update my passwords, but there are many ways to develop strong passwords.

Updates Whether or not you're running a blog or using your smart phone to peruse Pinterest, you should keep everything updated. Many updates are created to solve security issues. You should be running the latest version of your browser (like Internet Explorer or Chrome) and the latest version of your operating systems (like iOS or Windows 8). On the blog, I use lots of tools to enhance functionality and appearance. However, I had a function that came with my theme that I didn't use, so I didn't pay attention to it. I didn't update it when the update became available and that was the vulnerability that was exploited. That leads me to my next point.

Knowledge Part of the reason that I didn't update this particular feature was because it came packaged with my theme and I never used it. I didn't take the time to really get to know all the features of my theme, and so didn't realize that I needed to keep that feature updated myself. The take away here is that it's important to know the ins and outs of the internet tools you are using. Do you know how to secure your Facebook page? Do you understand what the Cloud is, how to use it and how to keep your information secure? Take the time to learn about all those devices and apps so that you can make sure you're using them as safely as possible.

Backups I back up our site regularly. If this hack had been catastrophic, I would not have lost more than a week's worth of blog posts. On the home front, all of our photos are backed up automatically to the Cloud. I also have them on DVDs. I'm also taking the best ones and making photo books out of them. If there's a fire at home, I have the photos on the Cloud. If Shutterfly has a catastrophic failure, I have them on DVD. I don't back everything up, but I do back up any thing that is important to me.

While this list is not comprehensive, it's a good start. It might be early to be talking about New Year's Resolutions, but I hope you will resolve to make your time on the internet a bit safer in 2015.