THE AIRPORT

As I have a bit of time to kill (I will explain why in a future post) I thought I should do a few entries to get up to date. So on Sunday I (well we - Mum and I) packed my bags. Let me tell you it's not easy to packs for 10 months away when you can only take 20kg plus 7kg carry on. Once you add the weight of the case, sleeping bag, mini laptop (which I loooooove - although annoyingly my SD camera card won't click into place & I have to hold it in with one hand while trying to type with the other. Any ideas Paul A?), camera, a bundle of chargers & adaptors (not to mention the portable hard drive with episodes of Bones which is all important) & presents to give to people on my travels - then you barely have enough weight left to be able to take 2 t-shirts and a pair of undies!!!!

Any hoo we managed. So we went to the Casey's for dinner then schlepped (is that a word? Jewish people use it a lot & I've always like the way it sounded) up to the airport with Mum & Tracey Jane (as opposed to me who is Tracey Leigh) & were soon joined by my dear friend Sarah (travel advice person & supplier of endless Lonely Planet guides - of which I am only taking one as they are so heavy & even that weighs an extraordinary 1kg). After that came "my person" Joyce (if you watch Grey's Anatomy you will know what that means) & her husband (a fellow number 8/introvert & my spa buddy) John. Then a while later I got an unexpected surprise when Nicola & Paul turned up which was just so lovely! Later in the year Nic & I are doing a road trip across the U.S. so look out for some exciting posts in the second half of 2009. At least I hope they are exciting!

So all went well at the airport farewell (have you noticed that's the second time I have rhymed? - and that was the third!) with a lot less tears than I thought. Joyce was dry eyed which was very odd as when I visited her the weekend before she was very emotional even though she knew she would see me again before I left. Sometimes there's just no understanding number 4's. (By the way the references to numbers is numerology. You add up the day, month & year of your birth & keep going until you get to a single digit. Mine is 3+4+1+9+7+2=26 & then 2+6=8, hence I am a number 8).

So finally I go through the big silver doors that you can't come back from & I am past the point of no return. Apart from feeling a bit odd at dinner (very cold, very quiet) & just wanting to cry in the car on the way to the airport after saying goodbye to Danny & the kids, I was feeling good. Not nervous or excited. Just normal.

The way I am most of the time.