Day 38:It's not mirth, it's hysteria

Eeeeeeeeep, nearly time to be off!
Last night sort of almost went to plan. After I remembered to get a pizza on the way home (shopping list read: water purification stuff, anti-sickness pills, pizza) we did at least eat.
Poor little dog-in-law got progressively glum as the evening wore on, normally he's the centre of attention but I was glued to the laptop and the phone. Then I bought the rucksacks downstairs and he lost all hope.
Finally started packing at about 10pm, then unpacked a bit, then packed a bit more, decided I had too many socks, took socks out, put finger paints in, swapped some t-shirts for some crayons etc etc til I had no idea what to pack or wear.
Finally rucksack was full, felt very pleased with myself. Turned round and discovered heap of other stuff I was meant to take. Decided it could go in Mr Halford's bag.
Mr Halford returned from his second stint at work, went upstairs, scooped up an armload of stuff and had his bag packed in about 2 1/2 minutes. Then said, with some satisfaction, 'there's still loads of room in my bag' (not any more - I shoved all my make-up and extra underwear in there this morning).

And then, since it was midnight I tried the online check-in. About a million times. It didn't work. Waved booking confirmation paper at laptop in pleading fashion. No joy.
Thought, 'there'll be some perfectly logical reason as to why Virgin Atlantic have none of my details, I shall ring them up.'
Found a phone number with the reassuring words 'line open 24/7' after it and gave it ring. Got through to the 'all other enquiries' bit and listened to some modern  popular music. And that was it. No interrupting 'you are in a queue' or 'your call is important to us' type message. Hmmmm, began to reflect on 'line open 24/7' not necessarily meaning there was anyone there to answer the call.
Hung up, tried a flight re-confirmation option. Got a cheery automated 'no need to re-confirm your flight' message and then a dead end.
Hung up, dialled the first number again and this time hung on for grim death.
Hurrah, a lovely Welsh lady answered, did some typing and found the agent hadn't put any spaces in our names. Hoopla! problem solved. Then there was a loud static noise, such as may be heard at the apocalypse and the nice Welsh lady disappeared. I looked at the phone in confusion.
Welsh lady duly reappeared, but shrieking a lot. I tried being soothing but she couldn't hear me and kept shrieking 'Charles! the phones have gone! don't panic. NO ONE PANIC'
I left her to her not-panicking and gently put the phone down.

Triumphantly checked-in, printed boarding passes and gave the miserable dog a carrot, which cheered him up a bit because he loves carrots and thinks they are the best treat ever.

Day 37: AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

I'll say that again.

Aaaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!

Oh snakes alive, if ever there was a day to stick my head in a bucket of chocolate, this was it.
Just as I thought I'd defeated the chocolate gremlins, they come right back to haunt me.
Last night I thought it would be a good idea to get our currency ordered so we could pick it up from the airport, so I got on to the interweb and put the order in. The payment didn't work. I phoned my bank. Lo, their very efficient (annoyingly too efficient) anti-fraud system thought it looked suspicious. Spoke to a nice lady who gave me a number to ring and I resolved to try again the next morning.

Got up in the middle of the night (6am) to make sure I was all ready with hair combed and make-up on in order to phone the anti-fraud line at 8am (good impressions count). Phoned the line to find there were no actual people there, but a somewhat weird question system which I used the keypad to answer. It was a bit like trying to communicate with aliens, but still, it seemed to work until it asked me to confirm some recent purchases. There were quite a lot of them. All on Saturday morning. Hmmm.

Anyhoo, buoyed by this success I tried again. It didn't work. Phoned the bank again and spoke to two nice people who assured me all is well and fixed now. Would have tried again but had to gallop to work.
Went through the whole fandango again in my lunch break. Gave up, thought I'd ring up instead. Checked the website and saw the lines close at 5.30. Perfect.

Left work, bought last minute essential medication and the like and hoofed it up the hill in a manner to rival my 1996 land speed record for a flip-flop wearer success. Grabbed phone at 5.15, ring ring, 'thank you for calling......our lines are now closed' WHAT???!!! 'Our opening hours are 9 am to 5pm, please call back then.
Yes, I will call you then, but in the meantime I shall send you a very cross email.
I believe this places me at roughly point 4 on the 'losing it' scale i.e. 'a visit to strop central'

Ooooof.
OK off to pack my 'reasonable amount of reading material for the flight'. Choices, choices.

Day 36: packing is for wimps

Hmmm, really ought to do some packing.

Today I bought home all the donated loot from school and tried to take a photo of it. There was so much of it that it completely covered the settee and I couldn't fit it all in the frame.
Tally so far:
Posters (30)
Coloured paper (345 sheets)
Finger paints (32)
Plastic letters (4 random containers)
Wax crayons (168)
Coouring pencils (318)

and oodles more besides. Pity the poor drama teacher who offered me a lift home only to then have a box of loot shoved in his arms while I went to fetch the other one from the staff room. Then I remembered the massive cool box was still in library so fetched that too and in no time at all the car was full.

Unlike my rucksack which currently has nothing in it.

Day 35: Wooo! Back on the information superhighway

So many good things going on.
Yesterday I read 'Out of Shadows' by Jason Wallace, which is jolly terrific and gives you loads to think about and really, you should be rushing out right now to get your mitts on a copy (unless you are a young person as it's quite violent). (Well, really violent).

The dog is here! He had a major sneezing fit earlier but is all recovered now.

I got yet more splendid things to take to Nepal, and yesterday our lovely caretaker, Mr Cage, helped me wrestle the posters into a cardboard tube so they wouldn't get flattened on the way there.

I managed to buy someone a Mars Bar this morning and got it all the way to work and safely delivered without hoovering it up.
I fended off a 6th former who was trying to sell me some chocolate at lunchtime (behold my superb willpower!)

I met the nice dog from down the terrace who looks terrifying but turns out to be quite nice (at least while I'm hiding behind a gate).

OK, Mr Halford is determined we should do some packing, can't argue with that, only 3 more sleeps to go!

Day 34:(I'm not here, I've lost internet access)

(No, really.)

Day 33: new shoes!

New shoes! And a big day out in London with Mr Halford and Mum and Dad. And lots of sunshine and everything.
Giving up chocolate is proving a bit financially ruinous; yesterday I bought a pair of shoes, two frocks and two tops. Where will it all end?
Bankrupcy, possibly.
On the plus side my lovely Mum bought a majestic bag of crayons over today for us to stuff in our rucksacks.
Eeeep!
Only 5 more sleeps to go!

Day 32: not even any cheating or anything

Snakes alive, I have made it to day 32 without any cheating. How very unlikely.
Achieved almost nothing off my 'to do' list yesterday bar buying stocks of bird food.
I got very distracted by buying frocks and summery things, then discovered my small neice was over at the outlaws and so went over to play with her, then ended the day by having a trot round Hatfield Forest and baking some biscuits.
As a consequence I now have quite a lot to do before my parents arrive at 10am Sunday.
Also, all my library books arrived - finally - so I now have 4 to read before we jet off on Friday. And we haven't packed yet.
I wouldn't have time to eat any chocolate even if I wanted to!