Golden Rules

Just over 2 weeks to go now and all starting to become a little more real. I think dreaming that we'd missed our flight last night was perhaps the wake up call that I needed to realise it's now time to pull my finger out and actually do some preparation.  The same dream also featured one of those rucksacks with a front zip that you can open like a suitcase, which was good as I needed some help deciding which to buy (I've taken this night-time apparition as a sign!!)  

Another form of preparation has been in trying to learn a bit of the language before we head off. Hopefully my Spanish skills will suffice for at least the basic interactions; the same unfortunately can't be said for my Portuguese prowess (or lack of).  In attempts to address this deficiency in my 'skill set', I've downloaded some free podcasts and had Ash kindly install some Rosetta stone software on my laptop... hopefully I'll be fluent once this week is out (errr...)

With leaving the country for 6 months, has also come the need to pack up our stuff up and re-locate to my kind sister's abode.  This process has certainly un-earthed some 'treasures' among the dust - old school projects, philosophy essays, notes on statistics modules from days gone by - all interesting reads!  Have also found the obligatory old diary or two from my teenage years, which are always nice to have a look through.  Having flicked through a couple of pages, I can confidently say that I haven't changed one bit in the past few years - apart from perhaps now being better at masking some of the less attractive idiosyncrasies!  There was one particular entry that made me laugh - the 'golden rules' that I had set for myself for night outs on the town as a 17 year old.  The first 4 are WAY too embarrassing to write down anywhere publicly, but the 5th ('Don't drink so much that you don't known what you're doing') and the 6th ('Don't do embarrassing things, like fall over, pull girls and go into the men's loos') are definitely tips that are still as valid for the 25 year old me ... when will I learn eh?

Reading these 'golden rules' got me thinking about life and the 'learning curve' that it really is. Given that will be my second 'travelling jaunt' (God.. I use a lot of inverted commas don't I?), surely there are some pointers that I can take from my first experience? Surely there are some mistakes that I need to remember not to make again? The answer to these questions is a resounding 'yes', the first of which being never to trust a Malaysia hairdresser with your barnet. Maybe a trim is OK (I recall Kerry coming away unscathed from our South East Asia salon experience), but anything more and you are definitely asking for trouble.   My new ‘do’ definitely epitomised the sentiment of ’not breezy' (our travelling catchphrase) and I recall it taking a good few months to grow out all the dodgy layers. Lyn (who had also been foolish enough to partake) also looked like she had walked straight out of 90's FRIEND's set, which we also found rather amusing.

Another piece of advice to myself is this – remember, whilst travelling, that just because food is twice as cheap, doesn’t mean you have to eat twice as much. I made this fatal error last time and the endless gorging on thai green curry and kangaroo stew ended up affording me an extra stone that has taken me a good three years to shift.  So... it’ll be just one steak for dinner, rather than two then!  Rather like my aforementioned diary ‘golden rules’, some of the advice I would give myself is also too embarrassing to reflect on here … just don’t let me near shaving foam or body lotion, that’s all I’m saying! Perhaps best to not go into any more details.