emerald city here we come

Okay, let's just run down the pre-flight checklist...

• Online check in... check
• Print outs of flight details, airport transfer, hotel booking, luggage insurance, Opera House Tour booking and Boost Juice birthday coupon... check (although I had to clean the nozzles before I could print properly... damn seldomly used printer)
• List of addresses for places to visit and their opening times... check (anal retentive I know, but I like to be prepared)
• List of things to pack... check (did that a couple of weeks ago, see above about anal retentiveness)
• Coupons for half price entry fees to various attractions... check (thanks Tom!)
• Journal for chronicling Sydney adventures... check
• Appropriate clothes hung on outside of wardrobe all day before being packed this evening... check
• Toiletries gathered and stuffed into little giraffe print bag... check
• Sheep luggage tag filled out with name and details... check
• Inappropriate combination programed into suitcase padlock... check
• Strong Iced Coffee in fridge to give me a final shot of Farmers Unioness before I leave the state... check
• VCR set for teevee shows... check
• Overexcited happy dance performed in shower this morning... check
• Beer money... check
• Possibility of nookie arranged... check (times two... now all I have to do is have enough time, energy and interest to actually do it... them... whatever)
• Sydney weather forecast... check (27°C and fine all four days!)
• Taxi booked to take us to the airport in the morning... check
• Sense of girlish glee and ability to break into stupid smile for no good reason... check

Lord... when I first came up with the concept for this trip to Sydney and then booked the tickets some 138 days ago it really seemed like a vague and far away concept... then it was 100 days to go... then 50... then suddenly it was three weeks and hotel rooms got booked, then there was appropriate haircuttage and one week left... and now it's less than ten hours before we'll be getting on that plane...

I'm freaking out just a little tiny bit.

I mean I'm excited... I'm as excited as all hell... I was so excited in fact that I suddenly had to do a little foot stomping, hand flailing, minor seizure style dance in the shower this morning... too much excited, nervous energy taking up space in my body... so it had to be expelled...

My suitcase is 99.9% packed (just my conditioner, shower gel and toothpaste to add tomorrow morning), as is my big black backpack (that just needs rolls of film and my book), and everything is set.

There was some random news item on the SBS news last night that was about Sydney Harbour... and I thought to myself... "I could be standing there in less than 48 hours"... and again tonight there was something about the godawful Zeta-Jones creature, but she was standing by the Opera House... and that's where I'm going to be come Wednesday morning...

This is only my third ever trip outside my home state... I honestly don't remember how I was feeling before my first trip to Melbourne... it's too many million years ago now (although I do remember who took me to the airport and what the flight was like)... and while I remember the more recent trip a little better I couldn't say how I was feeling the night before...

I have all this nervous, excited, apprehensive, scared, uncertain, thrilled, impatient, anxious energy rolling around in my head... and actually sitting in my chest too... I would actually say that more of it is in my chest than my head to be honest. Weird, but true.

And this will also be the first time since 5 November 2005 that the blog is going to go "dark"... there won't be any updates until I get back... but I am probably going to "backfill" the days with posts about my adventures when I get back... we'll have to see I guess. I'm taking a journal and I'm planning to either make some notes or else write something out in full each night... I guess, like a lot of things on this trip, I'm just going to have to "suck it and see".

There are only, at this point, four absolutes that we have to worry about... the flight there, the flight back, the tour of the Opera House and my beers with The Boys... everything else is one big, slightly formless, elastic band... which is possibly what's freaking me out a little bit. I think that possibly we just have too many things we want to do in the time we have available. My first trip to Melbourne was different, I was running solo... so I could suit myself, go where I wanted, and if I didn't fit something in, oh well... the second trip to Melbourne was equally easy, I'd already done a large number of things and knew what was worth repeating (Hard Rock Cafe, St Kilda Markets, Crown Casino foyer)... but Sydney is The Undiscovered Country (yeah, yeah, it's a Star Trek reference, I've been watching all the movies, and the special features and the commentaries, for the last couple of weeks).

And to be honest, I'm never very good with The Undiscovered Country of any description... once it's all Discovered, I'm fine... and once I get there it will start to be "Discovered"... but it's the "Un" bit that freaks me out.

The annoying thing is that I know I'll be fine once we get there... we'll see what we were supposed to see... if we don't end up seeing something, then it wasn't supposed to get seen... that's also part of the reason behind the long, rambly and somewhat fractal post that I've been writing on and off (okay more off than on) since mid afternoon... to get all the random rambly thoughts out of my head so I can leave them here and go off to Sydney without them.

My packing took all of about twelve and a half seconds... granted I'd done a chunk of the fiddly stuff this afternoon, toiletries and stuff, but the actual folding (or should I say "rolling") and organising of clothes took me no time at all. I'm sure I always overpack... I've pretty much got a top for each day and night, just in case (what, it's good to be prepared isn't it?), a couple of extra pairs of socks and underwear, not to mention a jacket I'm probably not going to need in the slightest... although this time around I'm only taking one pair of shoes.

And now it's very much bed-time o'clock... and I need to sort myself out, get into bed and hope that sleep comes fairly quickly and easily... since I just want to get to tomorrow morning as soon as possible...

Current Mood: (somewhat changeable)