The Parallel Universe of Packing

I'm packed and I still have thirty minutes before we have to leave for the airport. This fact deserves a blog post of it's own.

It's about 40 degrees outside, the air-conditioning is getting a work out after days, possibly weeks of 40 plus temperatures - and I'm sitting here on my bed dressed in wooly tights, knee high boots and two layers of clothing. I look and feel ridiculous.

I'm in the transition stage. This is the part where the two universes collide. One minute you're standing at an immigration desk in one country saying "shukrun" to a man in a thobe, the next you're grinning from ear to ear with a "thanks mate" to an aussie with an accent so strong, you could lean over the customs desk and give him a big kiss.

We're doing things a little differently this year, tonight it's just the boys and I. G will be following with the girls in a few days when they've got through their last week at school. The idea behind me leaving early is that I can go ahead and get the house set up and the boring stuff out of the way before we begin our holiday together. There are beds to be made, groceries to be bought and hire cars to be collected and doctors appointments to be had.

The girls have given me very important instructions. "Make sure you get nutrigrain" and "Can you go to the Farmers Market and get a venison pie?" They've also had instructions for the boys "don't even THINK about sleeping in the top bunk or you're dead. DEAD".

Packing for an Australian winter has meant that I've pulled out clothes I haven't seen for months. Fleeces and jackets, tracksuit pants and thick socks. I carefully went through an inventory of children's clothes at the beach house when we left last September, I was sure I was making the packing process faster. I remember proudly telling G that we wouldn't have to bring very much home as I'd kept "things" behind.

I now have no idea what those "things" are.

One day I'll get the hang of this. I will be an expert in leading two lives.

In a world of parallel universes, I'm about to cross over.

See you on the other side.