Yellowhammer

When I pulled up at home last night, I noticed a clump of yellow feathers in the gravel of the driveway. I got out to have a look and it turned out to be a poor dead yellowhammer. He was very handsome - bright yellow with distinctive cinnamon rump. Yes - I had to look him up in the book to check. I didn't realise yellowhammers were quite so yellow. He looked very exotic. No visible sign of injury, but stiff as a board. He must have just fallen out of the sky.

I'm not really sure what to do with his little feathery body. I put him in our empty dustbin to make sure he didn't get desecrated by rampant moggies. Then a bit later I had to go and check to make sure he hadn't just been stunned and had come to inside the bin. He was still there. Such a privilege to get to see one up close. But sad too.

In other nature news, the lambs have arrived. The field out the back is filling up slowly and there are at least a dozen ewes and their gorgeous curly babies frolicking in the grass. I went to introduce myself yesterday evening. Funny how some lambs are really brave and inquisitive and others just peek at you from underneath their mummies.

Birthday girl

My whole travel dilemma neatly encapsulated in the two birthday cards sent to me by my parents today. The first: a charming watercolour of a black and white cat asleep on a cottagey window sill with the caption 'home is where my cat is' and a big message inside saying 'don't leave me!'.

The second: A simple, inspirational card featuring the Bette Midler quote - 'Give a girl the right pair of shoes and she can conquer the world'. They know me so well.

I think it's safe to say they don't want me to go, but they do, but they don't.

Or it could just be they don't particularly want to look after Charlesworth, who will undoubtedly wee everywhere, pull out his fur and scratch things.

Anyway. Tis done now. No turning back and all that. Am getting more excitable by the day. Hope I don't peak too soon!

Nothing much planned for today. I did get a lovely breakfast in bed this morning with fab cards and pressies and I know there's a nice bottle of bubbly chilling ready for tonight. I have half a day off tomorrow and we're going to submit the itinerary to BA fares dept. for the tax calculations. If all goes well we should have our RTW tickets early next week! What more could a girl ask for on her birthday?

Gulp!

Well I did it. I've just handed my notice in after building up to it for a day and a half. I felt a surge of elation followed by a stomach churning wave of resigners' remorse. Then an overwhelming need for chocolate.

And now I just feel happy and free.

Point of no return

This is it then. No more vacillation. This week we are booking flight tickets, handing in notice and getting injections. After planning for ages and thinking and re-thinking (mainly on my part) we are making some serious investment, taking the plunge and really taking this trip.

We're both going round to visit a friend of mine and her husband on Monday night. They took a year off a couple of years ago to travel 5 continents. I'm hoping to get a heap of tips and some kind of unofficial confirmation that our itinerary is achievable. Then I'll be on the phone to BA to have a go at booking the RTW ticket and confirming our first long haul flight.

I am in the process of getting quotes from half a dozen different removals/storage companies. Depressingly expensive, but necessary. Kit-wise we're pretty much there. We need to get medical supplies for our first aid kit and a few more bits and pieces, but otherwise our backpacks are two thirds full and that's more than enough stuff.

Time to focus on the serious administrative task of packing up our lives and leaving everything in order. I'm extremely excited, but keep bursting into tears. And I'm not even pre-menstrual.

Stockholm

Greetings from Stockholm! Well not exactly… I forgot my blogger password so had to wait until today to post this.

It's been a lovely trip to Sweden. I haven't met anybody who isn't nice or been anywhere that isn't pleasant. Our office is spread over a combination of lovely old manor house buildings and funky new barn conversions - all decorated in gorgeous subtle shades of blue and grey and lime washed wood. All the offices in the old part had huge tile stoves in the corner of each room - no longer functional - but I've never seen the like. It's a running joke in Sweden that it's freezing in the UK and nobody has central heating. Heating is obviously much more of an established priority in Sweden.

They have got a lot of things right over there I reckon. Illy coffee on tap. Free fruit. Alfalfa on the salad bar. Heaven! My colleagues looked after me very well. We had a great night out on Tuesday, sampling some fine raspberry mojitos before moving on to Stockholm's Icebar in the hotel where I was staying. It's a bit of a novelty tourist-trap type place, but good fun. I enjoyed an Absolut Wolf Paw which my colleagues informed me was a very Swedish choice - featuring frozen lingon berries. Mind you, everything was frozen. Including my feet by the time we left.

