100 Days, 100 Things: Days 81-100

Wow. At the time this post is published, I should be in Iceland. It seems both ages and no time at all since I started planning this and it still doesn't quite seem real. I managed to freak myself out towards the end of last week wondering if maybe I was just imagining the whole thing and come Monday it'd be back to work as normal. Don't ask - I was half asleep at the time.

Anyway, here are the last 20 of my 100 sometimes interesting, but more often mundane things.

81. Tuesday 24th May - envelope stuffing
Yes. That's how thrilling my day got. I spent the day stuffing envelopes with our apprentice. Fun fun fun.

82. Wednesday 25th May - venison sausages
Because once again, food is the most interesting thing in my life. Seriously, though, venison sausages are delicious.

83. Thursday 26th May - invigilating
Which lead to me being overly amused that it's a decade since I took my GCSEs. Aww. Also, I finally managed to offload the Chomp bar that's been sitting on my desk for the last seven months onto Molly. FINALLY.

84. Friday 27th May - ESTA
Following the successful application for my Canadian eTA last week, I tackled the USA's equivalent. It asked me whether I was planning on engaging in terrorism and I was oh so tempted to click yes just to see what happened. Don't worry, I resisted the temptation.

85. Saturday 28th May - Shakespeare overload
My sister and I took a weekend trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, home of the Bard. Two plays in a day - Cymbeline and Hamlet, plus the first time I've eaten Thai food at a restaurant. Very nice. Also, Stratford is pretty.

86. Sunday 29th May - sunshine
Second day of our trip to Stratford mostly consisted of me buying a few bits for my trip (mosquito net, finally!) and then enjoying the sunshine outside the theatre. Amy got sunburned.

87. Monday 30th May - surprise surprise...
Family farewell lunch which my dad had intended to be a surprise until my mum, not knowing this, accidentally gave the game away. Nice though, especially the amazing cake from Patisserie Valerie.

88. Tuesday 31st May - tech support
My grandad is finally attempting to join the internet age. Unfortunately for him, his router isn't behaving and my mum volunteered me to have a look at it. My usual ability to fix basic tech things failed completely, but I'm going to blame the old line he has instead of my inability to work out what was wrong with the damn thing...

89. Wednesday 1st June - lunch with Wendy
Wendy effectively managed me in my previous office and since she's away at the moment, we thought we'd best meet up before I left. That is all... see how my life is thrilling right now?

90. Thursday 2nd June - minor freak out time!
Today I realised that I will be in Canada in three weeks' time. Oh good god. I also discovered my phone is not unlocked. Fuck.

91. Friday 3rd June - "smells like weed"
Molly tried my oolong tea. I love oolong. It's lovely, but it does have a slightly unusual taste and smell. As demonstrated by Molly casually stating, in the middle of the office, that it smells like weed. I hadn't really noticed the similarity before but thinking about it... maybe.

92. Saturday 4th June - even more Shakespeare
Toddled over to Manchester to see my mum and catch yet another play - this time King Lear. Very good. In other shocking news, I bought clothes. Not just any clothes. I bought shorts. It is a well-established fact that my legs are not just white, they are blindingly pale, so this may turn out to be a bad decision.

93. Sunday 5th June - Nandos and puppies
I'd never understood the appeal of Nandos but I've been a few times now and I think I'm falling in love. Yummy chicken. The afternoon was spent lounging in the sun, attempting to get some sort of colour onto my aforementioned blinding legs and watching the dogs pretending to be hot dog sausages because it was just so warm.

94. Monday 6th June - umm...
It looks like nothing interesting happened on this day. Second to last day at work? Uh... nothing booked. Nothing interesting cooked... yup. Supremely normal day.

95. Tuesday 7th June - last day
My final day at work, most of which was spent either in a minibus or at work's Skegness site invigilating another GCSE exam. 3 and a bit years I worked there and that's the first time I've been to the Skegness site. Hm.

