I bought myself a
Surface Pro a week before my flight to visit my family in UK. I had visions of hours learning the ins and outs of
the Pro while travelling from New Zealand. The learning didn't happen. Why?
- The default setting of the Pro seems to be to have a million apps open so if not in flight mode, power is used quickly.
- I didn't know how to get rid of those apps.
- I was tired and jet lagged
- The movies on the back of seats were accessible and far more entertaining than the thought of learning a new gadget.
- When you are travelling, comfort, ease and familiarity are a premium. I felt none of these when I tried to operate the battery-sucking Pro.
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| Ye olde PC. Dell 1990 |
Still struggling with my Pro, my mother became weaker. Emails and
texts between nine siblings were nearly hourly. I needed access to e-communication.
Fortunately, my brother lent me one of his spare phones so I could at least
keep in touch. Not being able to
remain connected in a techno way added to the feelings of disconnection that
happen with any return to your homeland. [More information on feelings of disconnection during visits are on this free download Visiting Home Chapter 9, from my book, The Emotional Challenges of Immigration.]
My advice is to:
- Know your technology before you leave for a trip. Only take gadgets that are familiar and you know the battery time. Being unsure of power and entertainment possibilities, I ridiculously over-packed. My hand luggage included: Surface pro with case, charger and overseas adaptors, temp charger, Kindle, phone, glasses, a hard drive in case the movies weren't working, a book in case all failed and there were no movies.
Manage without technology. Take a book. When I first started crossing the planet, my only concern was which book to take to read. Large or small? One or two? Shakespeare or Mills and Boon? Book reading was a must. You may have been able to watch a movie or two but it was on the big screen and shown at times decided by the flight crew.
When there was only one screen. - Have plenty of capacity on your phone for all those pictures you take. This was warning from Iphone daughter, who at sixteen years old loved discovering London on her own. I did have capacity, with my Pro and portable hard drive. It did take my twenty something daughter a long time to download the few photos I took.
- Be prepared to buy a new Sim card or buy or borrow a phone. Don't rely on roaming phones. Neither my Samsung dinosaur or my daughter's Iphone5s roamed as promised. I could text and call only sometimes. I later found out that although I had paid for the roaming in NZ, it was dependent on the servers in the country I was in, so there were no guarantees of service. My daughter bought a UK number/sim and my borrowed phone was UK based. Both worked well in UK, but were limited in contacting NZ.
- Travel with a teenager or young adult. Technology upgrades and updates put me out of date painfully quickly.
- Use the precious time to engage with those in the real world. Do you travel to connect with your loved ones or connect with a screen? If you do decide duty free or being on holiday is the time to buy and/or learn about your new gadget, reconsider. Learning a new gadget takes time. A lot of time.
While away I was repeatedly thinking, note to self - do not
attempt to learn new technology when you are:
- Jet lagged
- At the beginning of your travelling where you are unused to where you packed everything.
- In an environment where the systems are different
- In a stressful times
My final recommendation:
Don't be too
ambitious with technology when travelling. Know your gadgets before you go, because
you don't know how long it will take to
get it all working.
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