I like to travel and when I do I always bring a bandana with me. I usually use it as a head gear to keep my hair from my face, especially if I’m traveling on a non-airconditioned vehicle, and it also protects my hair from dust. Aside from this, bandanas has a number of other uses too, like one time I had a cut on my knee and I used it to temporarily protect the cut and to stop the bleeding. It really is very practical to always bring one when traveling and here are other ways you can use it:
1. You can use it to clean your sunglasses and wipe off sweat
2. You can use it as a dust mask
3. It can be used to tie a ponytail
4. Tie a bandana to the back of your hat to keep the sun off your neck and prevent a sunburned neck.
5. When traveling by plane, tie a bandana on your luggage so you can easily identify it at the airport.
6. Very handy as first aid: bandage, tourniquet, sling, eye patch
7. When camping you can use it as a napkin, wash cloth, placemat, pot holder, to carry food, to tie food bag to tree, to cover food
8. When you’re on a hot pace, you can soak it in water and use it to cool down or use it as an ice pack
9. Use it to as water or coffee filter
10. For fashion: sweat band, belt, neckerchief, and you can even use it accessorize your bags and furnitures at home.
These are a just a few was to use your bandana and there are hundreds more. Bandanas are very versatile so don’t leave home without it when you’re traveling. I especially love bandanas by Esprit, I just love the prints on theirs and I own a couple but I lost one of them and the other one is made from something like a thick silk and I can’t even tie it without ruining the fabric. Pretty useless if you ask me. I also had a couple from Benetton but again I lost both. Yep, I’m very clumsy, I know. Haha! For the local version of the bandana, we have what they call Tubao. I also have a few of these from my friends.
One necessity for me when I’m traveling is sunscreen. I never go somewhere far without it. In fact, I think I have about 5 bottles in my cabinet right now. Haha! But that’s because my sister knows someone who works for a distributor of Coppertone and gave her a set as a gift. Anyway, I just wanted to share with you this song which mentions sunscreen. I really love this song and it’s very true for me so far. The song is entitled Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) and is sung by Baz Luhrmann. It was first released in 1999 and you can find the complete lyrics below. It’s a bit long but definitely worth the read.
Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)
by Baz Luhrmann
Ladies and gentlemen
of the class of ’99…
Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now…
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don’t worry about the future, or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing everyday that scares you.
Sing.
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind… the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life… the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.
Get plenty of calcium.
Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.
Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary… what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.
Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.
Dance… even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.
Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
Brother and sister together we’ll make it through. Someday your spirit will take you and guide you there. I know you’ve been hurting but I’ve been waiting to be there for you. And I’ll be there, just tell me now, whenever I can.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse, but you never know when either one might run out.
Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re 40, it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen…
Brother and sister together we’ll make it through. Someday your spirit will take you and guide you there. I know you’ve been hurting but I’ve been waiting to be there for you. And I’ll be there, just tell me now, whenever I can. Everybody’s free.
Hope you enjoyed this and hope you’ll like it too.
1. You can use it to clean your sunglasses and wipe off sweat