On the previous night, it was up to me to look after myself. My hotel room was ok but rather tiny and uninspiring - Ikea meets travel lodge - so I layered-up and headed for the old town. I got completely lost of course but tried not to let it worry me and pretty soon found my way to a bridge and some old looking stately buildings. Over the bridge and into Gamla Stan the streets became very narrow. Little shops, bars and restaurants everywhere but nobody in sight. Monday night in Stockholm is obviously not party night. I eventually found a restaurant that looked like it might serve Swedish food. No prices on the menu unfortunately, but I went in anyway. I'm so glad I did. The interior was lovely. Candles everywhere. Plenty of space for a table for one and I was very well looked after by the rather charming waiters. I had reindeer fillet with lingonberries and a nice glass of house red. The meal came garnished with something I can only describe as stringy watercress, but it tasted like fresh raw peas. Mum has since informed me it was probably snow peas. Lovely. The whole thing was fabulous.

After my hearty dinner I walked around the old town and found the royal palace. There was nobody about at all except me and some very cold looking guards on patrol. I tried to take some photos but I started to feel a bit conspicuous. They didn't come out very well anyway. This one of the view from one of the bridges is the best of a very poor bunch. I took the long way back to the hotel. Well. I took a wrong turn somewhere on one of the main shopping streets - probably distracted by the fact that they have a Debenahms there with a whole department devoted to Pilgrim jewellery! It was closed but I lusted through the window.

I made it back eventually. I know it's never completely safe anywhere in a city after dark, but I felt very safe in Stockholm. I didn't see anybody dodgy or anyone living rough. I'm sure they're there, but perhaps sheltering away from the wind chill. I hope so anyway because it was freezing. My thighs were numb after the walk back.

I watched a subtitled episode of West Wing on the first night in an attempt to improve my Swedish but I couldn't remember anything by the morning. My favourite swedish language observations were little signs above fire extinguishers saying 'Skum' and a chocolate bar called 'Plopp'. I bought one for G to make up for two nights on his own, but it was quite late by the time I got back so he decided to save his Plopp for later.

Tail chasing

I am in a permanent state of nervous excitement. Nothing concrete has been achieved this week. I keep flitting from task to task - insurance, vaccinations, dentist, kit purchase, final itinerary for booking, securing our inca trail passes for early july, etc. etc. and haven't made a decision on anything. I am practically ADD at work too. I'm quite excited to be flying to Stockholm on Monday for a couple of days' work at our office over there. But I haven't done the preparation I was intending to and I haven't finished the other stuff I should have done by the end of last week.

I'm also excited that mum and dad are coming down for a visit this weekend. The three of us are going to meet a long lost relative she hasn't seen for 35 years who got in touch out of the blue the other week. Should be interesting. Although it will remind mum of a side of the family she doesn't really need reminding of. At least we'll get to let off steam afterwards and take Coco for a romp in the woods and help G drink up some wine on Saturday night.

I'll show mum my expedition gear and backpack too. That'll give her a laugh. She manages to look ladylike even in dog walking clothes. I am bound to be a disappointment in my pack-lite pants and utility fleece. But part of going is learning not to care about that sort of thing :-)

Packing up

We have backpacks! We have to go now...

A fortuitous bit of scheduling meant I was in London yesterday meeting a customer and G had the day off, so we met up at lunch time and spent ages in Ellis Brigham getting fitted. The assistants showed great customer service and no end of patience as we strapped ourselves in, weighed ourselves down and walked up and down the shop floor trying things out.

I went for the new version womens Osprey Ariel 65 - it's lovely and light and girly blue/grey - which is the most important thing of course. It even matches my boots. But seriously… It has a great custom heat-moulded hip belt and top notch compression. I couldn't believe how much weight G and the assistant had put in there when I took it off and tried to lift it again. Splendid. Far too many straps and clasps and all that sort of thing, but it is a super piece of kit.

