The night before

Sunset from a planeI catch the plane at 9:20am. Preparations have been arduous.

I’ve been tipped off that a handy way of dealing with people hassling you for money is to say you don’t have enough, but instead offer a cigarette and a light. I’ll give feedback on this. Of course, carrying around boxes of fags with me could turn me into a forty a day nicotine addict, but I hope not.

Uhm – what else to say. I’m kind of waiting for my MP3 player to finish loading itself up. Damn slow thing – dunno what Philips were thinking of when they designed the interface. Remind me next time to get an Archos – it has a simpler design that doesn’t need special software. So I can change the contents easily wherever I am.

Right – all done! My next posting will be from Peru. Woo! Or maybe Newark airport if I’m bored and have the time….

Air Stewardesses

I learnt a long time ago that air stewardesses smile at me because they have to as part of their job, and not because they happen to fancy me. I know it’s hard for a guy, but so long as you remember this important fact and don’t get too carried away it will make your flights more restful while avoiding all that nasty business with security at the destination.

More preparation

I’m actually working on my fitness now. I realised that for things like the Inca Trail, as well as other stuff that might be fun to try like sand surfing, fitness will help. Thing is, I’ve realised that fitness is an elusive measure. Every time I’ve gone to the gym I’ve done the treadmill fitness test. My VO2 max is up by six points from average to above average, my weight’s down a few kilos, and my body fat’s looking almost reasonable. And do I feel any fitter? Well no, not really! So I suppose fitness isn’t necessarily about feeling better. I suspect your average marathon runner, though very fit, finishes the race with their heart pounding, ears ringing, and pains all over the place.

I also took a long walk up Moel Famau, the nearest proper mountain, at the weekend. My friend showed me a route up that I’d never taken, but in one part it has the disadvantage of being more or less straight up. We worked hard for that one but when you get to the top, or into a clearing where the view’s great… well it does feel worthwhile. It’s one reason why I want to do the Inca Trail. Reaching Machu Picchu on a bus just won’t seem nearly so magical.

So it’s more fitness. Every two days I have to make myself work hard on the stair climbing thingy at the gym, and do half an hour on the treadmill at its steepest setting. Of course, I hate gyms! They’re weird places where nobody seems to want to talk to anybody else. They’re hardly the chattiest places are they? I got a very weird look trying to initiate a conversation with the person on the machine next to me. Maybe I’m a freak?!

Jabs

Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking the yellow fever jab is trivial. It isn’t, it makes you feel f*cking awful! I thought maybe it was the effect of the wisdom tooth, but as the pain from that’s now subsiding I don’t think I can lay the blame on that.

Now – given that it’s essentially a mild version of the real disease it makes you realise just how bad a thing it must be to catch. So I suppose taking it is A Good Thing.

Ouch

Had my yellow fever jab today, and it turns out that that pretty much brings me up to date. Malaria tablets I get from the chemist’s (Boots in this case). I believe Maleron is the name of one of the better tablets.

I can’t say that the jab hurt much at all, but added to the wisdom tooth extraction I went through yesterday and the various drugs I’ve taken in preparation and for pain relief it’s all left me feeling pretty tired and jaded.

At the weekend I went to Dublin to see Geraldine and John (who are the happy couple that are marrying in Peru) and it was nice to catch up with them and some of the others from Paris that will be travelling in Peru. We didn’t really get much of the planning done that we hoped for, but I was disappointed that more people didn’t seem to want to hike to Machu Pichu along the Inca Trail although it was pointed out that as we’ll be there during the rainy season it may not be that clever an idea. However, I’ll set up a mailing list for everyone and hopefully we can get some good consensus going.

Travel with Jeremy Hardy

No really – it’s a possibility.

In Paris there’s an anglophone music and comedy promoter with the wonderful name of Karel Beer. He runs the Anything Matters website to promote his Laughing Matters and Music Matters shows. Absolutely top bloke, and he manages to bring to Paris some of the best English speaking comedy that’s around. Eddie Izzard’s obsession with doing gigs in France started through Karel – that’s how influential the bloke is.

And on the 21st and 22nd of November Jeremy Hardy is doing a gig. His partner can’t make it and now there’s a spare Eurostar ticket going free. Take it and you may well find yourself sitting next to the eloquent and funny Mr Hardy. Just go to the website and get in touch.

So there you go – if you’re a Hardy stalker you can now, possibly, get close to him for a good couple of hours or until he calls the guards, whichever comes first.

So far as the South America trip is concerned, not a lot of progress today. I’ve learned that you can buy DEET type tablets to put in your washing, so that your clothes will repel the mosquitos. There’s also various other things I need to get for avoiding the mozzies (and they do love the taste of my blood) including a net, spray and so on. Malaria you can be immunised against by following the right regime, but there’s no protection from dengue fever and it’s worth taking the risks seriously.

I now need to work out key locations to visit in southern Peru, Chile and Argentina. If there’s still time I’ll visit Brasil but I’m not going to bust a gut to do so. Like good wine, travel is best savoured slowly. Unless I’m driving – then I enjoy gorging myself like a glutton :o)

It’s happening!

At last – got the tickets booked for Peru. It feels like it’s all about to happen now.

