Although I did work more than I expected to this past year, I managed to squeeze in some fun too. Here are my highs from 2016 — note that this is not really food-related — I might do a restaurant post when I’m caught up…

10. Getting upgraded to business class on my London to Austin flight on my birthday!

9. Visiting Venice for the first since since I was 19!

8. Taking a street art tour of Camden with monprixx. I haven’t spent as much time in Camden as I used to in the old days. This tour with monoprixx was awesome and I highly recommend it.

7. Lunch at The Sportsman. Because lunch at The Sportsman.

6. Visiting Sofia Bulgaria (Country #50!) and taking a wine tour of the countryside with Via Vino.

5. Finally making good on my promise (threat?) to visit my friends in Biarritz over the summer. It was such a lovely visit. This needs to be an annual occurrence.

4. Spending two blissful weeks at Kamalaya Koh Samui, reading and spa-ing.

3. Touring Naples with the amazing Daniel Young and eating ALL the pizza. (I’ll write this all up soon.)

2. My first visit to Hong Kong in 18 years: I ate all the dim sum and rode that Star Ferry back and forth across the bay all day long.

1. My all too few days in Chiang Mai. I fell in love with this northern Thai city and all its temples and expat-friendly culture — plus all the delicious food. Future early retirement destination? Possibly!

Lows (In no particular order…)

Working a lot

Having to fly to the US for work on my birthday (but see high re: business class upgrade)

Brexit

Donald Trump

Experiencing colon hydrotherapy (don’t ask)

Getting my UK taxes done (kinda similar to colon hydrotherapy)

The American I met in Bulgaria who told me that I won’t be able to learn anything after 50

The time someone I’d never met before offered, unprompted, “You don’t look a day over 37.” GEEZ. Thankfully, I was carded at Waitrose not long after that. To be fair, I am over 37 but for the love of God. If you can’t say anything nice, DON’T SAY IT.

Spilling a glass of water on my laptop. RIP Lenovo. Then, buying a new HP laptop too quickly without doing enough research. I liked my old Lenovo better. It was light! And it had a touch screen! And it was quiet. Now I have a honker of a laptop. Do you know they’re not making solid state hard drives in large sizes? So if you want 1 TB like I need, you’re screwed. Honker it is. 15.6 inches too! Ack. Also, the world wants you to move everything to The Cloud. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Onwards…

What will 2017 bring? I’m trying to eat less, exercise more, see more of the world, and make more money off the internet. Also, romance. Let’s hope that all happens! Wish me luck and all the best for 2017!

The post My 2016 Highs and Lows first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

1. Have fifty coffees with fifty people. My friend Antonia told me about this article in Inc. about making big life decisions. I like it. I’m going to do it. I’ve already started doing it. Do you want to have coffee with me and talk London and travel and social media and life changes? Let me know and I’ll add you to my list of 50 people to have coffee with. (Also, it doesn’t necessarily have to be coffee. We can eat too. Or drink. I’m kinda on a fiscal diet though, just to be clear.)

2. Do the things I said I was going to do in this post and do them soon. Like this summer. Before the August bank holiday weekend, if I have to give myself a deadline.

3. Do more with social media. Instagram, Twitter. In the early days, 3,000 followers on Twitter was a big deal. Now it is nothing.  London moved on in the four years I was gone. (Four years!) Things changed. People changed. The London restaurant blog scene changed. I’ve changed. I’ve been working too much. I gotta get back IN IT. I can’t decide if I should do more with Vine because part of me thinks I should concentrate my efforts on one photo/video platform and Instagram lets you do video so why should I use Vine too? Please advise. Also, I have looked at Snapchat but I am not sure about that one either, but maybe I will try it out and see. I will set a goal of three two Snapchat videos by the August bank holiday weekend. That sounds good.

4. Get rid of stuff. I am trying to lead a simpler life. I’ve downsized a lot already — stuff expands to fill the space, my people — but I want to downsize more. Purses, shoes, old documents I’ve been carting around. A lot of it has to go. I want to live in an oasis of calm. I want to be able to move at a moment’s notice.

5. Spend more time with my London restaurant blog. I love my blog, even though I hate it (and Wordpress) sometimes. I’ve missed my blog. It makes me a better  person. I plan on spending more time with my blog. (“More” is to be defined.)

