Ten weeks to go!

A couple of years ago i started thinking about going back to South America - 40 years after my first trip there in 1984. well the time has come ! i've been trying all year to find out about passenger travel on cargo ships but it seems that's not happening any more ... and what I did find was a 'digital nomad cruise' from Tenerife to Salvador! so I have booked on it , and worked out a no fly route to Tenerife ... and now I have just over ten weeks to pack myself up and get going ... and finish off all the things I'm doing here ... and learn Portuguese (!) and try and work out what I want to achieve when I'm away. I was originally going for six months but now my daughter has moved to LA I'll be going to north America and Canada too ... currently planning to be at KlezKanada festival in August '24 all being well, and to spend my birthday month sept '24 in Montreal .... but thats a long way off! and first i have to see what happens in Brazil, and where else i end up going ... over the past two weeks when I started my countdown I have ... - got my new passoort - bought a kobo digital reader thing and worked out how it works - started a packing lost and a travel to do list - made formal arrangements with the lovely woman who's going to rent my house - set up arrangements for abstracting myself through elections , AGMs and replacements for me in the two organisations I'm chairing, the one I'm secretary of, and the three that I'm a director of ... also by mistake I gave myself more work by getting in touch with my former boss and asking him to publish something I wrote 2 years ago, which of course means I have to do some more work on it ! (but only edits, not actually rewrites) and I thought it was a good idea to ask this lovely woman I know to decorate my house before I set off. hmm. time will tell.(update - phew, she decided she couldn't fit it in!)   - so on my to do list now is keep up the Portuguese lessons sort out visas, insurance and injections,  get a very light sleeping bag and a tiny blow up matress, get my new tiny travel melodeon tuned (!) pick up the Canada guide book at the library,  organise my farewell party and my birthday party, book the journey from here to Tenerife, book accommodation in Tenerife, contact Servas people everywhere and make a bit of a financial plan for the year ... that'll do for now. tomorrow off to speak up against antisemitic and homophobic graffiti in Morecambe ... then a litter pick on my local river.... I've got slightly too many day to day things nothing to do with my trip coming up that are interesting and distracting! but watch this space, and all suggestions welcome (where to go in Brazil, blow up matresses, etc) love Fiona !!

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