Getting organised..

..... to have a few days away brings out the best and worst in me. As a Virgo I'm branded a tidy freak, but don't feel that way really. Yes, I like things tidy-ish, but the amount of stuff in a household of 6+ people doesn't really allow a state of minimalism does it?  So I settle for hoovered and tidied as in tidy piles of stuff.... but for a trip away, leaving everyone at home, I create endless lists and challenges so that once I have left I feel a sense of achievement / done all I can sort of thing!

Like who needs to change all the beds in the house and have no washing in the basket as they leave the house for only 3 days?  Who will have left lists in duplicate of who needs to be where.. and when..and in years gone by a box of food for packed lunches, precise numbers of drinks / snacks/ cheeses etc, for the number of days, times the number of children!
Add to that the number of knickers, plus two for evening changes and another for spare.. etc etc, repeat for socks, spare trousers just in case, and numerous layers of clothes to suit every eventuality from snow storm to Indian spring (is that a term?)

Haha, laughing now, as I remember Linda's face when I went to Mullion scrap weekend and stayed overnight with only a vanity case...enough room for new underwear and a new top I reckoned.. well, with all that scrapping who can think of sleeping or a spare wardrobe of clothes!

We're away to west Wales, about as far west as you can get and I'm really quite excited!  Since an eventful (that's as much as I'm saying) 6th form Geography field trip to S Wales I have held it as a special place, and since then I have always had good visits there... to see Robbie Williams at the Millenium Stadium (he still has it by the way, as proved on the Brits last night, Jonathon Ross' show the other day and a BBC Electric Proms event .... me? a fan? yeah, okay, a fan!?)... and to stay at the fab Bear Inn in Crickhowell en route to the Rally GB the year Colin McRae clinched the title.  In fact on the way to the Bear one year we drove over the Usk River and I remembered walking on that huge meander of the river with the geography crowd, maybe 25 years before!

Meeting Col in Bristol tomorrow evening, like some kind of romantic rendezvous (if that's possible at Temple Meads station after he has driven 700 miles in 2 days and with 200 more to go?), I have bought a single ticket and turns out it is first class  for only £17.50! What's that all about, straight through train and free tea & coffee! 
Only got the last minute things to pick up.. will be interesting to see how much I take as Col has already taken everything I need.. boy, was that a task, chosing the day before I was leaving home.  Now I have a list of books I have to chose from.. only for the train journey..why don't I just carry on with the one I started, but no, got to create another decision to be made.. must thrive on stress eh?

Off now to iron today's pile and clean the shoes.. !