6.. Go to cardio boxing more often. Like I said before…stuff expands to fill the space.

7. Go to Berlin in July. And travel more, in general. I’m at 48 countries so far. I’d like to hit 50 before the year is over.

I think seven goals is enough. Don’t you? Oh and before you think I’m totally crazy for leaving a good job with a good company — my parents don’t  think I’m crazy and that’s very important! Everything is going to be a-ok!! I promise. I’ve got a new gig that I’ll tell you about soon…when we have coffee!

The post Now That I’ve Left My Employer… first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

To have a website that doesn’t change and stays static feels weird to me. Having lots of projects for Passportdelicious.com feels good. Maybe I should set up a Jira!!

The projects for my London restaurant blog run the gamut. A few are pretty simple…For example, I wanted to create an Amazon store of Travel products I like. (Complete!) I also wanted to implement social media icons in the right sidebar for Twitter, Facebook, etc. (Complete!) Other projects are more vague. “Figure how how to use Bloglovin,” for example. (Someone please tell me because I don’t really get it.) Some projects are a lot of hard work…like fixing all my old Urbanspoon links that got messed up when I moved to Wordpress in 2010. Some I don’t even want to think about…like resizing all my photos so they fit into a different site layout. Uggh.

It would be impossible for me to do all this work myself, so I’ve been doing some experimenting.

The first experiment was with Fiverr.com. Fiverr has people who will do lots of jobs for you and your website for $5 USD. I wanted to get some feedback on the structure and speed of my site, so I paid a guy $5 to run some reports and tell me what I needed to do. One of his main recommendations was that my site was TOO SLOW. Over the years, too many plugins and too many photos have really been dragging things down. I’ve already removed about 15 plugins and then I paid Bluehost, my hosting provider, $89 to do some site optimization for me, which improved my load times immensely. I still have a lot of other work to do based on the Fiverr report, but I’ve already made a ton of progress. And I am down to just 23 Wordpress plugins!

The second experiment was with 99designs.com. My site needs a redesign. I want it to feel cleaner and more modern and less blogg-y. Also, Google is now penalizing sites that aren’t truly mobile responsive/mobile ready. So I started a design contest on 99designs to see what people could come up with. I didn’t put a lot of money forward — I just ran a “bronze” contest — which was maybe a bad idea. I wasn’t too impressed with the results that I got. I need to call them and get my money back. Would I try 99designs again? Assuming no one reads this and volunteers to redesign my site…probably…but I would pay more money to access the more experienced designers.

This kinda all leads me to monetization. I don’t particularly like having ads on my London restaurant blog, but I need them. (I did take the ad out of the header though.) My site hosting with Bluehost costs me about $144 a year. (They are very pleasant people and I recommend them.) Backup Buddy costs me $30 a year. Moo cards…£50? After my scare last summer with the crazy song that kept playing whenever I loaded my site, I also purchased Sitelock at another $30 a year.  And don’t even ask me about that day recently when I renewed all my domains for the next 5+ years and how much that cost me. If Adsense can help me recoup some of that spend, that’s not a bad thing. So the ads will stay for now unless you have other suggestions for how I can break-even if not make a little bit of money. Also, I have some life changes coming up and truth be told, the money would be most welcome. (More about the life changes later this month.)

Ah, and content. I have made a list of 51 posts I want to write! 51 posts! Let’s see how far I get. Content is king! I need more content.

And people! The 1 year anniversary of my return to London is next month. I know I haven’t seen a lot of people that I spent a lot of time with in the days of old. That has everything to do with me and the work and the job. People, I am coming for you. Soon. I promise. Get ready for coffee.

xoxo

The post Experiments in Blogging: Fiverr.com, 99designs.com and Other Things… first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Pretty much every London food blogger loves Bob Bob Ricard.

London Food Bloggers by Social Media Presence

Updated for 2018!

Looking for London’s top food and restaurant bloggers? Have I got a list for you!! To help everyone get to know some of London’s most popular restaurant bloggers, I put together a list of the top London food blogs on my radar. This list was originally created in 2015, when I took at look at the top restaurant bloggers on Urbanspoon and pulled together all the stats on their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram followers. Urbanspoon has since shut down — they were bought out by Zomato and then killed and the Zomato list of London restaurant bloggers is now entirely different and a little weird, frankly — so  now I’ve just updated the list based on what I know.

