Sorted! Now the countdown begins....

Well it's a bloody relief that I have finished all the major stuff that I needed to do before I go away. This week I have passed my Class 4 (read bigging #%$&ing truck) licence and my Class 6 (read super-cool motorcycle) full licence and now am all set. Just over a week to go now until I fly away and I only have minor stuff to do now.

I guess the next biggest dilemma to face is what to take with me. I know what should be taken when you go travelling. If someone comes to see me and says "I'm going to India what should I take with me?" I can read off verbatim a complete and minimalist packing list that would make the most ardent 'travel-lighter' proud. "Don't take more than two shirts" i'll say. "You can buy extra clothes everywhere you know" i'd quip. So why is it then, that when I am preparing for my own trip I have absolutely no ability to stick to my own advice.

I seem to have a wonderful ability to come up with thousands of exceptions for the journey that I will be embarking on that rationalise taking extra stuff.."Well i'm working in the U.K. for 3 months before I begin the main part of my travels so I need these 12 extra pairs of trousers".. or something like that. I did do a test pack the other day and was quite suprised at how little stuff I do have so I suppose it's not as bad as I thought.

So i know have one last week in order to say goodbye to various friends and family and try to think of all things that i have forgotten to do ... I'm sure all these things will come ot be in a blinding flash as soon as I step onto the plane. I'm starting to get excited now.... this week is going to fly by.....

Perhaps I should point out...

...that I have been successful in achieving my dream job as an overland truck driver. I go back to the U.K. in October to start with my three month training. I'm not really sure the purpose of this blog yet... I have created a travel blog on a couple of otehr sites to record my travels and adventures and i'm not totally sure how this one fits in. The previous update is a cut and paste of the opening post on those blogs. Perhaps I will keep this one going as a more personal blog as well as a back-up of my other blogs. Whether or not I can be bothered updating more than one blog will be seen.

I have a heap of things to do now... travel doctor tommorrow to talk about vaccinations and I also start the theory component of my advanced motorcycle course.... my diary is very full I just hope I can get it all organised before I go.

I guess I will see....

At Home Contemplating

It seems almost unreal to me, sitting in my bedroom in Auckland, that in about a month I will be flying to the U.K. to begin my training to become an overland tour leader, a job I have dreamt about having since 2001. I know I am incredibly lucky that I have been able to pursue this dream of mine, in fact as it draws closer I get a feeling that something MUST go wrong to stop it all from happening so smoothly and easily. Although I can’t wait for the next month to pass as quickly as possible, I am sure that as the date of my departure draws closer that time will accelerate and Monday 1 October will be upon me before I know it. This time at home, however, does give me an excellent opportunity to say farewell to friends and family who I won’t be seeing for at least 18 months or so. So the most important thing that I have to do before I return is to complete my Class 4 truck licence, a task which I am somewhat nervous about. I have only had my Class 2 licence for 3 months and have basically no experience in driving trucks so I am a bit worried that I may find it hard to transition to the larger Class 4 vehicle. It doesn’t help that I can only start my truck lessons on 19 September and I hope to fly out on 1 October… if anything goes wrong I may be forced to reschedule my flight which will be a complete pain in the backside. I have then almost 3 weeks to occupy before I can start on the truck lessons, the only thing else I have planned is to have five fillings which unfortunately the dentist has told me that I must have - what fun. I suppose that I should put in more planning for what I will need to do before I leave as I am sure there are a million things that I haven’t even thought about that I will need to organise, avoid, pay for, sell or inject myself with before I fly away. Anyway this has been a rather disjointed opening post, probably suits my mood quite well and I’m not actually doing too much of great interest at the moment. I’m sure that when I start my training then some interesting posts may eventuate. Heres hoping.