As a frequent traveller, I learned how to really whittle down how much I carried with me on long distance trips. However, with my field of work I had a bit of trouble nailing down the amount of tech stuff I brought with me. 
Watch my video to see what tech items made it into my carry on to China!
Did I miss anything? Let me know what you would want to bring with you on a trip this faraway.
I stopped reading books consistently a while ago. I was an avid reader growing up and devoured at least 2 books a week throughout my teens. However, as I grew older I found it harder to make the time to indulge in my favourite pastime. Plus my favourite time to read (while on the bus or another form of transportation) sadly was taken away from me by car sickness that I developed as I got older. So I took to enjoying podcasts and audiobooks. As a Toronto Public Library card holder, I have access to a huge catalogue of audiobooks for free on my phone through the Overdrive App. If you live in Toronto and have a Library card, get on this! Here are some of the books I’ve listened to while in the skies, milling about at home or while exploring a new city.
Modern Romance: An Investigation Book by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg If you want to giggle to yourself while also learning something, this is the book for you. Jenn Im’s January favourites included this audio book, and I finished it within days of her recommendation. I loved listening to ‘Modern Romance’! While I would have liked it if Ansari touched more on how race affects dating, I appreciated his insights and willingness to provide insight into women’s side of dating throughout the book.
Around the Way Girl: A Memoir by Taraji P Henson This biography gave me a new insight and appreciation for Henson. While I never watched cult hits, Empire or Baby Boy, I noticed her rise to stardom. This book, however, gave me the chance to not only appreciate her talent but her journey as a successful actress. I got a bit emotional throughout certain parts of the story (especially about her dad). If you enjoy coming of age stories with a twist of dark humour check this out.
The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene Shout out to Shannon Boodram for getting me on this book! I like learning about my flirting style and how that affects my love-life. It’s also cool to learn more about the women around me and how they express their sexual prowess in their daily lives.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Ok, you’ve probably read this already or watched the movie. However, the dramatised narration brought me on an even more dramatic rollercoaster ride than just reading the book. I finished this audiobook in 2 days. At the time I was working from home all day so other than bathing, this book was playing all day either aloud in my apartment or in my headphones while out (as you can tell I’m very social).This would be an amazing book for a long haul flight, although I’d recommend watching a comedy here and there to take a break from the dark and enrapturing storyline.
Why not Me? by Mindy Kaling This book got me laughing. I remembered loving, The Mindy Project when it first came out because I could watch a brown girl be the heroine of a love story. I found in this book that she sounded more mature and sure of herself than in her previous book, Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me?. She was more vulnerable and shared not only funny self-depreciating bits about herself but tips on confidence and how she found her voice. There were a few problematic statements she made in the book that automatically brought up my screw face, but they were few and far between.
The Chemistry Between Us Brian Alexander and Larry Young I loved this book! From learning about the Machihembra of the Dominican Republic (they grew up as women, but were revealed to be men as teenagers!) to the physiological differences between men and women, this book opened my eyes to the world around me within the realm of sex, relationships and love. While the studies cited in this book are very clinical, it’s narrated in a very fun and interesting way.
Food Junkies by Vera Tarman MD, Phil Wedell I know I was addicted to food as a kid. I was very unhappy and spent the better years of my early teens with my head in the fridge. While I learned to successfully break several of those habits and the destructive cycle, I still feel an odd need to overeat when I’m feeling stressed or sad. While I have yet to confirm the studies cited in the book (audiobook, remember!) I learned a lot from the authors. While the content was a bit dry in some parts, it was a great resource and reminder that many people struggle with food addiction and depression. I like that they cited the destructive cycles of people in the public eye including Oprah and Princess Diana along with everyday people that they interviewed in Toronto and beyond.
You might have noticed that none of these books are about travel. Leading up to my adventures I tend to obsess over my itinerary and destination. When on the plane or on my way to the airport I take a mental break from all things travel so my brain will be rested and ready for the adventure ahead.
Did I miss any books? What are your favourites?
Many bloggers have been wondering whether they should upgrade to the iPhone 7. In an industry that throws around "price per wear" to justify $5,000 purses, I figured, why not do some investigating on the ROI of the buzzed about iPhone 7? Keep reading to see whether the iPhone 7 will be worth it for you!
Airpods? I get why everyone is up in arms about it, but I don't care. Wireless headphones are the future. Deal with it! The way Apple dealt with it was to create a product that won't depend on tech that will be obsolete in the near future. I've been using wireless and wired headphones for years now and frankly, I'm excited to say ' boy bye' to detangling my buds.
Camera Who else hates needing to carry around a camera? I stopped bringing mine to press events out of frustration and function. First, cute bags (to me) are smaller. Second, the benefits of lugging my camera around like image stabilization and better image quality (with the 12MP back-facing camera and 7MP front-facing camera) are available on the new iPhone 7. Sure I won't get as good of a shallow depth of field (the phone isn't rocking a 50mm lens), but it'll save me time from uploading pictures via wifi to my phone (and save my shoulders from carrying a camera around).
Battery Life At the reveal event, it was boasted that the iPhone 7 would add '2 more battery hours into your day' for 6s owners. For anyone who is tired of bringing a portable charger around, that extra 2 hours is everything.
Water Resistant My phone is the most important piece of technology in my life. When my computer was acting up this year, it was a mild inconvenience to get my work done. When my phone decided life wasn't worth living after I dropped it in a lake (for half a second), I was irate. My phone was my source of revenue and efficiency. That could have totally been avoided had my phone been water resistant. You can't go deep sea diving with the iPhone 7, but quick submerges in water shouldn't harm it.
Speed Since 3D touch and other interactive features are maintained in this OS, it adds extra strain on older processors to perform. However, the iPhone 7 was made to run iOS10 smooth as butter. With the new A10 fusion chip, it's speedier when running iOS10 than older models.
If you were already going to upgrade this year, don't hesitate and get this baby. If you weren't going to upgrade hold out until the iPhone 7s comes out (like I'm going to). I buy my phones outright, so I've got to rejig my budget to be able to afford this one.
Are you getting the iPhone 7? Did you get it already? Tell me in the comments below.
Happy Thursday! I thought my site was due for a facelift, both in content and look. What do you think of the new theme? To celebrate, I wrote a few posts for all of you bloggers out there who want to take your blog to the next level with a few tricks.
Buffer App Content Scheduling I signed up for Buffer as soon as soon as I saw the low monthly price and that I could schedule on Pinterest and Instagram! I used the app religiously to monitor my scheduled content and ensured that everything went over well while I was on the go.
Bloglovin’ Blogger Feed I consider Bloglovin' similar to Feedly (another fave of mine). The RSS feed of blogs you follow updates found the experience of reading posts from my favourite blogs more enjoyable on the Bloglovin' app than on my computer.
A ColorStory or Afterlight Photo Editing After I downloaded these apps I was able to get the perfect edit on Instagram. They allowed my picky aesthetic to be imagined with a few adjustments to whatever photo I wanted to quickly post or schedule.
Apple Music Music Library The perfect playlist wasn’t unreachable after I downloaded the premium version of Apple Music. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of their set playlists, I was able to make my own much easier than on other apps since their catalogue was on another level.
Asana Task List Organizer I used Asana to get stuff done, and it worked. I was able to collaborate with my assistant and complete assignments for my clients way easier than I would have ever thought.The alerts on my mobile kicked my butt into gear when I was slacking off. I also used it when revamping my blog to get better content out to you guys!
What are your favourite iPhone apps? Comment below to let me know so I can try them out!