Why did I put this together? Up until around 2011, I used to be one of London’s top restaurant bloggers. (3500 followers on Twitter was a lot back then.) But then I moved back to the US for work. I’ve been back in London since 2014 (wild horses etc etc) but I don’t blog as much as I used to. I still love to read all the London restaurant blogs through!

London Food Bloggers: Updated List for 2018

OK, here’s my updated list of London food and restaurant bloggers by social media profile…I added myself at the end because, uh, this is my list? I  left out accounts that are purely Instagram accounts; I was specifically focused on folks with an appreciation of long-form writing because I like words and really, this isn’t a list of London’s top food and restaurant Instagrammers.

I also left out blogs that were more lifestyle content than London restaurant content. (But hey, I’m a reasonable person. Email me or comment below if you think you should be listed here.)

You can click on the column headings to rank. Enjoy.

Big Observation on London Food Blogs

The biggest gains in followers occurred on Instagram. I still have the old table if you’d like to look at it. I mean, it makes sense but it also drives me crazy because you’re liking the PHOTO and not the words. Also, I am concerned that some Instagrammers are not disclosing freebies and invites to review. Guys, we’ve been through this before with blogging. You will be found out. Just be honest. It’s not hard to be honest. Also, if you are a restaurant or a PR, you should require your invites to disclose.

Flaws in My Methodology

Social media data changes frequently, so please consider this all a snapshot and not gospel truth. For example, in rerunning this data in 2018, I am SHOCKED by how many London food bloggers have disappeared completely in just three years — like their websites don’t even exist anymore. Or maybe I’m not shocked. I’ve been at this since 2004 (!!!) and it’s not easy to keep up the momentum and energy.

Other flaws in my methodology…to calculate London food blog “Reach,” I just added together Twitter + Facebook + Instagram. Obviously, there is usually overlap between the three platforms. (For example, I follow the London restaurant blogger Chris Pople via all his platforms.) I don’t have the magic social media tools to determine the actual unique intersection, so we’ll have to make do with this sum for now. (Although I am open to suggestions on how to get some sort of figure on total unique followers.)

Big flaw…there’s been some talk about some London food bloggers purchasing followers. So please don’t take these figures at face value, and remember that if you are building an invite list,  a smaller London restaurant blogger might actually deliver more value than a (seemingly) larger London restaurant blogger. (Micro influencers are the future!) You should also check out engagement numbers. If someone has 100,000 followers on Twitter or Instagram but very few likes on any of their tweets or pics, there’s something wrong.

Are You a London Food Blogger?

Sad that you didn’t make my list of London restaurant bloggers? Don’t be sad. Like I said, this was highly unscientific. If you blog about restaurants in London, I’m happy to add you. Just comment below and I will do some reconnaissance and add more rows to my table.

Lastly, you might find these other blog posts of mine helpful:

• My 10 Favorite Restaurants in London
• How to Save Money on Restaurants in London

The post London Food Bloggers by Social Media Presence first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Yes, I’m on a gratefulness kick these days. Let’s see how long it lasts. It’s Day 2! I’m optimistic. Today I would like to take the time to thank the London restaurant bloggers and other websites that have provided me with traffic over the last 12 months. Without you, well, I’d have no traffic. I’m grateful for you. I wish there were more people like you, especially these days when no one cares about blogs and sidebar links anymore. (We live in a “Twitter is the New RSS” world, my friends.) Thank you, those in this list, for being a friend. I appreciate it. (Although given that a few of these sites are no longer blogging, maybe I should find some new friends??)

1. Tehbus. EUWEN! Where are you?? Because although you haven’t blogged about London restaurants in a while, your site still serves as a powerhouse of referral traffic. I’m sorry I haven’t seen you since that night in Camberwell.  Let’s have an adventure, soon. But not the type with crazy taxi drivers like that one time.

2. AllWomensTalk: Proving that SEO does still exist, this post about the best Chicago Food Blogs still is bringing them in, even though I don’t live there anymore. Thank you, AllWomensTalk. Even though you ranked me LAST. I am grateful to you.

