Thursday, September 9, 2004 (Train from Shoeburyness to London –
late for work - again)
Still finding new things to organise. How to get
to the airport. Dare I try to pack everything already? Leaving party at
work.
Day T-5. It’s amazing how little things
keep creeping up on me so close to our departure date. I spoke with the
insurance company that I’m thinking of going with, World Nomads, about the
wording in the policy. One of my concerns is that we might not be able to put
our hands on any original purchase receipts for the more expensive equipment we
are taking with us. We never bothered to separately insure the more expensive
bits the last time around but since this insurer provides this option, it seems
reasonable to take advantage of it. They tell me that a notarised declaration
might be useful and I’ve been trying to find a notary public that can do
this. I did eventually find a few and the going rate seems to be about £40.
I’ll put together a document today that states that we are taking this
equipment with us and get it notarised this
afternoon.
We’ve also been
thinking about how we are going to get to Heathrow for early on Tuesday morning
so as to be in time to catch our flight to Mumbai. The problem is that our
flight leaves at mid-morning and getting there by car means driving through
rush-hour traffic and is a completely miserable journey. We thought of going by
train but this would mean leaving in the very early hours and travelling all for
several hours all through London with all our gear. Naturally, we will need to
travel with all our gear whilst on the road but since we will be completely
missing a night’s sleep on our way to Mumbai and Udaipur, I want to make
sure we aren’t too exhausted from the get go. Sandy had the wonderful idea
of staying at a hotel near the airport on Monday night. After quite a bit of
searching around on the Internet (Heathrow hotels are very expensive), I booked
us into a small guesthouse for just £48 for the two of us including
breakfast. A £7 taxi will whisk us to the airport on Tuesday morning.
It’s a good job I’m not starting with our travel budget until we
arrive in India, as £55 already exceeds our daily
limit.
I still haven’t tested
my backpack with all the contents that I intend to take yet. I’m kind of
nervous of this since I’m not entirely convinced I’m not taking too
much stuff. I’ll probably go through it all this weekend sometime. The
problem is that there never seems to be an opportunity to spend the time to do
it. Where did all the time go? Suddenly, we are just a few days from departure
and it seems like only yesterday that I was telling myself that there is plenty
of time left and that we are already well prepared for everything. Last minute
nerves I suppose.
Just today and
tomorrow left at work now. Tonight is my leaving do at one of the local pubs in
Camden. I’m not altogether sure what to expect. These things are typically
a good opportunity for all involved to get thoroughly drunk. Left to me, I
wouldn’t really bother with the whole thing but I’ll just have to
wait and see.
Posted: Thu - September 9, 2004 at 09:37 AM