Improvising on a Working Holiday - from speech note cards to sewing thread

Problem
How do you improvise on holiday? Improvise notecards for a speech, sewing kit, dictionary.

Answer
Necessity is the mother of invention. Here are my hacks (hacks is an Americanism - in Britain we say tips).

Story
I was in a hotel in Wales as a spare partner when my husband was on a business trip. I am left in an isolated hotel room for hours and want to plan a speech. I have no card index cards. The shop has only drinks, clothes and Welsh souvenirs.

I created cards by cutting up all the white card I could find. I raided the waste paper basket, looked in the desk drawers, and searched my own and my husband's possession for white paper.

Tips

Writing Paper/Notecards
Sources of white paper:
Hotel notices -
daily newsletters,
Letter welcome Mr and Mrs so and so
the back of the key card holder
Free envelopes
out of date magazines with a page which is half blank
white card from new shirt
lower half of laundry list or returned laundry list no longer needed
ask hotel reception for used envelopes, scrap paper
back of paper bag
discarded packet from take away (Americans say take out) food.

Use pencil from hotel, or ask for one, and use item on desk top or magazine to create straight lines.
Draw lines along paper to create lined paper.
Draw lines for margin.
Draw line for frame
Draw line under headline or date.
Photograph your notes on your mobile phone as a prompt in a later meeting.
Email it to yourself for a permanent record.

How to cut
Fold thin paper over desk top edge. Reverse paper and crease the other way.
Draw line along fold.
Or keep folding until crease breaks or is weak enough for you to tear neatly.
Place heavy object such as a book or directory over paper to prevent the tea going diagonally across the area you wish to preserve.
Cut with scissors, nail scissors, or borrow scissors from reception. If they won't fetch scissors, ask them to cut the paper for you. (Choose non busy time. If you have time, chat to them first.)

Card Index cards
For notecards for speech or address cards
Copy any address card your already have.
Use a needle or safety pin or tip of pair of scissors to make holes on top right of cards.
Link cards with dental floss or plaited cotton from sewing kit.
Pull thread from free airline socks - you'll get another pair on the way home, won't you!
Use the blank backs of address cards to make notecards for speeches.
(If you really need the address cards, you can photograph your notes and keep the cards as address cards later.)

Sewing kit
Ask housekeeping or reception at hotel for thread and needle.
Use your hair or dental floss for cotton. Borrow a needle from housekeeping or another guest.

You need only three to ten cards for:
Speech outline
Shopping list
Language translation dictionary (1 Dates 2 Greetings 3 Illness 4 Menus 5 Numbers 6 Prices 7 Questions 8 Times)
You don't need to know how to say all these. Just ask the receptionist or a fellow guest or the concierge or a bored waiter to write down the words. Then point to them later when you need them.



(Not destroying anything vital, only items which are dated and will be thrown away.)