3. LondonChow:  One of the old school London restaurant blog crowd! Hello, LondonChow! Thank you for sending me traffic. I am not sure we have ever met though?? That is weird. We should remedy that soon. (Although we’ll have to agree to disagree on BBL in your Top 10. They just don’t do it for me.)

4. The Happiness Project London: I watched two people that I’ve never met before fall in love via the Internet! That was awesome!! Although Sasha hasn’t blogged in a while, you can follow the adventures of her very entertaining other half, Luke, on Twitter and also visit his London shop, Brompton Food Market. I love when the Internet becomes REAL.

5. Gourmet Chick. I miss my friend Cara, source of many London restaurant adventures. I moved to Chicago, she moved to Melbourne. I’ve moved back to London but she is still in Australia, far far away. But the magic of Twitter and Facebook brings us together now and then and for that, I am — you guessed it — grateful.

6. Mmm-Yoso. I don’t even remember how I discovered these guys, but it was ages and ages and ages ago. (I vaguely remember a work trip to San Diego back in 2007?) And they’ve been sending me a nice amount of traffic ever since. Thank you, people of California!

7. 3 Guys on A London Bus: I don’t know who these guys are, but I remember at the time when they posted this piece, I was hit with a huge avalanche of traffic. Proving again the power of search engine optimization, this one little blog post is still delivering hits all these years later. Powerful stuff. Thanks guys!

8. Roam & Home: My Chicago partners-in-crime. We met via our blogs and have had many adventures since. Chicago! London! Bogota! Paris! Karen and Bob are the best!! And I miss them since moving to London. 🙁

9. Not from Around Here:  This expat blog has been sending traffic my way for a long time. 2009? Sadly…no blog posts since 2012 and she has also gone quiet on Twitter. Where are you, old expat blog friend?

10. The Blog about Nothing in London: I got to meet fellow London restaurant blogger Odo when he came to visit Chicago the other year. (Don’t let his blog’s title fool you.) We had crazy cocktails at The Aviary and then he ate the biggest hamburger I’ve ever seen in my life at Little Goat in the West Loop. That’s skillz. Since I have been back in London, we have yet to reconnect! Must remedy this soon!

So…that’s it from me for now. Gotta get back to this other gratefulness stuff…and find some new Internet friends. Ciao.

The post It’s Gratefulness Week Here at PassportDelicious… first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

London, you are the best and the most beautiful. I love  you, totally and completely. I get lost in you. (Just like Mark Wallinger and Labyrinth, his London Underground art series of mazes .) But sometimes in love, there is not-so-love. Here is the bad and the good from where I am sitting today.

THE BAD…and/or the things I’ve forgotten…

Yelp London is useless! Barely any reviews for a lot of places.Where is everyone leaving their reviews? No one writes reviews on Time Out anymore. I am left with Foursquare, and even that is kinda sucky and lacking in reviewness. HELP. I want the voice of the people. Help me.

What is with hair color on women? I’ve seen a lot of washed out pink and blue hair. I don’t like it. It looks tacky. If you’re going to do it ladies, MAINTAIN IT.

Flowered trousers…perhaps a bigger thing when the weather was warmer but the patterned blousey trousers on women thing. I don’t know if I like it? Oh wait…hold on, my phone is ringing and it’s MC Hammer…

Smoking…After spending the last four years in the U.S., I have honestly forgotten that people still smoke. On the sidewalk/pavement in London as I’m walking, at work when they need to take breaks and then return to stink up the meeting room, everywhere, everywhere. Smokers are everywhere. Stop putting fire in your mouths, people. It is going to kill you a lot faster than a lot of other things.

Flats owned by people in Singapore and Hong Kong: I had no idea that this was a thing until I started flat-hunting this summer and when I would ask about the landlord, 9 times out of ten, they would tell me, “Oh, he/she is in Singapore/Hong Kong.” Apparently, people in Asia have bought up all the new construction property in east London these last few years. That’s fine, but if you’re going to do it love, hire a property manager. I’m not calling you in Hong Kong when the boiler’s out.

Taking a shower is still hard. In my new flat, I’ve got the two-and-a-half-foot bath and the shower half-glass. I have conquered the two-and-a-half-foot bath (I think) but I HATE THE HALF-GLASS. How do British people take showers?? I do not understand it. I flood the bathroom all the time, and if my bathroom floor tile is any indication, the last tenant did too.