G went for a far more rugged, less technical Lowe Alpine pack. I can't remember which one it is because I was too busy playing with mine, but it's the same capacity and his will survive a bit more bashing than mine. He like basic utility items and would probably be happy getting most of his kit from army surplus.

Saying that, he did buy himself a rather luxurious down jacket for our high altitude requirements. A purchasing decision he got thoroughly grilled for by Lara when we popped in for a cuppa on the way home. She knows about these things and is a layering proponent. Quite right too. Common sense tells me it's a big thing to take that won't be required too often, but it does pack down to nothing…

So the packing challenge is officially underway. I can't believe how little space there is, but I'm glad we didn't get tempted by any of the larger capacity packs. And we really do have to go ahead with the whole thing because despite the great service in Ellis Brigham, Lara pointed out they don't do refunds. That's that then!

Lazy toe

The weekend was great - a trip to London to see Lara et famille including an excellent excursion to MetalMorphosis in Selfridges to get Lara's ears pierced. It's a Danish thing not to get them done, which is why she never has, but whatever the reason for capitulating now, she's very pleased with the end result. It was great to catch up and we managed to get in some coffee/shopping/chatting together as well as letting me have a lovely time playing with Jody, who has more energy than several toddlers combined, and Miles who is placid by comparison and very, very snuggly. Just gorgeous.

I finished off the day with a quick stop at Itchy Feet where I purchased several items for the trip. On Sunday G and I decided to try out various pieces of kit and our feet with a 10 mile hike. We set off from home and walked through some woods, across a major road and a motorway and eventually found our way to the edge of the Chilterns and headed for a much needed pint and a sit down. The day was so sunny and calm we didn’t really notice the cold or the mileage. And the kit performed superbly.

Am slightly worried by what I can only term my 'lazy toe'. It was quite sore after the hike and I wouldn't have liked to walk a similar distance on it the next day - doesn't bode well for the trekking parts of our trip. It just flops on its side as I walk so gets squashed and sore from pressure being put on the outer edge rather than the toe pad. I have a ridge of skin along the underside of the toe from the repeated compression over the years. I really don't know what I can do to correct it, or prevent the soreness. Maybe a miniature splint... or some gaffer tape.

Duncans Dare

G is starting to get twitchy about travel plans. I think he'd go tomorrow if he could. Not without me of course, but still, he's champing at the bit.

I think this is mainly fuelled by watching Travel Bug on CBBC in the mornings. Former Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan and his splendid wife and children backpacking round the world. Genius. They're going to all the places we'd like to see and more and doing it in a lovely unassuming way. I have no doubt I will be reduced to sulks (like the Duncan teen) and tears (like the rest of the Duncs) when things get rough though - it's good preparation for G.

Anyway, in an attempt to give ourselves a better handle on the timings of our trip, I have printed out some big calendar pages today and will take them home and stick them on the wall next to our map of the world with pins in. We really need to fix our flight dates in the next few days. Then it's time to book the tickets and sign up for a few injections...

Surprise weekend

I went to my first ever surprise party at the weekend. It wasn't my birthday. In my capacity as guest I got to go down to Cornwall, sneak into Tabi's house under cover of darkness and shout 'surprise' when Sam came in from the pub. It was all very exciting. Sam was genuinely surprised and really happy to see everybody.

It was a great weekend. Freezing cold by the sea, but in addition to the party we still managed to fit in:

• A bracing cliff-top walk
• Surfer watching (not sea lions as mum originally thought)
• Shopping in lovely Falmouth gift shops
• Browsing funky Falmouth surf shops
• Pictionary extravaganza
• Much reminiscing about school days for tabi, sam and G
• A visit to the amazing Maritime Museum - truly the most exciting museum I've been to for ages. Highly recommended.
• Coffee in Becky Biddles - a must for all girlies obsessed with objects of desire
• More shopping in lovely Falmouth gift shops
• A thrilling if short ride in Tabi's MX-5
• Several pasties - G increasing the average pasty per day score significantly
• A fab gourmet lunch at student prices at the Clipper Café - the best burger I've ever had

All in all a great long weekend. It was lovely to see everybody again and even in the middle of winter, Cornwall made us feel like we were on holiday. Ah me.