18 years and nothing has changed.

I've been staying with my parents for the past 4 weeks, and have another 1 to go.  It's perhaps living with your parents is a little odd when you're in your 40's, but I get on with them very well and it's not been too weird!  They are very kindly putting me up (or should that be 'putting up with me') till I head off to Seattle for the first leg of my trip.

The first week was settling in and getting used to the routine.  I say 'getting used to', but really it's just 'remembering'.  Almost nothing has changed since I left 18 years ago! Dad makes breakfast, Mum does dinner. I've been pitching in to help with clearing up.  It's amazing how easy it has been to fall back into the old routine!

I've done some shopping for the trip.  Bought a new bag, an Osprey Farpoint 80. It has the ease of packing of a suitcase, and pack away rucksack straps for when I'll need to carry it for longer distances.  I looked at ones that also has wheels, but that added an awful lot of extra weight and bulk, and I wasn't convinced it would be worth it for the type of traveling I'll be doing.

I also found in the kit-lists that for both Yellowstone and Peru I need to have a sleeping bag with me, so that's a moderate sized lump I hadn't planned on taking, but I've had a go at packing all of my stuff and it fits!  Glad I went for the Farpoint 80 rather than the 70 :-)

What else have I been up to?  It's a bit odd not having work to go to, but also very nice.  Not managed to get bored yet, in fact, struggling to work out how I ever had time for it!

I've had a few chats/calls with my old work.  I'm helping out with some handover and training for my replacement, and that has been nice.

I've had a few visits to friends I've not seen a lot of for ages, and helped with 'babysitting'.  This also doubled as exercise to help get me fit for the trip!

Went camping with Mum and Dad for a few days over to Perth.  This was to give Dad an opportunity to have his 70th birthday present from me of a trip in a micro-lite!  He may be 70, but he certainly doesn't act it!

On Saturday I had a fantastic triple combined "Welcome Back / Bon Voyage / Pre-Happy Birthday" BBQ with the bunch of friends I call "The Family Mob". These are the sorts of friends that you can not see for years, and then when you get together, it's like no time has passed at all. If I were soppier I might say I feel 'blessed' to have friends like these, but as I'm not soppy at all, I'll just say that I'm sure that they are all very grateful to have a friend like me.

Still not managed to exchange contracts on the house, which is getting frustrating, but there's very little I can do.  Just sitting waiting.

Signing off for now!