A hectic day during which I wonder... “how the f**k are we going to get all that in the case !!!!”

And so I spent the whole day ( apart from an hour when I popped next door for a chat with my neighbour) washing, ironing , putting stuff into piles, trying on items of clothing.... discarding items of clothing or putting them in the pile for packing.... I also went through the post and packed anything which needed dealing with, urgently.....( it’s Sunday so no phone calls can be made ) chucked or filed the rest and sorted out all the other bits and pieces I have stockpiled for our trip. Then I looked at all the piles and had a small heart attack....as previously mentioned we are flying to Bali Business class with Emirates which allows us LOADS of luggage, but not all our flights are in this class and so we are limited to the lowest weight we are allowed, which is 20 kilos!!!!! , which wouldn’t be so bad if we were only going to hot countries, but New Zealand is likely to be chilly in parts and so something to keep us warm is necessary. Now , you will all be familiar with the saga of my wardrobe during our Italian adventure..... therefore you will understand the dilemma facing me now.....let’s start with shoes...... oh my, oh my, I got some out, I put them away.... I got some more out.... I reasoned that I really didn’t need a lot of heels...... but then I remembered that New Years Eve might require a bit of dressing up so I sorted out a pair that would cover most occasions when I needed to be a bit dolled up..... ditto for dresses etc until there was a HUGE heap of garments that was at least three times the size of the case into which I proposed to squeeze them.

On top of the clothes there were medicines, a bit of first aid stuff, electricals, paperwork and goodness knows how many other incidentals..... just think normal holiday packing and then multiply it by about a hundred!!!!

By the end of the day we were mostly packed, I had ironed, ( not really sure why!!) my body weight in newly washed outerwear, and crammed most of it into our bags..... yay!!!!

We finally sat down to watch what may be our last bit of decent tele for some considerable time , at about nine pm, and fell exhausted into bed shortly after that !!!! Tomorrow was going to be so exciting....and we were both beside ourselves at the thought of the Emirates Lounge at Heathrow.....I fell asleep dreaming of free champagne , hot sun and warm sea..... tomorrow is going to be a long day, but it is the beginning of our big adventure and I can’t wait !!!!