96. Wednesday 8th June - WASH ALL THE THINGS!
Yeah... I probably didn't need to wash everything, but I did. Because... oh, I don't know. The washing frenzy was followed by a lovely evening with the folks from my previous office, eating tapas and then toddling on down to the pub for a pint and a quiz.

97. Thursday 9th June - towel of doom
Ah yes. The fabled towel of doom has made a reappearance in my life. It looks like it's had a body wrapped in it, courtesy of 3 years of red hair dye stains. I found 3 bottles of the aforementioned dye in the top of my wardrobe and figured, what the hell, I'm going to dye my hair again. Took all three bottles because either a) I missed quite a bit or b) the dye's that old it wasn't taking properly, but I think it's sorted now...

98. Friday 10th June - I drank how much?
Actually, I didn't drink that much. I went out with the most recent set of work colleagues and had a couple of pints of cider (not a problem). Unfortunately, I also had a JD & coke and a shot of sambuca and that was enough to make my stomach hate me.

99. Saturday 11th June - WHERE TRAIN?!
Even with the slight hangover from the above night out, I managed to drag myself out of bed early on Saturday morning to go and see Flying Scotsman with my dad. Unfortunately for us, the timings given last week turned out to be no longer accurate and as we were walking up to the track we saw steam billow up above the houses. No glimpse of the fabled Scotsman. Most pissed off. Somewhat made up for this with cheap but yummy breakfast at Tesco's cafe...

In other news, my phone is now unlocked. I think. Huzzah.

100. Sunday 12th June - DON'T PANIC!
AAAAAAARGH. Actually, I haven't done much panicking. Which is nice. Dad had to drive me to Doncaster, but aside from that my trains all ran on time and I got to spend a lovely afternoon in London with Claire. Claire, who has gifted me this lovely little koala called Harold, crocheted by her own fair hands.

Someone pinch me?

Oh good god. What am I doing?

The Grand Tour: The Final Countdown

Wow. Just 10 days from now I'll be getting on a plane to Iceland to start my round-the-world trip. Time to get the last few bits of preparation sorted.

Visas

Technically, I don't need to apply for a visa proper until I get towards the Australian leg of my trip. I say technically because while I don't have visas to apply for yet, I have had to apply for an eTA for Canada and an ESTA for the USA. The perks of being a British citizen! Surprisingly, both applications were pretty straightforward although I had to laugh at some of the questions on the US one.

"Are you coming to the USA with the intent to engage in terrorism, espionage or genocide?"

... because, yes, of course, if I was planning on doing any of those things, I would declare them on my ESTA application in the interests of honesty. Umm...

Vaccinations

A few weeks ago I got stuck full of needles. Hep B, Hep A, Typhoid, Yellow Fever... nice. Fortunately, I managed not to have any serious reactions to any of them and they came in a lot cheaper than I had expected. I'd rather have to pay a bit and face my dislike of needles than catch some sort of nasty while I'm away.

I also have a nearly two month supply of anti-malarials. Also much cheaper than anticipated and again, I'd rather have them and not need them than not have them and catch malaria.

On a similar note, my mum has kindly donated her diarrheoa management kit, so I'm fully stocked on rehydration sachets and the like.

Basically, I'm turning into the walking chemist I so disdained before I went to New Zealand...

Communication

In addition to the aforementioned diarrheoa kit (isn't diarrheoa a funny word?), my mum has also given me her old tablet, so I can keep up with the sporadic blogging and more importantly I can book hostels and flights and all the other things I'll need to book while I'm away.

My mobile phone is also going with me. I plan on using local SIMs in it if I'm in a country for more than a couple of weeks (looking at you, Canada). Good plan, yes? Should save me some money, yes?

Yeah...

Naively/stupidly, having read all the bumpf I could find online about whether Virgin Mobile lock their handsets, I came to the conclusion that my phone was more than likely unlocked and I could just pootle over to Canada and slot a nice cheap Canadian SIM in it. No worries.

Which means I left it until yesterday and 11 days until departure to actually test this theory. Take a guess at what happened when I put my sister's SIM into my phone?

