Day 0 - Rendezvous

On the morning of the 17th I dragged my self from bed nice and early to fulfill my last morning of work before heading off on just over two weeks of leave. Having received an anonymous note the previous evening stating "do not come in tomorrow" I decided the tactical move was to dial-in from home. Having completed my final packing the previous evening I was able to dedicate my self to tieing (or at least properly handing off) as many loose ends as possible before my trip.

By half past ten I was all done, and at 10:40 I slung my rucksack (duck sat comfortably atop) over my shoulder and headed to the railway station. I took the opportunity to grab a snack and then boarded the 11:09 high speed service, bound for London Paddington (first class, naturally). It was around the point of joining the first class carriage, having not shaved for a few days and attired in a black t-shirt, arab 'shemagh' scarf, cargo trousers, combat boots and a pair of mitts (aka fingerless gloves), set off with sunglasses that in my attempt to dress practically (yet with some individual flair) for the long journey ahead I had accidentally gone out dressed as a member of Clash (in particular see the music video for 'Rock the Casbah'). Doh.

I got into the holiday mood by reading my (complimentary) copy of 'The Times', which was dominated by coverage of the Anders Behring Breivik trial, over cups of coffee. Much of my journey though was spent trying to remember the name of the gentleman I was sharing the carriage with. I recognized him from the television, he is in either politics or journalism but I couldn't recall a name. We spoke briefly as we were alighting at Paddington, but I was too embarrassed to ask who he was.

In the early afternoon, the connection through London was straight forward, and I made good time to Epsom, where Chris lives. Like me he was keen to finish some of his more important bits of work before he left. Whilst he pressed on at his office I ran some last minute errands around Epsom, picking up travel size toiletries and the like. It was around 15:00 when I noticed that I had left my Mastercard, by far my most efficient method of payment whilst abroad, back at home in Wales. I did give some thought about making the 7 hour round trip to fetch it (which by the time I could have set off, would have gotten me back to Epsom around 23:30). Instead I thought carefully through how big a problem not having it would be, and once I had calmed down I simply popped into the bank and got the cards I did have with me enabled for use abroad. My thinking; these trips always, always have a glitch (usually early on), my hope is that this means Chris's knees are safe this time.

After much wandering around Epsom, Chris eventually emerged from his office around 18:00, to find me waiting for him in the local Starbucks. After confirming my assessment that yes, I am indeed a wally for having forgotten my card I asked him what packing he had left to do. He replied "all of it"; "excellent!" said I, for I had a friendly wager with my Dad that this would be his response. Mostly though, with our last bits of work behind us and only the very final preparations between us and our adventure, we quickly worked ourselves into a fairly giddy excitement.Okumaya devam et