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and last updated July 16th.,1999.
WELCOME TO MY DAY..
IT IS NICE TO HAVE YOU SHARE IT WITH ME...
Well, folks, I am PACKED!
Well, of course,that means, packed again, because I always need SEVERAL trial runs!
But these new suitcases certainly make life easier...sure they don't LOOK as good..none of this driving up to the door with three matched, burgundy and black striped Monsants- but these uninteresting-looking black zippered things just go on and on expanding!
In fact, I have pockets I haven't used, which, for someone like me, is a real TRAP!!
Whether the Powers-That-Be at the checkin counter will let me through with BOTH remains, of course to be seen!
But it can't be any worse than having to unpack at repack at the carousel to please the Belgian officials, last year!
There are STILL some things I haven't managed to retrieve!!
I actually started out pretty organized.
And I had my teeth capped, and ordered a spare set of contact lenses and had my very worn orthotics re-covered....even divided my jewellery into little bank bags, and found an old American banknote-sized purse to take instead of my big bulky one, carefully removed the relevant sections from the AA Tour Guide, and stapled and sealed them, to save weight, ...even sorted my credit cards into American ones and Australian ones, and my keys into "to take' and 'to leave'....and I was feeling quite virtuous when I went into town to collect my all paid-for tickets and Travellers' Checks and Dollars ordered on a Day of Good Exchange!
Except that my Travel Agent, he who works for the Club of Which I am a Gold-Card member.......yes, the very same one who forgot to join me up with Frequent Flyers last year, when I thought he HAD....that same gentleman had remembered he couldn't give me American money or Travellers' Cheques using my Credit Card...
Cooked meals ahead for the husband, made batches of the best ratatoille ever, for the freezer, and lots of pasta sauces
Bit of a waste, really, because he slums on sausages, which he loves, as soon as I am over the horizon!
BUT HE HADN'T PHONED TO TELL ME HE HADN'T DONE IT!!
And with 24 hours to go, he couldn't do it , now, without some days' delay!
And by now,of course, the window of resonable exchange rate was closed!
Not that he was concerned..there being, he said, a branch of Thomas Cook right opposite, who could look after me with no delay.......HE said!
Except that I had allowed to do all my last-minute running-around in ONE trip into town, so I could work the next day, the pharmacy being very short-staffed!
Well, Thomas Cook people certainly ARE efficient, and will certainly have my business in future and they DO take credit cards.......except, of course, that I had left my AUSTRALIAN credit cards home...thinking I had paid for everything!
Anyway, to cut a long and irritating story short, I am now trying out the new Visa Travel Money which sounds like a great idea!..
There is even a facility for returning my money to me when I come home without having spent it.....!!!
And the delay meant that I still had a couple of pickups to do, and a day to spend at work.....
But the husband says it isn't a good idea if they come to live with him while I am away....he says it would be all excuse I would need to stay away longer...
And it was when I arrived at work that I began to suspect that Somebody Up There doesn't want me to take this trip!
I mean, so the house is up on piles, because of the termites, and we have bare floorbaords in some rooms, and it looks like a bomb went through, slowly....but at work things have been pretty calm and organizied....till my last 48 hours!
For example, one staff member met me at the door with her arm and shoulder in a brace, and sheneeds time off becassue her husband, who works on the other side of the country, is coming home, and the girl who covers for HER is going to Canada next week....the other senior was limping through her last few hours before heading off on holidays. University breaks don't start till next week, so we had no reserves to pull in when two more went down with flu...which has just hit here- and badly!..
Well, no reserves if you don't count our daughter, who enjoys working in the pharmacy, except that the amound of organization she has to put in, with five kids and another job, PLUS being in the process of selling one house and buying another, with most of their belongings in storage because the estate agent said it would sell faster that way..well, SHE jumped at the chance of working...
And then it was kind of mentioned that they might all be moving into our place for the duration if they couldn't organize the settlement on the new place to coincide with that on theirs.....and it also looked as though they might need some bridging finance, and everyone was looking very hard at my travel itinerary and budget!!!
I think he just wants the computer to himself....
Or perhaps he has grown tired of the patter of little feet?
....
And friend John in Mississippi keeps thinking up new and more exciting things he is going to take me to do!
Today it was rollercoasting and jetboat surfing!
I keep asking what happened to lazing beside the bayoux with a mint julep, but John says that was years ago and doesn't happen now...
