Sunday when it is really Monday.

Today I have mostly been supervising (read: watching) my father and uncle Johnny do some repairs to grandma and Norm’s house.

Grandma keeps feeding us. My assumption that not being able to binge my feelings would lead to losing some weight is looking to be wrong.  She is basically shoveling food at us.

Also went on a building supplies run to Home Depot.  Going to businesses from TV land is weirdly fun, even if the place is really just Mitre 10.  And then went to Walmart, where Evelyn bought proper stuff and talked me into buying North American chocolate that I regretted before I had even made it out of the express lane. And trying some was not a winning experience.

There was something else that I had meant to write about, and was the actual reason for the post, but I have forgotten it entirely.

Because me

I have only been here a few hours and already feel like I have overstayed my welcome.

Evelyn and my uncle Johnny are arguing dumb politics. There is no way they will ever agree at all. It is going to end poorly.

And I am out of battery.


I wish I had stayed home.  It is all just awkward.

[edit a couple of hours later]
I have a month of sleeping in an attic room on a camp bed.
Sharing the very small room with my brother and with my father only a curtain away.

I am already sick of everything and using up my roaming data too quickly.

Am done with this whole dumb travel thing.

I am in Vancouver. The flight was kind of shit for a bunch of little reasons. But I watched Mary, Queen of Scots, and then The Big Sick.  After some failing to sleep I a seat that wouldn’t recline I moved onto watching a terrible piece of trash called I Can Still See You. Near the end of which the only steward who seemed to know how to tonrecline my chair came an did it for me. So I got a couple of hours of less discomfort. 

My phone is being useless for this, might try to tidy it up later.

Flight 1 done

I have made it to Auckland, and have not yet killed my brother

Gah! Packing!

There is no room in my check-in luggage to fit my carry-on once I am there.  I am taking too much stuff.
Winter clothes use up too much space.  Bad decisions have been made.

Also, I have 1h 50m in an Airbus A320, landing in an estimated 24°C, followed by 13h 5m on a Boeing 777, to land in an estimated 6°C.  And then on to a city that is expecting -6° the night after I arrive.

This is a stack of terrible planning.

And I either stirred up dust and have allergies or have a head cold coming in.

Starting to pack

So I have started to turn the panic tidying of my house into the beginning of packing.

And thought that this would be a good opportunity to test out the oldish iPad mini 2 that Simon and Joe gave me for the trip, and see how it will be to blog with.
Seems ok thus far.

Is “thus far” actually a term the way that I just used it?  My brain is not cooperating enough for me to know.

Stressbunnies

Start a betting pool in the comments on this post now.  Who kill snap and kill another member of the travelling party first?  Will it be me, my father or my brother?
Will any of us make it back from Canada on time, or are we looking at the grave or Canadian prison?

Time will tell.



This time tomorrow I will be in the Auckland internation departures waiting to cross the Pacific.
I have not started packing, my time is all being used up stress spiralling about unimportant things.

I am deeply regretting agreeing to this trip just now.

I worry too well.

And all this effort is too much like effort.

[edit: addition]
I have started looking for things and the toothbrush that, only yesterday, I checked was there and new and ready and black and gold - so I would not have to buy one for the trip - has vanished.  I assume that means I absent-mindedly carried it somewhere and it is not lost from time and space.

First step toward packing... not going helpfully.  I might make myself dinner instead.