They don’t bag your groceries for you anywhere. They just stare at you (or make no eye contact whatsoever) and then they wait for you to leave. #AWKWARD.

The importance of the past: I learned this hard during my first tour-of-duty. In my experience, British people don’t forget any sort of past. I’m not saying that Americans forget the past, but in general, my take is that Americans have a mindset that’s much more like “Ok, that happened. That was the past. Hindsight is 20/20. Let’s move forward.” Take me out for anything Japanese/Chinese/Vietnamese and I’ll tell you more.

Toasters everywhere but no toaster ovens. I just want an English Muffin pizza. Personally, I’m afraid of toaster-toasters. I’m always afraid the toast will catch fire inside. And I don’t want to fire up the broiler just for some cheese on toast.

THE GOOD…

Tethering: My iPhone came with a wifi hotspot, as opposed to in America, where you have to pay extra for that functionality. So if you’re in London and you wanna tether to my hotspot, you just let me know.

UHT MILK! I love long-life milk because you know, British milk goes bad in like less than five days. (American milk lasts a lot longer, like two weeks.) So I buy UHT milk and it lasts forever. I probably don’t want to know what they did to it to make it that way, do I? A lot of people use UHT milk to make yogurt, apparently. Me, I just use it for my morning coffee.

Charging for plastic bags: London started doing this ages ago. I believe California just started doing it. The U.S. is BEHIND.

Pizza Express Salad dressing: Haters, don’t be hating. This stuff is STILL delicious and I go through it like white wine.

The roads are smooth! I don’t know if it’s because I was unlucky enough to live in Chicago, but London roads are SMOOTH! There are no potholes! It’s amazing! I can ride my bike anywhere and not need any dental work!!

Recycling: My building recycles, we recycle at work, and anywhere I go around London, there’s one of those handy separators for recycling. Me and my empty Diet Coke cans feel so virtuous. Saving the world, people. Saving the world!

Direct debits! No checks! I’ve been here four months and I haven’t written ANY CHECKS. It’s amazing. I cannot believe that in America, people still write checks. It is crazy. My debit card is my favorite thing.

Kettles, kettles everywhere: I love my kettle. I use it more frequently than my microwave.

The weather! It’s NOT SNOWING! It’s not frigid. It’s nice. Thank God for that. Honestly, words cannot describe. On January 6th 2015, I am going to throw a “-40 degrees is where Fahrenheit and Celsius intersect” party. You’re invited.

xoxo

The post Hey, I’ve Been Back in London for Four Months Now! first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

After a frustrating few hours under the hood of my website yesterday, I am ready to throw in the towel. But maybe there is someone out there who can help me.

A few months ago, I noticed that occasionally, when I loaded my Wordpress site, it would play a song. The song goes something like “This is what you want, this is what you get…” The song doesn’t play all the time — it seems to be the first time I load my site each day — so I thought maybe it was an ad or something. Well, three months later and it is still happening. I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is, so I suspect it is malware. Here is what I’ve done during my investigations:

• Updated Wordpress to the most recent version. Performed a full backup of everything just in case.
• Updated all active plugins to latest version.
• Deactivated any plugins I don’t use.
• Run a free malware scan on Scuri. (Negative.)
• Paid money for SiteLock and had them run a more comprehensive scan. That turned up three outbound links to sites with spam to I removed those. The next scan turned up perfectly clean.
• Wrote a post on the Wordpress forums and asked for help. (The three responders suspect an ad.)
• Researched whether Google ads ever play anything with sound. They don’t, according to my research.
• Searched my home page code for any mentions of .avi, .wav, .mp3, .m4a. Negative.

I really want to get rid of this annoying song so I need some help. I should note the song has changed a bit since I originally discovered it. It used to do the lyrics followed by broken glass. The broken glass sound seems to have disappeared.

If you are good with code and can help me get to the bottom of this, I will treat you to Sunday lunch at Hix Smithfield. (Roughly £60 value, plus the invaluableness of my scintillating company.) And if you are good with Wordpress and code, there could be some smaller projects in it for you.

Please help!

