Robyn Anderson

I’m about to head over to Australia and I’ve reached that point in the preparation when you just want to get on the plane and go. Trouble is, it’s not for another two days. I’m pleased I’ll be busy tomorrow but today has been about overthinking and changing my mind. Otherwise known as packing my bag. I’ve spent hours working out the best combination of clothing for hot, warm, wet, wet-and-hot, wet-and-warm and of course, freezing bloody cold when I come home. I had it down to the bare minimum then wondered why? I have been forced to take a bag because I was a bit slow hitting the ‘buy now’ key and by then ‘carry-on only’ was available in one direction and not the other and I couldn’t figure out how to make that work. I therefore have to take a bag and I’ll be buggered if I’m going to pay to take a small bag that I could use as carry-on. So with that in mind I rethought my options and now I have an outfit for every day plus the 14 just in case I have to be quarantined when I get home. (Could I be that lucky? Do they have Netflix?) I’ve also packed up the laptop and some notes for my next book and been to the store for the Lollie Run. That was a late edition. In the weekend I’d asked if they wanted me to bring anything over. All good was the reply but obviously I’d given them long enough for the idea to embed and now am arriving with the All Blacks half-time snacks. They are all nestled into their side of the case with the clothes still spread out on the bed in case I change my mind.

On the other side of all this over-preparedness, is the rush of adrenaline I got when I realized I’d stuffed up the Air NZ advice re: the Aussie Health Questionaire. Air NZ send a lot of emails and for this one I took a quick peek and decided three days before I fly was all the information I required. Being a nurse (once upon a time), that made sense. You leave your health declaration as close as possible to the point of departure just in case your circumstances change. I even smugly thought I would leave it an extra day because I didn’t want to look too eager. When I took a proper look at the email today I discovered I was to fill out the questionaire ‘anytime between 7 days and 72 hours prior to departure’. I’m going on Friday! I had thoughts of how awful it would have put all this effort into the loosening of the heart strings – not to mention the packing – to be turned away at check-in. But I’ve lived abroad and my toughened-up exterior was saying, ‘They always overstate these things,’ whilst at the same time my inner child was bawling her eyes out. Toughy was right. The green tick came back within minutes.

The money thing wasn’t easy either. I was allowed into the ANZ Bank to hear they no longer deal in foreign currency and I had to go to the Mall. I hate the mall. I like other people’s malls in other countries – and I even enjoy some over the other side of town but the one on my doorstep I really, really dislike. I mentioned that to someone yesterday and she agreed. “It’s got a weird vibe.” She didn’t mention Satan but I could tell that’s what she was thinking. I’ve got my cash but now I’m thinking with all this free time, I really should’ve put it through the wash.

So that’s me. I’ve sort-of packed, I’ve got funds, clean clothes and a clean house and I’ve still got one and half days to go. Thank God I’ve got the hairdresser tomorrow morning and get to drop off the Mother’s Day gift in the afternoon. That only leaves a night worrying whether to change the bed since only my side’s been slept on and my husband isn’t coming home for a few more days, and the morning clearing out the fridge and panicking about getting out to the airport on time. And then it’ll be what overpriced sandwich to have on the plane to replace the overpriced offering I could have booked with my ticket.

I’d forgotten all that stuff about flying.