Hey there! Thanks for dropping in for the October 2026 Ultimate Coffee Date with me and Coco. Grab your mug and let’s jump in. After all, coffee dates are the best way to catch up aren’t they!?
October 2026 Ultimate Coffee Date
If we were having coffee today, I would tell you …
I had some interesting travel mishaps last month. My trusty travel adapters are always in my bag when visiting other countries. I’ve never had any issues until this time. While getting ready to attend our friend’s wedding in Israel, I pulled out my handy mini steamer to de wrinkle my dress and my husband’s jacket. I attached it to the adapter and turned it out. Not only did we blow the fuse in the hotel room but smoke started pouring out of the steamer along with sparks. I was worried that I was going to set off the smoke alarms in the hotel so I quickly unplugged it and threw it out onto the balcony! Well, that was the end of the steamer!
I was embarrassed that I had to call them to come fix the fuse. Later, I found out that I was not the only wedding attendee that had a mishap! Apparently, there were some curling iron situations as well. Who knew that some appliances need a converter as well as an adapter. Lesson learned.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you…
As many times as I have traveled outside the country, I still struggle every time with the Kilometers to miles pace on the treadmill and the Kilograms to pounds with the weights. In my mind, the internal conversation goes something like “so a 10K is 6.2 miles no wait, thats not helpful. Anyway, I can never figure out where to set the treadmill and how to do any type of conversions.
I know that a Kilo is 2.2 pounds but who can do math in the middle of bicep curls and squats?! My suggestion is that they could label things with both measurements. Now that is something that makes sense!
Have you had any of these travel mishaps overseas?
If we were having coffee today, what would you tell me?
I had no idea appliances need a converter AND an adapter. Maybe that’s why my flat iron didn’t work in Italy (I only had one of the two – not sure which) and I had to go around curly for a day or two until we could buy a new flat iron. At least my flat iron just sat there not working and didn’t start sparking and smoking! That would be terrifying!
Guilty here as well of starting every kilometers to miles conversion in my head with “so a 10K is 6.2 miles…” LOL
No one was more surprised than I was that I almost started a big incident at the hotel!
The metric conversion thing is a major challenge for me as well. I agree, the weights /machines should be labeled with both! Gosh, that’s scary that your steamer was smoking & sparking!
It was very scary!
Oh nooo, sorry to hear about your steamer! I wouldn’t have thought that’d need a converter.
I’m terrible at conversions too. (Very, very slightly better at converting kg but kilometers to miles is a goner for me, haha. I go by “A 5k is…” too.)
I use the 6 miles = 10K rule all the time! It’s so hard to do math while exercising. I even struggle to calculate my turnaround point on long runs! 😂
A fun fact I just learned the other day: over 95% of the world’s population uses the metric system!
My husband the engineer is always worried if we have ^converters^. I guess steamers and curling irons need a lot of power!
Running math is hard! I know I can do 10K in an hour-ish, but flipping that to a pace of K/min is where I give up. I also wish the weather apps would show us temperatures in both F and C. It would be so easy to become fluent in Celsius if we saw the numbers every day.
When we were expats in England, I brought over my Kitchenaid mixer, among other appliances, with all the appropriate adapters. The first time I went to use it, it clearly had a Big problem so I stopped immediately. Thankfully I did not break it but yeah, sometimes stuff needs more “conversion” I guess.
I always use the “10K rule” as well and it never works out – fitness math is tricky LOL
Yikes about your steamer! Glad it didn’t turn into more. I had no idea some appliances need both a converter and an adapter. Good to know….
Yikes! That could have ended worse. I’ve had adapter issues but no smoke. I did almost kill a computer once.
I have the same km issue with treadmills and kg with weights. Sometimes I set it to 10 or 11 which is slower than I would normally just to know I won’t fly off. LOL.
Yes it would be nice if we could all have the same systems!
Ugh your steamer – oh no! Who knew that you needed both an adapter and converter? Isn’t it so strange the things we need as a global consumer? Why can’t everything be the same? It really makes no sense to me. And then it makes me think that more hotels, etc. should just supply things like steamers, straighteners, etc. or even let you rent them easily!
The hotels always have hair dryers that I use bc who wants to lug that along. I just had no idea about the steamer!
But wait! Did you have to wear wrinkled clothes to the wedding???
Nope, I still can’t really convert miles to km or pounds to kgs. Or, fahrenheit to celsius for that matter. How many years have I been alive??? How hard could this really be???
Ha I took my dress into the bathroom and tried to use the shower to steam it. 🙂 Why is it so hard to do these conversions!?
Oh my, how scary about the steamer! But how are you supposed to know such things???
I agree that it wouldn’t hurt to have weights labelled with both kgs and pounds. I mean, it makes sense to have it in kgs when they’re sold (and perhaps made) where metric is the norm, but having both certainly wouldn’t be a problem! (Personally I think all countries should adopt metric because it’s SO MUCH easier and makes more sense, but that’s another story) I always use online tools to convert F to C and some other units I haven’t learned or that are too complicated.
It sure is more complicated that it needs to be!!
Heck, I have trouble with miles and pounds when I’m in the moment! Workout math is hard!
It really is!
I had just started running when I went to Iceland and Amsterdam. Not only did I struggle with MATHing but I aldo didn’t have the distance feel that we do with the 5 and 10Ks all over the place. Plus treadmill math is doubly hard
Been there-smoked that, although I think it was a hairdryer for me.
The travel math si so confusing!