The essential travel companion

Although I took Jane Austen with me today, she's not essential.

I arrived at the airport in good time today and sat with Ms Austen and a coffee until close to boarding time.

It was then I looked at my white shirt and saw a huge coffee stain. My instinctive reaction was to reach for the baby wipes which remove all known stains. But, as I was travelling for work I didn't have any with me. This was a mistake as baby wipes are the essential travel companion.

Anyway this wasn't a setback as there was a Boots store behind me so I went wipes hunting. Boots didn't stock wipes. I started to panic. I looked for alternatives.

The choices I had were make-up remover type wipes and wet wipes and, after some hesitation, I opted for the latter.

Because of the location of the stain I would have felt a bit awkward using the wipe in public (Think about it; Woman of average proportions drinking coffee - where would coffee land if it fell from the cup?) so I disappeared to the loos. I applied the wipe to good effect but was then faced with a new issue; I had a large wet area on my shirt. I knew this would dry though and I was feeling quite pleased with myself at having solved the problem. I had thought about shopping for a new top but I knew I'd miss my flight if I'd taken that route.

The irony of this is that when I reached my destination and needed a visitor badge I was handed a sticker to apply to my person. After I'd stuck it I realised it was in the exact same place that the coffee had been and would have obscured the stain completely.