Morning of ...

What does a person do the day before they are about to leave all they know behind and go off alone into the big wide world for the next nine months?

Well, the average person wouldn't be going in the first place, so that only leaves the non-average person.

However, the fact that they are non-average means that I have less than good chances of guessing what the most frequent non-average person would do in this situation, but I can certainly tell you what I did.

First, I took notice of what my youngest sisters suggested, wrote a complete list of everything that I could think that I would want or need and then packed my bags a full 36 hours ahead of schedule { and I was glad to know that I managed to fit the entire list into a single rucksack for a weight of less than 13 kilos}.

For those who are curious, no I didn't include packing a polaroid camera; thermos flask; hot water bottle; thick throw rug; pair of binoculars; hairdryer; a dinner suit, or anything else that can be described as heavy or bulky, and the reason being that I have travelled enough to know that I just don't get enough use of such items to be worth lugging it around all day every day !!!

Next, I checked my forth coming travel documents and ensured that a detailed copy was with my sister should anything unfortunate happen to me during my travels.

After which, I transferred some files from one computer to another, ensuring that I would have as much entertainment and relevant travel information on my travels as possible.

Then right before I went out for a leaving meal with my family I did some more linen washing and general paperwork housekeeping.

After the meal I came home, had a nice chat with my sister and her husband, watched a movie or two and then came down to bash out a few lines for my blog before retiring to my bed for the last time this year.

All in all it could easily be debated that today was a calm, un-stressful and un-eventful day.

So was I nervous today?

Well regardless of how much of a normal day it was, the fact that I had almost no appetite for the entire day meant that I could tell that somewhere deep down I was actually, quite a bit.

The thing is, when you have done all the preparation that you reasonably could without being super-anal, once you have checked and double checked your facts and figures, and once you have packed then there really is nothing else for you to do but wait patiently and going out of your mind { and driving others out of there } worrying about what might happen once you leave it just a waste of effort and time all round.