Winter Holiday 2008 - The Prep

Normally as I gear up to leave on a holiday, I'm working until the wee hours trying to finish various little bits at the office and then packing at some crazy hour like 2AM.

However, this trip the circumstances are different. As I'm leaving my job at the end of the year my workload has massively decreased due to various pieces of my job being outsourced to others. So Friday I was out the door before 5:30 PM.

My friend L arrived from Vancouver earlier in the week and as there is no spare room or sofa bed in the flat I gave her my room and I've been staying with my friend C a few blocks away. So what this meant is I had to pack my suitcase in the normal way, i.e. the daylight hours.

When I was done, it felt weird. I was a bit out sorts. Ready to hit the sack at about 9:30PM with nothing left to do other than a little tweaking of the contents of my suitcase which I'd leave until morning after I'd gotten up and ready. Is this how the rest of the world prepares for a trip? In advance? It doesn't feel right.

As I was mentioning to a friend, without the mass chaos of trying to get everything done I seem to have lost the excitement for the trip. Oh, don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to getting away, relaxing etc but it's almost as if so much has been going up before hand, my brain just hasn't had time to process the details of the holiday so it just sort of got pushed into the far recesses of my gray matter.

FYI - I'm already on mid way through the holiday somewhere in North Africa, but internet access is not always reliable so I'll be posting retroactively when I can. Photos may have to wait until I get back if they take too long to upload.