Always planning....

Well, in just a few short weeks I'm heading out and over again...

"Out" meaning out of Rankin...
"Over" meaning eastwards... to the UK.

My grandmother and younger sister have invited me to tag along on their trip to Scotland and England... something Nanny and I did (except for the Scotland part) four years ago... and I was MORE than happy to tag along.

The three of us have been talking about this trip for YEARS. Always delaying... postponing until a more convenient time. Funny how when I move to a remote community (rather than central Ottawa etc.) THAT'S when is the best time to go. But between spring breaks that didn't match up... and DD zooming off to Vietnam (yes, my grandmother at one point this summer had two very far-flung grandchildren)... August 2008 became the best time.

So I leave again on the 15th of August... as the boy pointed out this morning... just 20 short days from now.

And thus began a mini-panic mode to make last-minute arrangements for my OWN accommodations when I'm in Edinburgh/London. I am arriving and leaving a day before/after Nanny and DD ... so I'll be bunkin' it in some cheap hostels ... but I also have to make arrangements for my time in Winnipeg.

The cousins I often stay with... the mother/father pair are going to be on a vacation of their own, so I feel a bit guilty imposing on just the kids (though... by kids I mean 4 people my age). I guess I'll have to see if the one I'm closest with will be home then... and/or not on call (she's a med student). I'd love to see her, and it would make imposing worthwhile. If not, I'll have to look into booking at one of the airport hotels for simplicity's sake.

I'm also having a serious moral dilemma re: what to bring/pack. Given my recent experience... AND Towniebastard's fiasco... I'm very much tempted to forgo doing the checked baggage thing. Yet again I'm in the situation where I have to fly 4 different segments (Rankin-Winnipeg, Wpeg-Minneapolis, Minneapolis-Amsterdam, Amsterdam-Edinburgh) and the probability of having baggage lost somewhere in that mess is pretty high.

I have a small-ish backpacking bag. And I have a wheeled carry-on suitcase. But there USED to be some wonky rules re: carry-ons and the UK ... and I can't seem to figure out if that's still the case. It's been about 2 years since I've flown into there.

And then there's the laptop issue. Initially, I was set dead against taking my laptop. Chance of it getting lost...stolen... especially when I'm in those hostels... but I keep mulling the idea over in my head... there's just something to be said for the unlimited convenience of having access to a computer whenever/wherever.

But then ... if I'm trying to travel light, having a laptop doesn't really facilitate that. And it's not like London doesn't have its share of internet cafes. But I just have this niggling feeling that I'm going to regret not having it.

I mean, if we hadn't brought my little laptop on our Greece trip... the whole delayed flight fiasco had the potential to be a LOT worse (upon finding out that it was delayed 9 hrs, and we were going to miss our boat... we promptly plugged in and got online to find the cheapest, most convenient, alternative).

Aaaanyways. Suffice to say I have some decisions to make.

And now I've sufficiently bored you all to death.

La fin.