A week of bad juju

Just a heads up, this post is a little whiny.... my roughest pre-trip week on record.

So here I sit, with half a glass of South Australian Red in hand to calm my nerves, in an attempt to replay just a fraction of the bad juju that came hurtling hot and steaming directly at us in the last 7 days.

It all began last Friday, at half an hour to closing time, the Divine Miss M receives a call from the passport office informing us that there were 'issues' with her passport that likely wouldn't be resolved before our departure date.  Naturally I took this news in my usual laid back manner and rang the number stipulated in a frenzy of worry and begged for some mercy.  With little to nothing to be resolved in that scant amount of time, I resolved to 'get it damn well sorted' first thing Monday morning. 

Well, they saved me the trouble.... the phone at work rings at 5 past opening .... and with my boss less than impressed that I spent  the better part of an hour on the phone to both the passport office and immigration, the reason for the problem in the first place - her father ( who, granted, was not responsible for being born in an Australian Territory which then all of a sudden, wasn't - rendering him countryless unbeknownst for a good decade) who also beseeched the immigration office with pleas and paperwork enough to drown them.  I do fervently believe that they granted Miss M a passport purely on the basis of getting her parents off their phone lines.... the weirdest part of the story is this is not her first passport - her child one was a five minute job. 

So by mid week we had no fingernails and confirmation that her passport had been granted with the upshot being the requirement of a day trip to the big smoke to pick it up....then we started to relax into the trip prep.... wrong move.

While all this other stuff was going on ( oh yeah, and me working through it all as well) my rental agents decide it was time to do a house inspection.  With my plaintive phone calls falling on deaf ( and totally unreasonable , I might add) ears, I then had to set about getting my home in pristine condition ready for inspection mid week.  Now, I don't know about you, but the week before major travel in my house leads to piles.  Piles of 'stuff' that I don't want to forget to pack.  Piles of stuff that I need to deal with before I go.  Piles of stuff that needs to be washed and piles of stuff that I'm ignoring because I don't have time to deal with it.... and then all of these well thought out piles had to be demolished and removed for the sake of a 10 minute inspection.  Not to mention the windows washed and the hideous tri-fold shower screen dismantled for a 'proper' go at it. 

As if all that wasn't enough, tickets we thought we'd secured to a museum that the Divine Miss M had her heart set on... were actually not available after all... full stop.  There was heartbreak on top of exhaustion at the beach house that night.

Friday dawned and it was off to the big smoke to collect the long awaited passport... the trip down was the quickest I can remember at under 2 hours, and I mistakenly eased into the down time thinking we'd be home mid afternoon to get all those piles redone.  The collection of the aforementioned document was painless and before long we were back at the station ready to catch the next train home.  Alas, par for the course of the week, because of a major accident on the highway, the bus part of the trip had to become another train trip with almost an hour wait between.    It was at this point we became aware that a 4 figure sum of money that was supposed to be in my account had disappeared into the ether and panic set in right there on the platform.  Stranded and with no way of making it back home within working hours, I ran my phone down to about 1% battery with calls to the bank, and then to my payroll office when I also found out that my holiday pay had been 'missed' and wouldn't now be available until we are almost heading home - FROM TOKYO!!!!!

The shoe-string had now become noose-like and with thoughts of cancelling the trip starting to swirl in ours heads we finally boarded the train home... arriving home well after dark and in the rain - which aptly matched our mood.

Finally home, and after reworking the daily budget to the point of making my brain hurt... it was decided that we will just have to rein in the souvenirs and make the little we have to spend last the distance, and of course, live on rice for the week.  Not quite the journey we'd anticipated, but still a journey we wanted to take.

So here we are... only half a sleep away from D day and the nerves are kicking  in.  The endless shopping expeditions have finally come to an end and I do believe its time to pack and be done with it.  Today is pamper day with a capital P.  From my hair to my toenails, all will be trip ready at the end of the day.... a moment to breathe before the whirlwind of adventure truly begins...

So see you there...

Lisa. xx