Preparing to leave humble dwellings

There's less then a week to go before I start my journey to Scandinavia and Russia. That's if I can still go at all! I'm still waiting on my Russian Visa. So much for paying that extra money for 7 day processing... that was 3 weeks ago. And of course they've got my passport, so without that I'm not going anywhere.

Of course on the other side of the coin is Graeme, who is out at his mine site in the middle of nowhere, totally oblivious to the stress I'm going through. As far as he knows everything is sorted, and all he has to do is pack. Hopefully by Thursday when he is back in town, I will have our Visa's and he needn't worry. I can tell you tomorrow morning I'll be on the phone to the Russian Consulate in Sydney sorting it all out.

Seeing the tarmac at Perth airport fall away from me as I begin a new adventure

I have a couple of new toys to play with on my trip: A Citizen AI3480-53L analog watch, which I picked up at Duty Free at half price, and a Canon Powershot A700 digital camera. My mobile won't work overseas, so the watch was an essential item, and I am very happy with it. It's a silver watch with cobalt blue screen, featuring two alarms and it can be set for two different time zones.

As the days tick by I am slowly getting more excited, and more stressed about the Visa's. Hopefully on Saturday afternoon I will be seeing the tarmac at Perth airport fall away from me as I begin a new adventure.