The usual chaos on my bed of piles of everything crying out to be put into my luggage – I’m one of those people who, despite packing umpteen times a year, for 30 years, still hates it, and still has mild ‘panics’ once I’ve shut the front door behind me that I’ve got everything…. it’s absurd, really, because Cali DOES have shops…!! Some things are a lot cheaper there – but some stuff is infinitely more expensive, and one of the little ‘joys’ of taking too much is that you can leave it behind to bless people. Anyone who has EVER travelled with me knows I have a total inability to ‘travel light’ !

I recall one year, going on a long-haul flight to a really hot country (name and country deleted to protect the guilty!), I arrived with two suitcases, and two carry-on items (there ARE benefits from frequently travelling – you can take extra luggage!), One guy arrived with a rucksack – for FOUR weeks in the tropics. A friend asked where his luggage was, and he said that was it…. I made sure I didn’t share a room with him….

And so… in a few hours, the ‘hop’ to London, then the 4.30 am ‘get-up’ tomorrow morning 🙁 – Heathrow-Madrid’s ok, just 2 and a bit hours….then, the 11+ hours non-stop to Cali. Thankfully, Avianca, the Colombian airline, have improved massively over the 17 years I’ve been going there (this is my 50th visit to Cali alone!): when I first ever used the route, back in the late 90’s, I swore I’d never use the airline again: the meal – if it could be described that – looked like mashed-up mushy peas: nothing else. Three times on the same flight..and after a couple of hours, they proudly announced that, on the big central screen at the front of the cabin, we’ll be showing our first ‘motion picture’ – that name for a film alone should have made me know it wasn’t going to be good. It was ‘Addicted to Love’, with Meg Ryan and Matthew Brodrick. It was o.k. Two hours later, ‘our second motion picture’ – ‘Addicted to love’… and then a third time… and the same on the way home. I NEVER want to see that film again!

Now, they’re in the Star Alliance, which is great as to me, that is the best alliance! – and they have 10″ seat back TV’s with about 300 films, TV, and documentary programmes to choose from: oh, and a pretty good meal! But it doesn’t make 11-12 hours any shorter.

I do hope that some of you will be up at 4.30 tomorrow morning to pray for me ;).

I arrive in Cali (6 hour time change backwards) at 8.15pm tomorrow night: Alan & Barbara, on a different route, at 11.47 pm tomorrow night…. I think Friday MIGHT just be a slow start…

So, having packed last night, I’m just about to unpack again, knowing full well I’ve got far too much stuff with me…