I know I am not heading off into the wilds of Africa or even the heart of Australia but there is a lot to do for about 6 months away. Well, the six months will be no more than 5 months as I have an appointment at the end of January. I want to be back now by the last week in June as my elder son turns 40 that week and I'll help him celebrate. At the same time his little son, my youngest grandchild, will be having his first birthday. What better reason to get home!
For Winter (which could be now, in Tasmania) I have a small neat zipped up bag and a similar one for Summer. The Summer bag will have to be cut right back. It is hard to imagine needing warm clothes when the weather is as hot as it is this week. I am being ruthless, packing enough to give me variety and still only enough to fill the space allotted. I am also very careful to make sure that there is nothing that will ever need ironing, no matter how it is squashed into a bag. I hope to get to Toastmasters meetings and meetings of the Red Hat Society and possibly the VIEW club so I do have to have some respectable outfits. And you never know, I might get an invitation to dinner sometime in those few months.
I don't consider food very important but have stocked up on crackers and dips, and cereals and long life milk. This trip I am definitely going to have hot food occasionally so I've bought some instant meals and some of those 'just add hot water and it will cook' packets. Tinned tuna will make me feel I've had some protein. A few packets of nuts and dried fruit, and my pantry is ready to be packed. At the moment it is all sitting in grocery bags behind my lounge chair. (Having only a small one-bedroom cottage means there is not much storage space.) Besides, it is very important to support the small towns that I'll be travelling through and there will be plenty of opportunities to replenish perishables.
The thing that has driven me crazy on previous trips is managing cords when machines are being charged through the cigarette lighter. I now have a multi-unit charger which I think charges four items at once. I've been experimenting with a container which will separate each item and keep the cords from tangling. I might have solved that, with help from my mechanically minded daughter. However, I won't be too proud to say the storage hasn't worked and toss it out if I get frustrated with it.
Sometime before I leave I also have to find out something about the inverter. I'm not really sure what it is and what it does, how many things I can run from it and for how long. That's my homework for the next little while. Any advice on this will be gratefully received.
I have been surfing the Grey Nomad sites (though of course I'm a Silver Gypsy, not a grey nomad) and have got together a collection of reference and travel books that have been recommended. A few games and some cards should keep me out of mischief and have something to share with fellow travellers. I've also put some useful looking apps on my iPad and subscribed to a few podcasts which look as though they may help. I've stocked up on audio books and downloaded a lot of reading matter. On this trip I've decided to start knitting again and have some nice simple patterns and a few balls of wool. When I'm not driving (and even when I am, with audio books) I should be able to keep myself entertained. And of course I'll have at least one camera. I'll have to make a decision on that. How serious do I want to be?
Over the next fortnight I'll be finishing off a few things. I'll go to my tap dance lessons next week and the following week just to get into the swing of exercise again and to arrange to have lessons videotaped (is that the word for it these days?) and sent to me along the way so that I can slot in again when I get home without being too klutzy. I want to do a few lunches with friends and will be flying to Mackay for about 10 days to see the kids before I leave. I'll see Mum as often as I can, though I'm not sure whether she will realise that I'm going away. None of my other clubs and activities will have restarted before I go, so it will be a leisurely preparation.
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