28/4/24
You would think by now we would be good at this pre travel preparation malarkey, yet we are still suffering the ‘Pre-travel anxiety’.
We fly at 6.30 Tuesday morning, so it’s an early start.
Usually I wake up about 6.30 and I’m up and about by 7.
But you can bet your bottom dollar (When someone says “bet your bottom dollar,” it implies that the person would wager his last remaining money on the chances that the event in question will come to pass) on Tuesday, when the alarm rings, I won’t want to get up.
My mate ‘Pete’ has offered to drive us to the airport so he will be here about 4-4.30.
He will now have a credit in the bank, so next time he needs a lift to the airport I will be his first port of call.
You still have to be at the airport a couple of hours before your flight. You can leave it to 40 minutes, but who wants to be in ‘Panic Ass Mode’ when you’re starting your holiday.
The drop off is annoying. Bristol Airport charges a ridiculous fee for a 10 minute drop off and they have made it so you aren’t allowed to pull in or stop anywhere in the airport or, which is odd, on the roads leading up to the airport.
If I’m honest, I would much prefer to be driving down to Spain. I kind of like the journey by Ferry.
It feels like the adventure starts as soon as you leave the house.
I used to be a bit scared of the Ferry crossing given I’m prone to a little ‘Mal de Mer’.
Now, I’m not so bothered, as long as I take a couple of travel sickness pills, I’m OK.
But this year we have chosen to fly, which is a whole new ball game.
I think Its gonna work out cheaper, the flights were £360.88 return for the two of us. Where as the Ferry crossing is £683 then you have a Cabin on top.(extra couple of hundred quid).
We used to book a Two Birth cabin when we were younger but that offers a bunk bed arrangement and neither of us are up to climbing onto the top bunk these days. Now we book a 4 birth cabin, which offers two single beds, on the ground floor. Its more expensive but much more comfortable.
We did, some years ago book reclining seats but it wasn’t very comfortable and we got very cold during the night. Also, Jaki’s snoring woke up all the people on deck 6.
I like the little cabins. They remind me of having a ‘Den.’
When I was a kid we used to dig a hole in the ground, which was always much harder than it sounds as we didn’t have proper tools, no spades or shovels. We dug with sticks and our bare hands. Then we went on the hunt for some corrugated tin sheet. There was always plenty lying around and when you lifted it, you often found a few slow worms too.
Once the tin was over the top of the hole, we back filled it with soil and if we were feeling really clever, we put the turf back in place.
Then we went on the hunt for old carpet or more often than not, an old rug which we laid out in the bottom of the den. All very cosy.
Come Bonfire night, for some reason we used to build our bonfire on top of the Den.
We would hide in the den to make sure other gangs didn’t come along and steal our fire wood or even worse, light our bonfire prematurely. What surprises me now is that no one ever got roasted alive having been in the den when it was set alight by kids from another street.
Some richer kids might have had ‘Tree Houses’ but we never even had a tree where we lived. We had our first tree when we moved to Sea Mills where we inherited a Cherry Blossom. My Bother and me were so excited. To have our own tree that we could climb whenever we wanted was a major status symbol.
But I still love a good Den.
I think that’s why Blokes love their Sheds, it’s just an extension of the child hood den.
Jaki has been packing and repacking suitcases for about a week now and gives me regular commentaries on which clothes she has decided to take and which have been discarded.
Did you know, the only clothes she has that are suitable are ‘cream or Black’?
Who would have thought it!
Currently we are weighing the cases on the bathroom scales. I did buy a suitcase weighing device but you had to hold it up in the air whilst the Suitcase swung around like a pendulum. It was great for the biceps.
The small Case has come in at 18.5 Kilos and the big one, 20.3 kilos, so we should be Ok.
I have been making a list of last minute jobs which need to be done before we leave which includes:
Locking all the windows. Locking the garden gates. Locking the garage. I’m hoping Pete will put my black bin out on Wednesday evening and bring it in again on Thursday.
One unusual job I did this week was to find a Foster Home for my seedlings.
When I came back from Spain last yera I brought home some seed from black Tomatoes that we bought and ate there. So I wanted them and put them on a heat mat wit a grow light above ( this is all stuff I had from when I grew Micro Greens during lockdown) and they all grew.
But now I needed someone to look after them whilst we are away.
It’s no good asking Georgia. Last time I appointed her Head Gardener she killed all my 20 year old Bonsai Trees as well as all my plants in pots and those in the Green house.
Steve offered to help but he worries too much. Last time I left some Chilli plants in his care, the Chillies were fine but he was a Gibbering Wreck when we got home.
Cary is a gardener and I did drop some up for him to look after but he has Tomato Blight so they can’t go out in his garden.
I advertised on the local Face Book gardening site and a lady in Chipping Sodbury offered to Foster them till I got home as long as she could keep some.
I’m hoping Money, Cards and Passports are still OK after our Madrid trip but I have had one eye on our trip to Thailand which we have booked for January next year. [I’ll go into that in more detail later but just so you know].
I have been following several instagram accounts and I have loads of places to visit, loads of restaurants to eat at and some interesting accommodation to consider.
I have also been keeping an eye on some web sites that track airfares and Google flight tracker has proven quite useful. The random fare I chose to Bangkok on 21st October ( my pretend bIrthday Treat) was £1148 but is now £1267.
I have also down loaded an app called Pruvo which tracks you Hotel bookings. So let’s say you book a room on Booking.com with the option to cancel without charge. Prove will let you know if that same room is available cheaper before you actually have to pay the balance.
If you remember, I cancelled our room in Madrid and rebooked it a few days before we were due to go and saved several hundred pounds.
Well there are plenty of these Apps on line and there may be some better ones, but I am going to give this one a try.
Anyway, maybe time to give it a rest now. I have to get the Pork in the Oven for dinner as Jaki still can’t lift as her arm is in Plaster.
Bill and Jaki go Travelling 