Just a random jumble of thoughts etc.

At this point, two weeks before we leave, I am just pinging ideas, plans and actions around in my head without any rhyme or reason.  This post, I'm sure, will be as disorganized as my thinking.  

1. Flights.  Air Canada keeps moving our travel times around, just a bit at a time, but now we have less than two hours layover in Vancouver on our way to Houston.  We have to go through American border in that time.  Amy has Nexus, I do not.  

I called my lovely RBC Travel agent to see if we (I?) could leave on the 9am flight from Victoria to Vancouver, instead of the 10am, adding an hour to get through customs.  She tried but she said if she changes even that one short jump, I am looking at the current price of the tickets.  Which is many thousands of dollars more than when we bought them.  So, no.  New plan, as yet not discussed with Amy, go to the airport crazy early (this was already my plan) and try to sweet talk my way onto the 9am.  I looked on the Air Canada website and the 9am flight is cheaper than the 10 so I assume this means there are more seats available.  I'll let you know how it goes.  

There is also only one hour layover in Houston on the way down.  I figure we'll be lucky to make the connection.  It will be a miracle if our checked bags do too. So, with that in mind... 

2. Packing. My plan is to pack like this trip is actually two trips.  One bag with Antarctic/cruise only stuff and the other with Buenos Aires and total trip stuff.  I will check the Antarctic bag with the assumption that it will be delayed.  So, boots, rain pants, base layers, mitts, toques etc. And then daily clothes, camera, binoculars, and electronics in my carry on and personal bags.   

I have been throwing things at my spare bed as my ever efficient and organized packing system.  Plus, of course, the things I would remember to throw at the bed at a later date.  There was stuff on the bed that was never going to go and stuff not on the bed that definitely needs to go.  

My friend Val, experienced traveler and way more organized person than me, came over last weekend to make me buckle down.  She gives me someone to bing my ideas off of and forces me to actually create an organized plan.  

Although, here she is dressing Pigeon up in my cowl so maybe not all organization related but we did get there eventually. 

This is more organized than it looks

Pigeon was surprisingly ok with this child abuse

3. Ablutions: I got a haircut and I booked a pedicure. I need to buy SPF Chapstick. (update - can you believe a tube of wax costs $6!)

4. Clothes.  I hemmed a pair of quick dry travel pants.  They are my 'Antarctic pants' because they are too big for me so there is room for many base layers.  They are purple so you get to enjoy my Joseph's Coat of travel wear in my pictures (or more likely Amy's pictures).  

I also went to Value Village to find a fleece jacket.  I wanted a light weight one with pockets.  I found an LL Bean one but it is cream-coloured.  Not my favourite but right size, right weight, good enough. 

I also bought the ugliest belt.  Again, right size, right weight but so ugly, I may just take my regular one 

I didn't even bother to cut them, I just folded up 
and hemmed them from there

Seriously, so ugly! 

I have multiples of everything.  Which pants, which sweater, which t-shirts, socks, pajamas, undies, so many decisions.  Must not spiral.  Who am I kidding, the belt-decision (or lack thereof) just about did me in.  

5. Rain pants.  You knew this was never going to end.  I still have two pairs.  I think I will take the pair that packs smaller in my carry on and the proper ones in my checked bag.  I am getting paranoid about the possibility of losing that checked bag.  No rain pants, no shore excursions in Antarctica.  I can borrow the boat boots but I can't borrow boat pants.  Always have a back up plan I tell my students.  Or in this case, back up pants.  

6.  Vaccines.  I got my fourth Covid vaccine dose today.  Yay, my whiffle-waffling on when to book paid off and I managed to get it done two weeks before we leave but late enough to get the super-charged bi-valent.  I also got a Shinrex vaccine (not required for the trip but a very good idea no matter) and will take my Dukoral tomorrow.  

7. Technology.  Word. Stupid Microsoft Office.  Remember when you bought a computer and it has Office installed and you could just open it up and all was good.  Now you have to sign in and it saves to google documents.  and all of that requires Wifi!  At least I get it free through work but that won't help me when I am trying to keep track when I can't get online.  

At the moment, my plan is to create a bunch of word documents on my travel computer and save them to my work account and then download them to my travel computer.  It's not a great plan.  And it means I have to have my work account on my travel computer.  Are we all just fodder for our google overlords?  Don't answer that, I don't want to know the truth.   

8. Other. I am trying to do things as I think of them.  Renew prescriptions.  Done although I had to sign a form to get them early due to travel.  Buy cat food.  Done.  Request mail-in ballot for the civic election.  Done but not received yet. Sign up for banking auto payments so I don't miss bills. Not quite done yet. 

Now when I buy things I say to myself, will this tank of gas/gallon of milk/bunch of bananas last until I leave? 

9. Blog.  That's enough for today. 

Aaackk! 

