Almost time

 It's Sunday and I am flying on Wednesday to Japan. I have initiated my anti-jetlag measures by going to bed an hour early last night and getting up an hour early this morning. I will continue to bring both forward an hour until I go,and adjusting my mealtimes accordingly.  Basically it's an early start on the  'feeling like sh*t' period of jetlag so that you suffer partly at home then the destination period of suffering is shortened.  I tried it last time we went and it worked fairly well, I adjusted within a few days of arriving compared to the week of disrupted nights and exhausted days the first time we went. The time difference is 8 hours.

I've also been doing longer walks of around 3.5 miles every few days to train up for sightseeing, although the almost daily rainfall has made it a somewhat damp experience. Good old British spring weather.  One of my walks comes back along a park through a stream valley, where there are some nesting swans which are nice to see.

I finished the second CrossStitcher SAL house so I'm stopping there for now, I won't start the next one until I get back.

So instead I have returned to my long-neglected Little House ABC Sampler where I am starting the final row.

I pinned on all the scallops onto the border strips of the Australian BOM but had to do some last minute bodging to widen their bases a little. The original quilt has a folded flange of blue fabric between the scallops and the quilt centre which I didn't like the look of in the photos, it  was tending to ripple and collapse due to the length. So instead I sewed my blue strip as a final border to the centre. That makes my top a little wider and longer than the scallops were designed for. Now I am appliqueing the scallops with a machine blanket stitch which is a slow process, I've done two strips so far. In case I don't get it done before I go, I have written Future Me a note on what my plan is for assembly.

I've been monitoring the weather in Japan for the locations I will be visiting, which has remained on a wide spectrum from 24C down to 6C.  I got out all the clothes I was thinking of taking , and spent some time trying them on and whittling them down to some final choices. Although it all feels like a guessing game. Normally for hot weather (in which I suffer), I wear sleeveless tops but those aren't very modest in Japan. Unlike many destinations, it's not so easy to buy extra clothes in Japan as their sizing is typically much smaller.  I did a trial pack - the big case that will be going straight to school is fine, but the smaller case that I will be travelling with is overflowing so I need to make some more decisions.  I've also had an email from my airline warning of industrial action at Heathrow airport the day I am flying. It will mainly be delays in Security I think, but I am trying to pack for the eventuality that my suitcases may not arrive at the same time as I do. Which means cramming more into my on-plane item.  I have to get all of this to Heathrow by myself on the trains so it can't get too out of hand. Coming back there will be space for purchases since I will have given away the gifts, eaten the GF food  and I may leave some stuff behind.

The rest of the week has been pre-emptive preparations such as staking garden plants that haven't appeared yet, lining up the houseplants and writing watering instructions for DH, moving money into the credit card bill paying account, doing laundry etc etc.  Yesterday we started putting stuff back into the caravan because it will be going for its service while I am away so it needed things llke its battery and water pump. Lots to think about.  I will never be one of those people who impulsively rock up to the airport with their passport and credit card.  Although I certainly see plenty of posts from some of those same people on the Facebook travel groups moaning about all the things that went wrong on their trip, were closed, had big queues, that ruined their trip and so on, basically because they hadn't prepared so weren't expecting it.

I stumbled across a new group on Facebook (yes, I do spend too much time looking at Facebook) for Interrailing for older people.  I had an Interrail pass for a few weeks in 1982 and rocketed around Europe in classic 'if this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium' fashion with my backpack.  Many of the countries I whizzed through, I have never been back to. It does sound somewhat tempting now that I have more time. That triggered a spate of Youtube research into Interrail and Eurail passes nowadays - they have changed a lot obviously. It's now an app rather than a paper pass, and you can get intermittent travel days within a time period rather than only having a continuous pass.  However, there seem to be a lot of cons as well and it doesn't necessarily save you very much money. The main pro seems to be the flexibility to change your mind and your itinerary.  Something to think about for the future. After my initial spate of travel in the first two years of retirement, I haven't any fixed plans for 2024 yet - although my bucket lists extends for several pages.  The travel equivalent of SABLE - stash acquisition beyond life expectancy  :)