And then he got his twin sister into the chat and she wants to be part of this trip too, and is very keen for me to spend some time with her in San Diego, where she has a daughter living, and she has time available during the days I left unscheduled at the end of my organized time. Jean, John's twin,must be an interesting person. She is an intensive care nurse, and a naval officer, and has just been made, I think she said, the ANA delegate ot Washington. She seemd very interested in the trials and tribulations and traumas I have been through with that angry Vietnam Veteran in Gulfport, that One I told you about last week, who is convinced I accused him of drug smuggling, and that the CIA are now monitoring our computers....
So I emailed that San Diego friend, the one I travelled right aroung the world to see, last year, (on HIS suggestion), and who kept me waiting around while he thought about it...
So tell me, folks, am I being unreasonable here?
I mean, I've waited three years to meet him, I should be willing to do ANYTHING, right???
Course, it COULD be he just didn't read my itinerary when I sent it, so he might think my little bit of free time is at the beginning, rather than the end of my trip...it will be interesting to see what he will come up with now that I have emailed him otherwise..
And someone has sent a Spirit Flower for my site, which, apparently, will grow and bloom as the month progresses...
Well, Jean seems to think she can do something about that...his threats to use a litigative lawyer,and involve the Mississippi asssitant D.A.,even if not about our bugged computers!
I suggested that if I am part of a nice safe family group, instead of a wanton woman travelling alone, he might feel safer meeting me.....
But I didn't expect an answer of course!!...
*LOL*! We have this arrangement... I write, and HE only answers ocasionally!
And so help me, I have had TWO emails from him in TWO days, which is his average for a YEAR..
And he has even asked me for cocktails at 5pm on Saturday, in, I THINK, San Diego!!
But here is the catch!
I am flying into Los ANGELES on Friday...
HE tells me he has to spend Saturday morning in LA, But the afternoon in San Diego at his desk, but that he has a few hours free after 5pm, so would I like to meet him "5-ish"
Now it seems to me that if he is going to put in four hours in LA and be back in San Diego from lunchtime he must be flying!
Probably even using a PLANE!
And if he is flying, and doing business in LA, he is going to have to drive right past the hotel where I have booked for the weekend....TWICE!!
And it seems singularly stupid for me to then find a car, or some other means of transport, to transfer to San Diego to meet with HIM for a few hours when he could have called in to see ME as he drove past......
Especially since I hadn't planned to get a car for that weekend, knowing how long it takes me to get acclimatized to everything driving on the wrong side and in the wrong direction..I planned rather to get over the flight at my leisure, and get my computer equipment set up, and walk on the beach a bit, and read.. just vegetate!
And I have a friend who is going to meet my plane and get me settled in and I suspect that means I have a date for Saturday night if I want it!
Or am I missing my big chance?
Or it might be another three years!!
On a different subject, I am still part of the Oldies team for the Site Fights..
I originally agreed on condition I did not have to do very much. and I am sure they think they have dead wood on their hands, with me, because I am just not au fait with what is going on!
People from OTHER competitions are emailing to take part in agreed vote exchanges, which seems to be to defeat the spririt of the thing...and someone from the promotion keeps emailing me with something about shouting
and someone else keeps signing my guestbook to say it has been sprinkled with fairy dust...
But apparently we must be going well, because someone keeps sending me graphics to put on my Awards Page...
WHAT Awards page??
So....WATCH THIS SPACE>>>>>
Send a Spirit Flower!
Well, at least I THINK that is what it is all about, thought the actual mechanics of it all quite escapes me...but it will be interesting to see what happens next, especially since , when I checked the competing teams, I find a Sydney net friend is still managing one of the opposition teams!
In fact, she is managing the only Australian entry, so I guess I am competing as an expat.!
Or perhaps I have just been made an honorary American!!
Hmmm..I wonder if fairy dust could be sprinkled on my ears to make them Fit-For-Flying???!
So, not much more to do..and not much time left at home, and how sweet home seems at such a time, even though the tornado DID strike here!!
So, it's time to change the picture at the top of the page, and put a link to the "Travels With a Laptop Section" and hope that Air New Zealand didn't use that particular Dupont wiring insulation that has caused quite a few planes to fall out of the sky lately...
Someone asked me yesterday, online, what I get out of all this upheaval...actually he said, "What's In it for you?"
And this from a total stranger who had been reading the travel diary!
So said I love the warm weather , and the break from routine, and the feeling of independence... that I wanted to walk a lot and lose some weight, and he said, surely there must be MORE than that?
and I had to think about it, and I'm still thinking!!...
NEXT BULLETIN FROM THE LAND OF THE FREE!!!
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©Robin Knight, 1999.
ON ME, IF YOU WANT TO VOTE FOR ME AND TEAM!!