***UPDATE: Thank you to the Internet and @cayloe for pointing me to this post, which explains the song “this is what you want, this is what you get” playing on your site. After 10 years as a loyal Sitemeter subscriber, I have removed their code from my website.***

The post Please Help Me Fix My Wordpress Site… first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

To London.

Yes, if you’re reading this Wednesday evening Chicago time, I have purchased a one-way ticket from Chicago to London and I’m somewhere in the sky right now.

My belongings sit in a container in a port somewhere in America, ready to depart. A lot of Americans I know think I’m crazy. (“Wait…you’re moving to London on Wednesday?” and “You don’t have anywhere to live??” and/or “You still don’t have a plane ticket?”) But my parents and Uncle George and Aunt Ursula and legions of taxi drivers across Chicago don’t think I’m crazy, and that says something now, doesn’t it? 

Oh yeah, and that plane ticket problem? Obviously I solved it. Thank you, Internet, which allows you to purchase magic paperless tickets to and through the sky with bits of plastic at the last possible minute.

You know what the weird thing is…10 years ago on June 26, 2004, I published my first ever blog post on the then “Krista in London” site on Typepad.

If that’s not a crazy big sign from somewhere, I don’t know what is.

So yes London, I have come back for you.

P.S. I took that photo under the El tracks in Chicago at that point in Lincoln Park where Bissell dead-ends into a parking lot around North Avenue. Tunnel vision, for sure.

The post Goodbye, Chicago first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

I’m less gushy, less wordy, less concerned about a lot of things, I’ve moved continents, and I’ve switched to Wordpress. (A mistake, in hindsight. You would think that me, with years of experience in software product management, would have factored in switching costs when making the switch. Bye bye, SEO. And still so grrrr that the woman who made the switch refused to update my Urbanspoon links because “it wasn’t in the spec” so now they all refer to Arbutus in London.)

It’s been a nice ride. Thanks for sticking with me all of this time. xxoo

P.S. Normally, I am very good with math. I don’t know what I was smoking. But this is my 9th anniversary, not my 10th! Title updated.

The post Happy 9th Anniversary to Me first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

My TripIt Pro Review

Let’s start with the free stuff. I am totally in love with TripIt. I book some flights, I book some hotels, I forward the email confirms to plans@tripit.com and TripIt creates nice little itineraries for me. But then it goes to the next step…landing in London at 11 am? TripIt knows where your hotel is and will estimate how much time it will take you to get there. In my case, TripIt has estimated two hours from Heathrow to the City, which I think is a fine estimate, based on my experience. (But you don’t know about my superb airport-leaving skills. I will be in the City, if I’m lucky, in one hour and fifteen minutes.) TripIt will also add the average daily temperature and map everything out for you so you know where you are.

But now let’s talk about TripIt Pro! TripIt Pro will track all of your hotel and airline loyalty programs. So as you can see in my screenshot, I have 43,385 points that will expire in 60 days. Hence my mad dash yesterday to move my Virgin Atlantic miles to  Hilton HHonors before they expire next month.

And ALERTS! The TripIt alerts are awesome, and my experience has been they come in before my United alerts. Has my flight changed gate? Is it delayed? What baggage claim has been assigned to the flight? These all pop up as handy e-mail alerts AND notifications on my iPhone.  There’s also a cool feature I haven’t used yet that, in case you are stuck in a middle seat, you will get a notification when a better seat becomes available. Check out the full list of TripIt Pro features.

OMG and flight refunds!! TripIt Pro can monitor flight prices and let you know if prices have fallen below what you initially paid.

My TripIt Pro review is overwhelmingly positive. TripIt Pro is not cheap really — it’s $49 a year — but if you travel a lot and like instant information and if you want to track all your hotel loyalty programs (and ID numbers!) in one place, you should get it.

P.S. Just to be clear, this is my personal endorsement of TripIt and TripIt Pro. I have no relation to them whatsoever. 

The post My TripIt Pro Review: Why You Should Get It! first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

I’m rambling. The fact is, this blog is coming to an end. I’m not as excited about food in Chicago as I was about food in London. That may be more about me than it is about Chicago, so Chicago, don’t take it personally. (Although the local industry really needs to invest in power washing its restrooms and you really don’t need to fill my water glass every three minutes.) 2004 til now ain’t a bad run. And maybe I’ll keep going with it. Maybe in a different way. Maybe during trips to London. Or maybe if I really discover something amazing in Chicago.Maybe.

