tips Archives | Sunita Girl

Safety Time

May 31, 2017

#HurricanePrep Another year has gone by since my last safety post. That time went by so fast.

June is here again and it means the start of Hurricane season here in Florida.

Last years’ post has a good list of safety items you should have in case of emergency.

This month I’ll check all those supplies and make sure they are working.

Even though I live in an apartment that has their own maintenance, I still like to do my own safety checks just to be sure.

I’ll test the smoke detectors (wearing earplugs of course) and checking that the fire extinguisher is charged.

Also will check that my emergency hurricane supplies are working and functional and stockpile a few new cans of food.

Another good disaster preparedness step is to secure important documents in a safe place and make copies of them and save those in a secure cloud service just in case.

Make sure you have the correct insurance coverage also in case of a hurricane or flood.

This year in Florida, our Governor has declared a nine-day tax free period for hurricane supplies beginning May 31.

Useful Travel Apps

May 24, 2017

For my last trip I found the following Android apps useful*:

Google Calendar – If it’s not on my calendar it not important to me. I used it for adding reminders for the trip. Also I can schedule flights according to the correct timezone for both departure and landing.

Evernote – I keep my packing checklist here. It’s useful to share the list with my travelling companion to make sure we have the stuff we need.

Go City Card – Kept a QR code version of my multi-pass tickets here. It was easy to retrieve and scan at ticket counters.

Google Play Music – For playing music via Bluetooth in the rental car.

Safety Season

June 30, 2016

Now that I’m living in Florida I’m more aware of hurricane season June to November. Since this is a new place for us we need to get prepped for emergencies.

Regardless of where you live you should have some sort of emergency or evacuation plan and stock up on emergency supplies. Part of my preparation supplies are listed out below. I have never experienced a major hurricane yet but I have had the parking lot of my old apartment in Florida flooded out before. I ended up stranded for a day and a night before the water went down the next morning. I had to survive off of canned food for lunch and dinner that time.

Smoke detectors and carbon monoxide sensors. Make sure to test them and make sure they are working

Fire extinguisher. Note that there are different types of extinguishers for different types of fires such as cooking fires

Apartment upgrade- Light up my life

April 15, 2016

I moved into an apartment in Florida. One of my pet peeves with a new place is lighting. Why hasn’t everyone converted to LED light bulbs yet? I found a combo of incandescent and CFL light bulbs throughout the entire apartment when I moved in. Incandescent is so inefficient and use up so much electricity. The CFLs are more energy-efficient but contain harmful chemicals if they break and don’t turn on at full brightness instantly when the light is turned on. There’s a warm up phase where it’s dull for a while before it gets brighter. It’s light and electricity why should there be delays in turning on a light?

That drives me nuts. So I went to Lowe’s and got a full set of LED replacement bulbs.

If you’ve been there you’ll noticed there are lots of options. Here are my tips for making the best choice for you lighting needs.

International Travel Tips

December 13, 2015

Here are some of my tips for travelling internationally.

Before your trip:

Do research on your destination. TripAdvisor usually has good reviews for hotels and things to do.
Avoid paying extra fees by getting a credit card with no foreign transaction fees and has an EMV chip.
I have a Chase Sapphire Card that I use for travel. It does have an annual fee though. Another great option is Bank of America’s BankAmericard Travel Rewards which has no annual fees. I may switch over and get one of those eventually.
Verify your passport and required Visas are valid and not near their expiration dates.
Remember to bring your Passport and tickets. Keep scanned copies of your passport and visa on a secured cloud storage medium.
Carry a pen with you.
Keep spare clothes in your carry on luggage in case your checked bag gets separated from you.
Bring entertainment with you. Books, tablet, games, music, etc. Purchase airplane WiFi internet package if needed