Ooops.

This should be pretty easy to sort out, thinks yesterday's me. I'll just go to the shop in town and ask them to unlock it. They say, no, you have to ring customer services and kindly put me on to them. Customer services man goes "uh..." a bit and does some tapping on his keyboard for good measure and then tells me that while the number belongs to me, the phone is still registered to my parents' account and that therefore they'll have to ring Virgin to get my phone unlocked.

My parents. Have to ring Virgin. To get MY PHONE unlocked.

This is ridiculous. Whoever came up with this system is a fucking genius.

So I might just be without a phone for the first couple of weeks in Canada. I'm sure I'll cope - I barely use the thing anyway aside from for tinterwebz.

Other bits and bobs

I have currency. Hurray. Actually, I'm planning on using my cards as much as possible, but there's always going to be times I need physical cash. So I've got a small stash of Icelandic krona and Canadian dollars to keep me going. I fear the dollars will mostly be spent on Tim Hortons... you'll probably hear more about that in a future post.

Shopping has been done. I am now the proud owner of a very compact mosquito net, travel wash (yeah) and a new pair of shoes which I am frantically trying to wear in so they don't eat my feet while I'm away. Woop.

Anything else? Had a farewell lunch with the family. Plans are in place for work leaving do (both current and former offices). And then... well, then next Sunday I get on a train to London and from there...

Adventure awaits.

100 Days, 100 Things: Days 61-80

Oh my. The start of my round-the-world Grand Tour is getting close, isn't it? Here's the next 20 of my record of silly, somewhat mundane things in my last 100 days before departure.

61. Wednesday 4th May - Staff Quiz
Which I won with my usual team. Hurrah.

62. Thursday 5th May - closed? Why are you closed?
Apparently my local pharmacy closes early on a Thursday. So having walked all the way down there, I had to walk all the way back without my anti-malarials. Did pick up some biscuits on the way though...

63. Friday 6th May - Doxy-whatnow?
Said pharmacy opens till a sensible time on Fridays so now I have enough Doxycycline to keep my protected from malaria for nearly 2 months in a malarial area. So that's South East Asia and Southern Africa covered.

64. Saturday 7th May - Fotherby & Utterby walking
Took an afternoon stroll around the pretty villages of Fotherby and Utterby with my dad. Shame it was so hazy because I imagine the view from this hill is amazing when it's clear.

65. Sunday 8th May - Cambridge
Spent the afternoon exploring museums in Cambridge. More on that here: Swords, fans & pounamu.

66. Monday 9th May - lookup lessons
Successfully got a colleague using lookups in Excel. Hurrah!

67. Tuesday 10th May - fish pie again
I'm getting good at fish pie. Can't imagine I'll be making much of it while I'm away though...

68. Wednesday 11th May - umm...
Apparently nothing happened on this day. At all. Not even something boring. Oh well.

69. Thursday 12th May - hair
First haircut in nearly 3 years. Got almost 6 inches taken off. Already missing the length, but it's so much easier to manage now!

70. Friday 13th May - Cook Islands daydreaming
I made the mistake of reading THIS ARTICLE on Never Ending Footsteps. And now I really want to go to the Cook Islands and I think I could probably afford to do it. Umm... do I need to add any more destinations to my plans?

71. Saturday 14th May - ballooning. Also, bún.
My mum finally got to take a balloon flight having missed out in India and the UK in recent months. We also paid another visit to Pho in Manchester and I tried bún. It was delicious.

72. Sunday 15th May - Wembley
Down to Wembley with my dad to see Grimsby Town win their playoff final and get promoted back into the Football League. Much fun.

73. Monday 16th May - frequent flyer ahoy!
Joined a frequent flyer scheme. I figure I'll be taking enough flights over the next year that I might as well see if I can get anything back from them.

74. Tuesday 17th May - pre-audit success
As ever, there is an audit going on at work. The pre-audit check went OK. Woo. That is all.

