Leaving again

· blogging ·

It's that time of year again when I have to pack my bags to go to Brazil for three weeks to teach a course. As usual, I haven't got nearly as much organised before my departure as I'd hoped. I had planned to write a few articles to forward post here, but -- well -- that didn't happen. Frankly, I'm amazed that I seem to have got things organised for the trip, but I'm paranoid that I've forgotten something vital. It all seems a bit too easy...

One thing that I set up before the trip last year, which has been immensely useful this year, is a kind of master packing list. I wrote a detailed list in OmniOutliner of everything I took (separated into checked baggage and hand baggage). Since I know that I travelled comfortably with those items last year, I can be fairly confident that if I pack those things again, all will be well. As with GTD, getting things out of your mind and into a 'trusted system' is a huge help. It basically stops you sitting bolt upright in bed at 3am and yelling "Torch!", startling your partner in the process.

I leave on Sunday, and while Brazil will be -- I am sure -- as beautiful and wildlife-packed as usual, it's going to be a tough three weeks. I'm also going to miss Mr. Bsag (and Cleo) like blazes - I'm hoping they'll look after one another while I'm gone, but I'll have to make do with a picture of both of them on my phone. It's our seventh^1^ wedding anniversary while I'm away, so we're having a substitute celebration on Saturday. Roll on mid-September!

In the meantime, if something goes awry with the site in my absence, or gets swamped by spammers, I'm afraid that I won't even know about it, still less do anything about it.

^1^ Seven years! Shouldn't we be itching, or something?