My usual practice is to start to pack for holidays, nights away, weekend jaunts, about an hour or so before I am due to leave. Packing never takes all that long (I am usually at least mentally prepared in advance) and I have observed that people who pack well in advance then spend quite a lot of time unpacking and then re-packing when they discover that they have placed carefully in a suitcase things that they actually need in the meantime.
This does not work all that well when you have rather thoughtlessly arranged to leave directly from work!
It works even less well when you have a Japanese class the night before until quite late.
I have had to pack a couple of days ahead of time. This is not a problem in that I am unlikely to need my summer clothes in Derbyshire or South Yorkshire in early February. And even if there were a sudden, unseasonable heatwave, I have plenty of short sleeve shirts which have not been packed. But it has made everything disconcertingly confused. I am packed - therefore I ought to be about to leave. And it's not time to leave. I am in a constant state of "I'm not absolutely ready to leave yet" anxiety when there is absolutely no need for anxiety at all. It is a very peculiar state of being. It allows you to get remarkably anxious about all sorts of things that are unlikely to happen and which probably wouldn't matter much if they did.
In the meantime, however, I may need to kill the next person who asks if I'm packed yet. And if anyone else asks if I'm excited I may have to yell at them severely. I'm pleased to be going, yes. Happy about visiting Melbourne, yes. Cheery about three weeks off work, yes. But for heaven's sakes. It's not as though I'm going anywhere particularly out of the way. It's only Australia, after all. But definitely excited about the birthday party. I love birthday parties :-)
So we're off to London on the 4:30 train tomorrow afternoon, staying at a hotel near Heathrow, and then catching a plane which leaves at 12:30 on Saturday lunchtime. We're flying via Hong Kong. I wish I'd realised that when I booked the flights. I'd have booked a stop over on the way home had I but known! Oh well. Maybe next time
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