Three days to go, and it's been manic. First, I found a quiet hour to browse the Lonely Planet guide to Myanmar. I re-read the guidance on currency in Yangon: 'US dollar bills must be the latest version (multi-coloured bills from 2006 or later) and in absolutely perfect condition: no folds, stamps, stains, writing or tears. ATMs don't accept international cards; you must take all the cash you'll need in $US.' I did a quick review of our budget. With three conferences ahead of reaching Yangon (Bangalore, Thrissur and Aizawl), each potentially throwing up unforeseen costs, I reckoned we'd cut ourselves too short. At 4.00am, this realisation hit me, and I didn't sleep thereafter. And I thought I'd been really smart downloading a currency converter app to my phone.
Then Farhad texted me to say I must do enough video to make a decent presentation for Sheffield Praise Day on 19th October. We have two cameras - one's so old it uses tapes and no current software will edit it, and one decent one that came to Africa last year. As we divide forces after Bangalore, we need two decent ones. And then the Multiply Europe trip will also be going to Romania while we're away, and want to take a camera. So whatever happens we'll only get half the story. Farhad's weighing up if we should just get a new second decent camera. I haven't yet worked out if it will be worth taking the digital sound recorder, too. Maybe a useful fall-back for delegates if video isn't forthcoming.
I'd done an extensive risk assessment for our travel and medical insurance. It included Foreign and Commonwealth Office reports on UAE, India and Myanmar. I knew that travel 'up country' wasn't recommended in Myanmar, but we're staying in the south. Pete took me on one side at the marquee and asked if I'd read the latest report on the Indian North Eastern states where there's an outbreak of swine fever (or similar). The border with Burma is closed. It turns out it's Manipur not Mizoram, but he was anxious to know what would happen if people movements were prevented. Wise heads will deliberate on all this on Monday, which is too close to flying for us to make any contingencies.
The travel agents sent a revised flights schedule for me, Nathan and Sam. The painfully early start from Bangalore to Kolkata next Saturday morning now leaves even earlier. But that's not a patch on the problem we had last time (November 2011). Kingfisher Airlines was tottering on the point of liquidation, and regular schedules were being slashed all over the place. However, what was more worrying was that I looked up the check-in baggage allowance on the flight. I found that, being domestic not international, it's only 15kg, not the 20kg I'd somehow got in my mind. This is pretty worrying. (Sorry guys for misleading you.) The excess charge is about £2.50/kg, so we may just have to cough up.
Oh, there's more. The IT kit. Because we're dividing forces, we need two laptops kitted out with the all powerpoints, videos, SongShow GFX player, and webmail applications. I've spent more time at the Jesus Centre than was decent downloading second/duplicate copies of RealPlayer, HTC Sync, libraries of presentation material, etc. Then I found the second laptop mysteriously won't run fast enough on phone tethering to refresh web pages. This limits emails and blogs.
I mentioned to Viv that the broadband at home was running painfully slowly. I'd worried that my laptop was about to collapse. He hmm'd and announced that we've exceeded the download quota, and our provider has put is into lockdown until the end of the month. "Thanks", I said. "Yea, well I got an email saying you'd reached 80%, but nobody takes any notice," was the disaffected reply. At least he updated my SongShow GFX file.
Kelly said, "Get a break before you go". I'd even thought of taking Mary out for a quiet meal. But that would be useless if I was still preoccupied. Well, we've ended up at Kings for Saturday night, as I'm talking Sunday morning's meeting in Coventry. And we've had a warm invitation to pop and see Andrew, Ellen and the four youngsters, which will be thoroughly absorbing! Tim emailed me to say the London congregation has raised £150 for kit for Colney's orphanage. People have been brilliant.
Sam's missus, Hannah, has promised us bacon sandwiches for pack-up lunch to eat at Birmingham Airport.
Then Farhad texted me to say I must do enough video to make a decent presentation for Sheffield Praise Day on 19th October. We have two cameras - one's so old it uses tapes and no current software will edit it, and one decent one that came to Africa last year. As we divide forces after Bangalore, we need two decent ones. And then the Multiply Europe trip will also be going to Romania while we're away, and want to take a camera. So whatever happens we'll only get half the story. Farhad's weighing up if we should just get a new second decent camera. I haven't yet worked out if it will be worth taking the digital sound recorder, too. Maybe a useful fall-back for delegates if video isn't forthcoming.
I'd done an extensive risk assessment for our travel and medical insurance. It included Foreign and Commonwealth Office reports on UAE, India and Myanmar. I knew that travel 'up country' wasn't recommended in Myanmar, but we're staying in the south. Pete took me on one side at the marquee and asked if I'd read the latest report on the Indian North Eastern states where there's an outbreak of swine fever (or similar). The border with Burma is closed. It turns out it's Manipur not Mizoram, but he was anxious to know what would happen if people movements were prevented. Wise heads will deliberate on all this on Monday, which is too close to flying for us to make any contingencies.
The travel agents sent a revised flights schedule for me, Nathan and Sam. The painfully early start from Bangalore to Kolkata next Saturday morning now leaves even earlier. But that's not a patch on the problem we had last time (November 2011). Kingfisher Airlines was tottering on the point of liquidation, and regular schedules were being slashed all over the place. However, what was more worrying was that I looked up the check-in baggage allowance on the flight. I found that, being domestic not international, it's only 15kg, not the 20kg I'd somehow got in my mind. This is pretty worrying. (Sorry guys for misleading you.) The excess charge is about £2.50/kg, so we may just have to cough up.
Oh, there's more. The IT kit. Because we're dividing forces, we need two laptops kitted out with the all powerpoints, videos, SongShow GFX player, and webmail applications. I've spent more time at the Jesus Centre than was decent downloading second/duplicate copies of RealPlayer, HTC Sync, libraries of presentation material, etc. Then I found the second laptop mysteriously won't run fast enough on phone tethering to refresh web pages. This limits emails and blogs. I mentioned to Viv that the broadband at home was running painfully slowly. I'd worried that my laptop was about to collapse. He hmm'd and announced that we've exceeded the download quota, and our provider has put is into lockdown until the end of the month. "Thanks", I said. "Yea, well I got an email saying you'd reached 80%, but nobody takes any notice," was the disaffected reply. At least he updated my SongShow GFX file.
Kelly said, "Get a break before you go". I'd even thought of taking Mary out for a quiet meal. But that would be useless if I was still preoccupied. Well, we've ended up at Kings for Saturday night, as I'm talking Sunday morning's meeting in Coventry. And we've had a warm invitation to pop and see Andrew, Ellen and the four youngsters, which will be thoroughly absorbing! Tim emailed me to say the London congregation has raised £150 for kit for Colney's orphanage. People have been brilliant.
Sam's missus, Hannah, has promised us bacon sandwiches for pack-up lunch to eat at Birmingham Airport.
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