Getting ready for the last few 'home' days

My last day at work was yesterday. This week has been up and down, but in the end it was nice saying good bye and knowing I’ve got a good break from it all. I feel ready for a holiday, so I think it’ll take a while to sink in I’m not going back in a fortnight.


So now it just home stress to work through. I’m looking forward to just ‘being’ and ‘doing’ rather than planning. We’ve been talking about and planning this trip for over a year, and I hardly know what else we did last year- its disappeared and that doesn’t feel right.

I was out in the tent, Little One had a nap this morning ( 5.45 am was obviously too early for her today, she’s our early riser) so I tried out the dongle attempting to email potential hosts for Up North for the end of our trip. 11 emails out, 3 potential hosts out of the running aready and one that sounds utterly fabulous so just fingers crossed about dates working out.

We need to make some final decisions about our holiday weeks Down South, and then we’ll just follow the diary each week to where we need to go next- lovely.

One thing I’m regretting- we got a paper membership to WWOOF so we didn’t have to do all the planning with a computer on, and we have something to refer to when we’re without internet connection. However, that means ( as our year isn’t up yet) I’m still working from something published Winter 2009. I can’t help wondering if that is why some places haven’t got back to us at all- though several have very kindly forwarded our email to the new contact person if relevant, but a few places have stopped being hosts in the meantime.

We have our farewell ‘Tent Warming’ gathering tomorrow, so by then we need to sort the garage out, find our box of mugs and get the tent more organised.

We’ve got a few boxes left lying around the house that we need to decide what is happening, and on top of that my parents return on Monday, so the house needs to be just how they left it (without all our belongings strewn everywhere!). I've been moving all the final boxes to sort out to the garage, giving us pressure to get that done before friends arrive tomorrow afternoon- the forecast isn't fabulous so we might just need somewhere to shelter from Yorkshire Weather. There's a road nearby called Weatherhill- I can vouch for the fog and snow always being worse up here than everywhere else, and horizontal rain just isn't fun.

Its funny to think we'll be looking out for laundrettes and using other folks washers if they'll let us (with two little ones, especially Little One,  I'm getting a little worried about the washing) from next week. I'm looking forward to the journey, but the last minute nerves and getting through this final sorting out an  know we can hand wash, but I haven't made that mental step yet. I remember spending ages looking out for a hand powered washer I'd seen once- that'd be great for this journey and my peace of mind.
I've read a few books about journeys, and what stands out to me right now is how they mention the few months preparation in a line or two- just this week seems like forever to live,  and this blog feels very repetitive at the moment.

 I'll be glad when we're on our way at last.