Ahhhh.....

This will be my last post from the middle of winter. :O)

There is only one thing I appreciate about cold weather and that is the comforting glow of my logburner. That's a pot of soup keeping warm on the top of it. We buy these recycled paper 'logs' and they seem to burn ultra-hot. I stumbled in the door, bundled up like an eskimo and within half an hour of lighting the fire I was steadily shedding layers and opening doors to let the excess heat dissipate.

**

Ok, I'm more or less organised. I've made a disc with all things work related, gone travel shopping, cleaned out the fridge and made a way-too-large pile of clothes from which I must choose a minimal amount to take with me. On my first international adventure I learned that less is definitely more when you are carrying your life on your back. However, overshopping is a fine way to become a better person. Not only do your trapezius muscles get a daily experience of overload to the point of digital numbness, but then you also get to exercise altruism when your luggage turns in 15kg over the 'cattle class' weight limit. There is nothing more character building than presenting a homeless person with a bunch of stupid stuff that you carried on your back for six weeks, including up some freaking tower in Verona (now that's a quad workout!) because the youth hostel was shut and there was nowhere safe to leave your pack....

Lesson: pack light.

Other travel tips: carry loo paper, don't travel on Sundays in Europe, learn to say 'please', 'thankyou' and 'eff-off' in the language of every contry you visit, don't eat shellfish in Sicily and the only thing that really matters is comfy shoes.

Ciao ciao!