The sheer hell of getting ready to travel

Four weeks today we will be in Paris ready to start the first leg of our inter-rail trip on April Fools' Day of all days! We are starting to line things up already, knowing that the next 4 weeks will be busy for us; we are picking our daughter and her partner up from the airport at the weekend when they come home from 3 weeks in Australia and then prepare to move home and jobs to the Midlands during next week; the following weekend we are going up to stay nearby to take any stuff to them that they can't fit in on their trip; we then have Easter and both our sons are coming home from Uni and then we leave the UK on the Thursday after Easter. So trying to get ahead of myself, today I went to a nearby Shopping Centre to buy some stuff for our travels.  This is what I came home with after a few hours in my favourite shops, John Lewis, Lakeland and Waterstones!

So, oven rack cleaner (I'm getting a bit fixated on my cooker), a nylon sieve, a brush to scrub dirt off vegetables, a new sink rack, a knitting pattern book, foil-coated silicone paper and the only item among this lot that is holiday-related is the book, The Master by Colm Toibin, which brings together two of my favourite writers in Colm Toibin's novel on the life of Henry James, and which I plan to slip into my bag for the trip.

My husband came to pick me up on his way back from a work meeting and I had to tell him I hadn't yet got the tee shirts & knitwear I'd come for, and after a quick dash into Uniqlo I acquired these:

The travel wardrobe looks like it will comprise tee shirts, jeans, warm jumpers and maybe one or two  dresses for when we treat ourselves to decent restaurants. With moving around so much it won't matter that I will be wearing the same clothes time and time again. I am considering a thermal vest for Sweden and Norway as it's likely to be bloody cold there, and I might be glad of it. We plan to wash stuff at our hotels and maybe in Berlin, about halfway round, treat ourselves to the luxury of the hotel laundry service. There is always the option of buying the odd thing en route, although that seems unlikely once we get to Scandinavia as we've been warned that coffee and cake for 2 will cost about £30, and basically you've just got to get over it and get on with it, or spend the whole time dwelling on that rather than enjoying the beauty around you.

One big thing I did do this week is  to pay a visit to my dentist, in preparation for being away and out of easy reach of his skills. I had my regular check-up before Christmas and everything seemed to be fine until he spotted a small crack across the back of a crown. He x-rayed it and pointed out to me that it would need to be dealt with and proceeded to give me 3 options, of which the last one, "wait and see," seemed by far the most attractive at the time. I said I would think about it, but his last words were that it could "shear off" at any time. I made an appointment for my next check-up in May, after the trip, thinking that I would be careful with eating and brushing and hold onto the cracked crown until then. I don't know what made me suddenly wake up in the middle of the night not long before we went to Porto, but I suddenly started to hear the words, "shear off," in my head and contemplated what I would do if that very thing happened while I was away and unable to get it repaired. The word "sheared" conjured up images of sharp edges, violent cracking and splintering and me with a mouth like Jaws of James Bond fame, impaling my tongue on the vestiges of crown and unable to smile or eat - not a happy prospect. So I made an appointment and saw him on Monday, explained my predicament and with 3 weeks needed to get a replacement made, he asked me if I had any plans for the day. I told him I hadn't, so next thing I was having the dreaded needle in the gum and sent back to the waiting room till he could find a space to fit me in. I was there for 4 hours in all but I am so pleased that all that has to happen now is a 15 minute appointment to have it fitted and I won't have to worry about the shear hell (get it!) of it breaking on me while we are away. All the prep still to do, in comparison with this, will seem like child's play!