7 DAYS TO GO

So what happened .. time just up, slapped me across the face and now there's a week till departure ... so I guess it hasn't quite slapped me, the slapping will come when I drag my overweight bag to check in at a perverse hour of the day, am told to take my shoes off in public, am frisked by a stranger then shunted into a metal capsule and hurtled across the globe while being fed plastic tray food and miniature movies, till I'm spat out the other end blinking in a different light of day.

Since last posting I've met several of the folk I'll be travelling with briefly (I mean that I've met them briefly, I'll be travelling with them for four weeks which I don't consider brief but in the greater scheme of things it could be considered in that way), danced around a fire in a backyard in Heidelberg and eaten peanut butter soup.

I've been going to African dance classes with a bunch of people that could be my children, learnt a swag of funky new moves, put my neck out and spent a lot of time at the chiropractor resolving the issue. I've endeavoured to take up running to increase my fitness and am devising my own take on what might be loosely described as a country shuffle .. enough to make my cheeks look a little peaky and convince myself that I'm increasing my heart rate...

The dog likes it.

I seem to have been on an endless quest to be prepared for absolutely any mishap or opportunity. I have painkillers, anti-inflammatories, antihistamines, muscle relaxants, sleeping tablets,Chinese herbs, stuff to make me shit, stuff to stop me shitting, stuff for thrush to counteract the antimalarials which are antibiotics, a moon cup, ankle gaiters, a special travel pillow, a camping pillow, a reading light, a sleeping mat, a mosquito net, noise cancelling headphones, a mini-disc recorder and I've downloaded a bunch of podcasts from the ABC, some meditation music and binaural beat soundscapes .... all this stuff (and there is more) has taken a great deal of time and brain power to accumulate. I feel like I should be drowning under a mountain of it .. but it's all tiny, miniature and designed to be put in to a rolling home away from home. My home away from home is green.

I'm not all that convinced about horoscopes, but I am a VIRGO. I act like the VIRGO books say I should act and people in the know nod knowingly when I tell them I'm a VIRGO, so if you want to know what I mean by being prepared then look up VIRGO in a magazine and you'll read a whole lot of annoying, trite musings on how I'm a control freak who likes everything to be just so and likes to let everyone else know what I think about what they should be doing and how they should be living their lives and how the toilet paper should be hung on the roll thing. That bit's not true. But I'm also very loyal and honest and competent so it's not all dire... if you like that sort of thing.