Shopping, mending, practicing and some serious time-wasting

Do I need a balaclava?  If I want to afford this trip I do!  Haha!  No, Amy and I are probably not going to rob a bank (although there's still time so never say never).  And no, we probably don't need this much protection from the cold.  But Costco has them on two for $10.  So... 

Give us all your penguins! 

I also bought a selfie-stick.  I know, I know.  I hate selfie-sticks and selfie-stick people and now I have one and I am one!  I am telling myself this is more of a height enhancer.  It involved more downloads and getting one thing to talk to another thing (stick to phone, I haven't gotten phone to computer yet, or maybe I have, I have completely lost track of what talks to what, and any thread of a thought process or sentence structure apparently, but I digress, yet again). 

Anyhoooooodle, here is me practicing taking selfies. And practicing uploading photos from my camera to this blog.  Just in case. 

Height enhancer! 

It has a wobbly tripod and remote! 

Time wasters: 

I decided I needed a very warm toque. So I knitted this up from Peruvian Alpaca wool.  

this is not going to match my free RED parka! 

My watch that I use for travel broke.  That thing has been to four continents with me, and it was supposed to go to a fifth.  But the plastic on the band gave out.  I wanted to just get a new band but a new band was practically the same price as a new watch.  So, goodbye my old watch, you have served me well, but you have been replaced with a shiny new watch.  

One thing that always annoyed me about my old watch was that the band was too long for my wrist so the watch face sat on the side of my wrist.  The end of the world?  Not completely.  But, hey I thought, looking at the broken band, I see how it can be shortened.  So, I Frankenstein-practiced on the old dead watch and it worked, I was able to shorten the one remaining side of the band. So, I spent a couple of hours shortening the new watch bands so the face sits properly on my wrist.  

Speaking of time wasters, you all just read that 
whole boring watch story! 

We just got an email from G Adventures letting us know, after careful consideration, they are going to require everyone on board to have a their full rounds of Covid vaccines, the last one within the last four months, but not less than two weeks before we start the cruise.  I'm all for that.  I am booked for my bi-variate fourth booster for next week.  But the question is, how do I get proof of that out of my government which G Adventures requires.  That is for another day.

Oh, there's a link in that email with pages of information to go through. 😐

I'm sure there is more that I've done but it's been a busy week so that's it for now.  

Less than three weeks to go. 

One month to go!

 Well, today is the one-month-to-go mark.  At this time next month, Amy and I will be in the air on our way to Houston!  It seemed so far away for so long. And now it is practically upon us!  What have I forgotten.  What do I need to buy, hem, fix, pack, convert, plan...  ?  

I have been practicing with my camera.  I even forced my photographer friend, Andrea, to read my million page manual for my camera.  She didn't even get a beer out of the deal, just coffee.  That was a rookie mistake on her part, suggesting we got out early to catch the morning light!  

Andrea, in a pub, beerless 

Because I turned out to be such an awesome photographer and Andrea really could give me no notes (haha, or I was so hopeless it wasn't worth her breath to even begin to teach me...  the actual truth but let's pretend), Andrea only gave me one homework assignment.  Or at least only one I remember... 

Figure out how to set up Bluetooth transfer from my camera to my travel computer.  My computer is so tiny, it only has one USB-C port, no SD card slot.  I tried, I really did.  I managed to get my camera to talk to my home computer but my travel computer, nope, 'no comprende, mi amiga'.  Which is a problem.  I need to use those pictures to keep my hoards of adoring blog fans (aka my mom) satisfied! 

I ended up buying a card reader.  It seems so work.  That's the thing that I have to wrap my head around as we get closer.  If I don't have it or I have it but it doesn't work, I won't be able to get another one.  No fly-by-night packing for this trip. 

I also bought two extra batteries and an external battery charger.  And an extra 64 GB memory card.  

Card reader

Next issue to try out, Word.  No Wi-Fi for many, many days.  So, no access to BlogSpot at all, let alone to post anything.  But you know I am going to write posts, just not be able to upload or post them.  This happened once before, when I was on a train,  maybe in China?  Anyway, I didn't have Word downloaded onto my travel computer so I had to use Notebook.  That was a formatting nightmare.  And then go back through my millions of photos to find the ones that happened on the day I wrote about.  And that was only for one day!!  What am I going to do for three weeks!  

So I tried to create a Word document, with text and photos to see if I could cut and paste right into Blogspot.  I can cut and paste the text.  And the photos.  Just not at the same time. I can live with that.  

Here is my test Word document.  Might as well start into the packing posts now...

Test to see if I can cut and paste from a Word document to Blogspot with pictures!

getting my packing working area ready

throwing stuff at my packing working area

Pigeon, as always, super helpful with all travel related tasks.  Supervision is very important. 

I have to get all of that culled, sorted and shoved into packs.  And I haven't even started adding regular, non-Antarctic clothes.  It's mostly rain pants to be honest.  

Ok, that's it for now.  Serious count down begins!