Of course, one of the problems with going away for a long trip is that home life is suddenly put on hold. I’m trying to set up a business here, and leaving it all hanging for two months may not be the best idea. But then again, it strikes me as a perfect opportunity to do this trip when it’s likely to have the least negative impact.

It’s also going to be an opportunity to maybe trace my father. We lost touch over ten years ago. I have addresses for him in places like Tacna, Arecibo, Quito and La Paz. Although finding him isn’t a priority, and isn’t the reason for doing this trip, I want to feel like I made the effort so I’ll make a few enquiries. Of course, it’s all a bit more complex than that. Part of the inspiration to write this down started when I posted an entry, more or less anonymously, on the b3ta question of the week. My entry’s about halfway down – just search for the word ‘father’. I think I made the post a day or two before the qotw closed but it seems a lot of people clicked it and in that short time it made it onto the ‘best’ page.

And it made me think – it was a stream of conciousness posting, and the first time I’d ever put down in writing how I’d felt about part of his treatment of me. A couple of days later I suddenly realised that no, it wasn’t me. I’ve nothing to feel guilty about. I did do my best, and although I want to help others as much as I can, I have to also respect that other people not only screw up, but have to actually get themselves out of that bother. To over-help (is that legitimate grammar?!) someone is to emasculate them. So, you set them up with the ability to help themselves and if they refuse then you have few options but to hope for the best and leave them to it.

And it all leads to my creating this blog on my website. I’ve no intention of revealing my deepest desires on here, what music I like, or anything like that. I just want to talk about travel (because it’s interesting and it’s easier than trying to keep a paper journal!) and to talk about the relationship my travels have to my father and his behaviour. In a way, I guess, it’s therapy. It also means I don’t need to repeatedly bore people with the story. I can just publish here and be damned.

Now – onto more practical stuff… I need to see people about what jabs are required…

Jabs, bookings and planning for Peru

Well, finally, the whole Peru and South America trip is coming together. By the end of today I’ll have the flights booked, including a return three day stopover in New York. You might ask why I’m going via New York when there are slightly easier and more direct routes from Spain – but for the small extra premium I get to visit an extra place that I can’t otherwise easily nip to.

The jabs are proving a pain. In the UK these days it’s almost impossible to see a doctor unless you’re dying, at which point they send you to accident and emergency anyway. And if it’s not urgent you can’t make an appointment to see them except on the day you’re ill – but if you can’t get through by about 9:03am and all the slots fill up… tough! Try ringing tomorrow. In other words, unless you’re really ill, or prepared to make a fuss, you’re not seeing a doctor. You can visit a nurse at the drop-in centre of course. She’ll look at you, decide you’re not dying and then hand you a leaflet telling you stuff you already know or tell you to see the doctor. At that point you might be able to get an appointment to see the doc. It’s terrible in terms of preventative medicine :o(

Uhm – where was I?! Oh yes – jabs. I need… Oh, they won’t actually tell me. Have to pop in to a drop-in centre. No appointment, no clues about when it’s best to go in… just turn up and be seen. Then they tell the doctor’s, who do a prescription, which I then have to pick up and take back to the drop-in centre. I’m not sure if they’ll then immunise me or if I have to go back again… but sheesh. It’s no wonder people feel frustrated – in the modern world, with macho management practices putting employees under pressure, it’s making NHS healthcare unavailable to anyone except the noisy or those with lots of spare time. And not, I suppose, very accessible to the people who pay for it. Oh boy, that sounds horribly like a Daily Mail style of rant. Hmmmmmm…. Maybe time to go private like I have done with dentistry. Expensive, but you do feel cared for and that’s a big part of it.

Anyway, after a bit of googling, it looks like the required vaccinations I need for a trip to South America which takes in a lot of the continent are probably:

  • Malaria
  • Polio (may be already ok)
  • Tuberculosis (never been immunised but may be immune anyway – need to check)
  • Typhoid
  • Yellow Fever

I had a few jabs for a trip to Taiwan, so hopefully some of those won’t be necessary.

The BBC has a a good page about immunisation requirements in general, for UK based travellers here.

The flight will cost about £700 all in – just waiting to get one more quote, in case it comes in significantly cheaper, and I’ll then book it. Should be done today, hopefully.

Hello

Hi there – well, where do I start?

Let’s just say this isn’t intended to be a daily blog or journal of my life. I really really don’t think that what I do is quite that interesting. If I start posting up anything that says “Not done much today, had a drink with Roger and quite liked a girl we met but not sure if she’ll meet me again…” then please, shoot me.

Instead I’m going to add stuff on topics that might be of interest. Current things will be:

Motorsport – events I’ve competed in, work I’ve carried out, and what I’m doing. This is as much to share information with other people who are interested in the sport.
Work notes – anything I do in my work (currently a ‘resting’ PeopleSoft consultant) may be noted if I think it’s of interest either to myself in the future or to other PeopleSoft types. Other projects I’m working on may also be documented here. Not because it’s the best way, but it is the easiest way!
Travel journals – the main reason I’ve set this up. Now I can easily post up news and information about my travels from web cafés around the world. And no need to arrange paper stuff – something I’m terrible at.

Thank you for looking!