Thursday, October 3rd - London

One day to go. I have decided to take tomorrow off of work so that I can take care of any last minute things that we need to take care of. We have been living in London for a few years now and have set down some roots meaning that a trip like this does mean a bit of planning.

Casper, our cat, has been a bit of an issue. Obviously being away for two weeks he needs to be taken care of. In the past we have used a cat sitter who comes to the house every day to make sure Casper is fed, watered and his litter box is emptied. But, since she only comes once a day we are worried Casper may be a bit lonely as he is used to us being around all the time. The compromise has been to board him with the vet for half of the time then have the cat sitter bring him back to the house and take care of him there for the final week. Of course, there is also a bit of guilt involved but we have already nixed the idea of putting him in our bags (can you imagine what the customs people would say if they x-rayed it?)…

Casper

What has also complicated this trip somewhat is that my mother is passing through on her way to Zimbabwe while we are away. Unfortunately she is not able to change the flights so is going to be staying in our house while we are in Hong Kong. We had to send her a key for the house so she can get in…And, as the timing worked out, Casper will not be here so she will have the house to herself! It is a bit disappointing not to see her but she will be spending two weeks with her when she returns from Zimbabwe in late November. I have been working on a number of things to leave for her such as directions on how to get around, snacks, videos, etc. If we can’t be here at least we can make her stay a bit more comfortable after all, Casper won’t be around to show her what’s what (!).

We are both getting very excited about the trip so at work we are caring less and less about what is going on around us. Perhaps it is a bit cynical but it is true…We really need a holiday. Other than our honeymoon we have not really had a true holiday (returning to Canada for a few weeks does not count as a “holiday” when we spent most of our time running around visiting people we “had” to visit!).

We have been putting off the packing so finally got to it tonight. We think that one bag will be fine for the both of us as we are both taking back-packs (mine with the laptop in it). I am not entirely sure it will be enough but if we use two bags they will not really have a lot in it. Some may wonder how we can pack for both of us in one bag but we really don’t need to take a lot of clothes - As long as we have a few short sleeve t-shirts and swimming suits in addition to the normal stuff…It is bound to be hot.

The final job of the day was to do the on-line check-in 24 hours before our flight…Five minutes less 24 hours I was on-line taking care of it. Anything to try to speed up getting onto the plane is fine by me. Luckily we found two seats together beside a window…

We are flying Virgin Atlantic which I have had good luck with in the past. In my experience they have great customer experience particularly compared to the alternatives…I have flown Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong in the past and they were alright but Virgin Atlantic really is quite nice. A bit more expensive but we want this trip to be relaxing and that starts with a comfortable flight.

⇒ Continue to Friday, October 4th - London