The post Everything’s Fine first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

I sometimes find myself these days gripping my iPhone like a child would a blankie or favorite stuffed animal. I rarely put it down or let it out of my sight. I SLEEP with it. And yes, while this is disturbing, I’ve been thinking about how my life has changed for the better because of it. Especially for someone who lives alone, doesn’t have a car, and lives 1,300 miles away from family.

1. Words with Friends, online “Scrabble.” Generally, I talk to my mother once every week to ten days. With Words with Friends, we play EVERY day. I also play Words with Friends with my cousin Maureen, who I see once year if that. But now we too “talk” on Words with Friends nearly every single day. (You can play me under kristainlondon — yes, still haven’t gotten around to changing that username.) Neither my mother nor Maureen are happy that I keep beating them though.

2. Peapod, online groceries. Without a car, I used to hate schlepping to the grocery store, especially if I needed anything big like laundry detergent or paper towels or toilet paper. Now, as I remember things I need around the house, I add them to a shopping list on my Peapod app, and when I get to about $100 worth of stuff, I get it all delivered. MAGIC. Just last week, I was sitting in a restaurant thinking “I should really get those paper towels delivered soon” and placed my order via the app around 6 pm at night. The groceries were delivered by 8 am THE NEXT MORNING.

3. Zipcar, online car-rental. OK, I don’t have a car, but if I need a car, I just hit up Zipcar (the pay-by-the-hour car-sharing service) and do a search for available cars within a 1 mile radius and boom, I’ve got a car for a few hours for just $20 or $25 bucks or so. It’s life-changing to have access to a car when you previously wouldn’t have.

4. Yelp, online city guide. Laugh however you’d like about Yelp, but the other night, my friend Christina and I finished dinner at a local brewery here in Chicago — Revolution Brewing — and we weren’t ready to go home yet. We did a quick proximity search on Yelp to see what else was around and discovered The Whistler up the street. I drank a lot White Russians and we met a lovely couple from Hungary, all the while grooving to a pretty fantastic DJ. Wouldn’t have found The Whistler without Yelp. (Although of course we could have  asked random people on the street.)

5. My Transit, online transit times: I take the bus now ALL THE TIME. All thanks to this app, which tells me when the next bus is coming. I’ve become quite the expert in finding a good coffee shop to wait in while I wait the six or seven minutes for the next bus. My point here is that I’ve enlarged my geographic circle of influence. I explore more of Chicago than I would otherwise because it’s so much easier for me to take the bus.

6. xfinity, cable TV scheduler from Comcast: I can be 4000 miles away in a different country, and I can still program my DVR to record stuff. That’s pretty awesome.

7. xfinity player: I can be somewhere not in Chicago, and still watch my favorite shows online. Also, I don’t have Showtime or HBO and the xfinity player lets me watch a limited number of episodes of things like Homeland and Girls for FREE.

8. Uber and Hailo, taxi ordering services: The other day, I was stuck on a street corner in the West Loop of Chicago after an ok lunch at Belly Q. The restaurant called us five taxis. One arrived. Finally, I ordered an Uber taxi off my phone and BOOM. I had my own personal taxi in three minutes. AND this was all paid for by my credit card, which was great because I was low on cash.

9. Everyblock, neighborhood communities: I’m kinda obsessed with this neighborhood community website. You type in your address and it tells you where the new restaurants are opening, what property is for sale, where all the most recent crime has happened, and what new fun community events are happening. The other day, I got this weird letter from the city about electricity and I didn’t know who to ask about it. I posted it on Everyblock and within minutes, I had the answer.

10. Apple Remote, control your Apple TV from your phone: Half the time, I cannot find my Apple TV remote. No trouble, I can just USE MY PHONE instead. It’s kinda awesome.

I can go on and on. You get the point. Actually, you’re probably sitting there thinking, “Well this is a dumb post. Who doesn’t know all these things?” And that’s okay. I’m just in a thankful-quality-of-life mood at the moment and wanted to write this all down.

The post Things That Have Changed in My Life Because of My iPhone first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.