ttfn

I'm off tomorrow, and as usual I've left everything until the last minute. Nothing is washed let alone packed. There's money to organise, dogs to kennel, bills to pay and bundles of other stuff to do (for one thing I like to change the bedding so I come home to clean sheets).
This year (unlike last year) I'll leave my neighbour a spare set of keys so that he doesn't get flooded when the ball cock falls off my loo, and this year I've promised myself that I will pack with restraint. I travel a lot on business and I have that down to a fine art, but for some reason when I go on holiday I seem to have a need to pack for every eventuality, flip flops, shorts, woollen jumper, umbrella, shark repellent.......

It's a bit different this year though, there are some things I will need, my suit for the wedding (in Toronto), and camping gear because I aim to drive West through the northern states to Oregon, and I aim to camp at least as often as I stay in hotels. So I'll need to be selective. I'm thinking just a few T shirts, 2 pairs of pants, and socks, and a bottle of travel wash...and maybe bear repellent, instead of shark.

So I'm going to be of the air for a while, until early September. I thought I'd take some photo's but they will be terribly dull. If you are alone like me there's a temptation to snap views, and they're really very boring when you show them to other people....and here's one of the sky, and another with a tree in it, and ooh look, there's a field - if you look really closely there's a squirrel in the bottom right hand corner. I always feel a bit of a prat asking other people to take a photo of me on my own camera too, posing for complete strangers. (I once did this on a Greek island, on a beach in the evening with some boats drawn up on the sand and a beautiful sunset for a back drop, I stopped a couple and asked them if they'd take a snap for me - I leant against one of the brightly coloured boats trying to look interested in the sunset. Just as they took the photo the boat rocked and I fell in. We all howled with laughter, it was genuinely funny, and I have a photo of my legs sticking out of Greek fishing boat).

There'll be no part III for a little while then, and I'm quite relieved, (I'm sure some other people out there are too), as they do (they did, genuinely get progressively worse and I was traumatised for quite some time after part IV.

Anyone want a postcard?

ps, don't worry, the Toffee and Charlie don't look back when I drop them at the kennels, the people are fantastic with them, they share a room and I'm sure it's a holiday for them too.