24h for Departure!!

Skype Tijd!Dank je wel!

Whoever saw me this morning walking in Barcelona must have thought I was a total dumbass. My smile couldn't have been bigger as I crossed Rambla Catalunya and strolled down seeing the sun rise while my fingers danced to the rythm of the song that was playing on my phone. The first email I saw this morning at work stated "Gisela, don't bother sending us an email. We know it. YOU ARE GOING ON HOLIDAYS.Bitch". I knew it, last day of work and then 3 weeks of holidays!!!! Its ironic how happy I get now with 3 weeks of holidays when before I used to have never ending 3 months. In 2007 I spend 5 weeks in Australia as part of my around the world trip... and it flew by.These 3 weeks will simply run, but they exist, those 3 month holidays were the good times, something to look back and dream about.

This morning so many people seemed, irritated,tiered,bored and following their routine... but I had something to hope. Australia, Summer,Family. After 9 months its finally time for departure!!! It still sounds surreal to me and I know that I will only trully know Im there when I hear the magic words "ladies and gentlemen welcome to Sydney, were local time is 5 am. Please keep your seatbelt fasten until the plane has come to a complete stop. We thank you for flying British Airways and hope to see you onboard again soon." A sign that I will have survived a 32 hours trip.

I always have to hear the same repetitive speech from people: "you have traveled so much""you have seen the entire world""you cant get nervous". There is so much to see and discover that the words "so much" "the entire" are in my opinion completely out of place. I surely have traveled widely, part due to life circumstances but also and mainly to my interest and eagerness to do so.The magic about each trip is that even if you go to the same destination you were before, despite going to the town next to yours, you get to experience and see things that are completely different from eachother each time. The people you go have a great influence on what you live. Any opportunity to get out of our daily routine is a reason to get me nervous and excited. Today, I recieved an email when I had exactly 24hours until departure " less than a day before you start flying, We are looking forward to welcoming you onboard flight XXXX from Barcelona Terminal 1 on 19 January 2011". I dont like it when airlines remind you of flights, specially when its a return flight. However this mail put a big smile on my face..... and then:

5.00 Out of office message in the Office. Back on the 9th!
7.00 Grandmas Goodbye. Sweet
9.30 Skype ;-). Thanks.
9.50 Check in Online - Seat Selection
10.00 Booking Flights for Morrocco. Happy!
10.15 Gmail Chat. last detail plannings
11.15. Should maybe consider having dinner?
11.30 Tagging luggage
11.50 Hand luggage.
00.00 Should I have dinner?
00.01 Change alarm clock to make sure I dont wake up at 06.30 tommorrow
00.02 Take out work badge, leave it on the table. Not to be touched in weeks!
00.30 Clean the stair case of the house
00.42 Take out dishwasher
00.45 Should I have dinner? No, only some milk and cookies.
01.00 Clean part 1 of Kitchen.
01.15 Now. . . sleep? Dont feel tiered at all.

Strange. Grandma hasnt called today. Must do it myself tommorrow.