There is nothing more to be said really. I just have to amuse myself for a few hours and then begin the most difficult part of my journey - from Hertfordshire to Heathrow taking about the same time as the flight to San Francisco...
I did the farewells in the office today. It feels strange doing that when so many people are doing it because they are leaving for good due to their being put "at risk of redundancy" (that is the jargon can you believe, "did you hear so-and-so has been put at-risk"). It's still a very turbulent time and while there are green shoots it's difficult to know whether they will be enough to sustain you.
Today was a hectic day of trying to leave my affairs in order. Once word got around that I was off for a long time ("oh shit" was in many ways one of the nicest and most complimentary responses I got) people were bombarding me with calls and emails. My head was sore at the end and joy of joy the A13 was backed up even at 7.30pm.
Sometimes you want time to pass and sometimes you want it stand still. Friday evening I wanted time to stop because I knew that the weekend was the last little piece of calm and then it would all begin. I'm feeling as confident about the birth as one should at 38 weeks while I realise all sorts of terrible things may yet happen there is nothing to be gained by worrying about that (since they have the same probability of all sorts of wonderful things, equally not to be dwelt upon I fear). Instead I have been preoccupied by all the practical stuff and worrying about where the embassy is, whether the lawyers will do their jobs efficiently and whether all our animal keepers will emerge from this with their sanity.
Everyone during the goodbyes wished us well. Some seemed to think it was all so "exciting" whereas the word they were surely grasping for was "terrifying". I feel a bit like Indiana Jones (not a common occurrence I assure you) in the "Last Crusade" when he needs to step off the side of the cliff into the chasm and hope there is some means of stopping him from falling.
Here goes...