75. Wednesday 18th May - Mail Merge success!
Somehow I managed to get a Mail Merge to walk on a huge amount of data at work. Haven't used it in about 5 years, so I was pretty pleased with myself.

76. Thursday 19th May - budget spreadsheet
In addition to my pre-trip itinerary/budget spreadsheet, I now have a sheet to use during my trip to keep track of expenses. Happy times.

77. Friday 20th May - clickety clack
My mum has very kindly donated her old Nexus 7 tablet to me for my travels. Unfortunately, I hate the onscreen keyboard and I need to be able to type at a reasonable pace to keep up with the blogging and whatnot. So I've bought myself a Bluetooth keyboard and it is wonderful. Clickety keys are much better than that swiping crap.

78. Saturday 21st May - radars & railways
Took a walk on the Lincolnshire Wolds Walking Festival to see the old radar station at RAF Stenigot, coupled with a short walk down the old Bardney-Louth railway. More on that here: Radar & Railways.

[IMAGE]

79. Sunday 22nd May - Wembley take 2
A return to Wembley with my dad. Unfortunately there was to be no repeat of the previous visit's success and we went down 1-0 to Halifax in the FA Trophy final. Ah well. We're still going up!

80. Monday 23rd May - tablet tapping
Having got my keyboard to make blogging via the tablet easier, I decided to see how easy it would be to compose, format and post from said tablet. Turns out I can do it and it only takes a little bit longer than it does on my laptop. Bodes well for keeping up the blog while I'm on the road!

Less than 3 weeks to go now. How much more can I cram in before I leave?

Tech for Travel

Oh look. Another one of those posts where I try to be helpful and end up prattling about something else entirely. Let's try to keep this one on track, shall we?

Tech for travel. I'm trying to decide what I should take with me on the Grand Tour. I'd like to keep up with the blogging. And take plenty of photos. And keep in touch with friends/family.

So what do I actually need?

Well, my camera is a given. Sure, it's a bit bulky, but the inbuilt camera in my phone is appalling and I want photos that are actually in focus.

Speaking of phones, should I keep my existing phone (an old model Sony Xperia) or find something different? The current phone does everything I need it to - I can connect to WiFi and it still calls and texts fine. Plus, it's unlocked, so there's nothing to stop me from picking up local SIM cards to cut down on all those roaming charges and such like.

OK, so the phone's staying. But if my phone can connect to WiFi and do all the keeping in touch things, what about a laptop? My laptop is pretty small but still weighs a kilo or two. Probably more like two and a bit... Given that I'm attempting to cut down on the weight of my luggage, can I really afford to be jamming a laptop in there as well?

Probably not, but I do want to keep up with blogging. Which means I need something to type on. If my laptop's out the window for being too heavy/bulky, how about a tablet? Now, that sounds more reasonable. Thing is, I don't own a tablet. Never have. What should I be looking for?

WiFi obviously (pretty sure most tablets come with that...), a sensible interface and easy typing. Yeah, that last one's not going to happen. I discovered a while back I don't like typing on screens. So I'm going to need a keyboard too. Let's see - I've heard good things about the Google Nexus tablets, including this review over at Too Many Adapters. They're small, relatively lightweight (about 300g) and have all the features I'd need. Plus, I'm sure I can find a little keyboard for it and even then it'd weigh less than my laptop.

Problem solved.

Final problem - music. I sort of need my music collection to keep me vaguely sane (not entirely true - I need it to get to sleep). So, do I take my iPod with me, another bit of tech and more weight or do I load it all onto my phone? Phone has very little memory, but I wouldn't be too worried about losing it - it's old and battered and probably worth nothing. I could get another one if needs be. My iPod though, despite being a replacement and a bit knocked around, would cost more to replace. It does however have a lot more memory than my phone and can hold my entire collection.

Ugh. Choices. I think I'll stick with the iPod. Obviously I'm bound to end up somewhere and absolutely need to listen to something I forgot to load onto my phone. Obviously.

What tech do you take travelling? I know e-readers are popular - is it worth taking one when you can get similar functionality on a tablet?