Travel tip number one: try to avoid one too many capiroskas the night before you leave for an overseas holiday – not because travelling with a hangover is that hard, although it is, but because you never get up quite as early as you had intended. So Sunday began with a mighty agenda and panicked excitement. There was no time to finalise a packing list but as with my last trip, the main contents of my backpack had been sitting on my bed for some time waiting to be supplemented as the washing occurred. Feeling incredibly seedy, I managed to get everything done, including fixing the strap on my backpack.
Then it was off to collect my travelling companion (TC), which resulted in true panic. Now it is well known that I managed to achieve most possible travel disasters on my last trip within days of arriving in Finland. Well TC outdid me, losing his wallet before we even left town. Disaster averted and said wallet relocated, we arrived home just in time for the arrival of our airport lift service. Delivered safely to Canberra airport in the family wagon, I received a call while standing in the checkin queue – NYC hotel no. 2 was the same place our highly efficient and very friendly airport drivers had stayed. what are the chances? (Into my arms – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – one of the most emotionally stirring songs ever written – maybe because of the piano – and rivaled only by Jeff Buckley’s Grace.)