Essential new toys for me, a boy.

With only a week until I head off I have to admit that I've been procrastinating a little dealing with the finer points of my trip. Last night I had another look at my route but really all I did was fiddle with way points without any real aim or outcome. I've been thinking about putting dried banana in a bag on my handlebars but I still haven't got round to getting the bag, or the dried banana. I'm even thinking of passing on my visit to the bike station in favour of sitting in the living room and playing Xbox. I think it's a protection mechanism, a way of allowing me to accept the reality of my decision to ride to Paris in the time I've given myself. If I weren't dreaming of killing zombies right now then I'd probably be insane with worry about the journey. I know in reality that I'll get all the little things completed in time and all will go swimmingly but it helps to try to play down the seriousness of the plans sometimes, it's necessary to have some distractions.

This morning I got up super early. I was woken up by Catriona handing me a bowl of cereal telling me that she'd poured the wrong type out. That was nice because I didn't have to get out of bed to eat, which no-one can complain about, but also it was handy because I needed to be at the post office really early to collect a package. After a quick ride to the sorting office and back I jumped into bed to unwrap the package because, if we're honest with ourselves, unwrapping your package in bed is where it should be done.

The package turned out to be my free loader, a solar powered charger. It was a happy moment as I'd been worried about running out of power for my phone and PDA on the trip.

When I got back from work later that day I had another surprise, a big blue polythene bag. I guessed that it must be my bivvy bag though I was a little surprised at the size. It was much larger than I thought it would be. As with all things that are wrapped I had to unwrap it quickly and messily. After the unwrapping it was very necessary to get into the bag. Oh man, that thing is great! It may be made for a giant but it is so comfy and cosy that I am actually looking forward to sleeping rough just to use it.

Well it's the evening now and after having unwrapped stuff, charged stuff, drunk cider and watched South Park I feel that I have had just the right amount of distraction. I'm going to finish off my bike maintenance tomorrow and by sunday I'll have all the songs together and a printout of the route. I'm really looking forward to going!