Folders are Fabulous!

I am in the midst of booking a safari holiday for The Engineer's and my friends who are Malaysians but reside in London. They'll be coming to Dar at the end of March so I'm a bit short of time. This is usually my worst nightmare. Holidays are very personal and everyone has specific ideas on how to spend them since they're usually highly expensive and come round like once or twice a year.

I envisioned calling London a hundred times and calling the travel agent even more times but the friends have been totally fabulous. In order to give me as little trouble as possible, they have sent all their requests in an Excel spreadsheet - with their ideas highlighted in blue! Now, that's what I call organisational skills!

Some people I have dealt with in the past (this includes colleagues and bosses who are PAID to be organised but fail miserably) usually keep calling you, keep changing their minds and then finally blame you when everything falls apart and nobody gets anything done.
If this is how they plan holidays in the UK, I wonder how fabulously organised they must be at work?! If you're wondering why I'd this impressed with planning and orderliness, there is a story behind it....

In the old days, I used to spend half my life scratching about for birth certificates, academic certificates, school exercise books etc. While I feverishly hunted for the mysteriously absent item, I would undoubtedly receive a ticking off from my mum who is the Queen of Organisation and did not tolerate chaotic behaviour from her scatter-brained daughter.
I finally realized that it was much easier to get my arse into gear and get organised than to go through the stress of looking for stu all the time. So I'm now organised to the point of being a freak.

These days, I own folders for almost everything and make lists for absolutely everything. Grocery lists, to do lists, birthday and christmas lists. There are also corresponding folders for each list for receipts etc. I have a folder for my cat too with all his vet bills etc (I know you guys think I'm nuts but the vet was impressed when he saw my folder!)

My sister in law, CL, is one of the coolest people I know and in line with her cool persona, would rather be referred to as 'chaotic' than 'organised'. She laughed at all my lists but the laughter came to a halt when she found herself depending on my Plan B list for Christmas gifts( Plan B is the backup gift list for Christmas in case I can't get the presents on Plan A). Like most cool, chaotic people, she'd left Christmas shopping till two days before the 25th and couldn't think straight about what gift to give whom. So organised, geeky me came to the rescue. Alright, I'm a freak but at least I'm an organised freak!

I'm telling you, organisational skills are totally underrated!