2005-08-09: The trip begins

Here it is, 8:55 AM and we are all ready.

Yesterday was hopefully the worst of it all out of the way. We came home very late from a good party for Michaels' parents. Then after a few hours sleep we were to go to a BBQ at my mums. Everything was packed into the cars and we were ready to leave when Edyta came chasing me down the hill waving her arms about. Seems her car had developed a flat battery overnight. I was concerned about that too in the morning, because I saw the door half-ajar and know that sometimes that is all it needs to kill a battery.

A call to her dad and he and Piotr came out to change the battery. The idea of rolling the unpowered automatic down the hill to the road was quickly shot down by me (no Funniest Home Video moments there). Instead the battery came out of Edwards car, into Edytas', Edytas' car came down the driveway and then the batteries were swapped again. We got charge into her battery and everyone was ready to leave. Then after the first corner I see Edyta pulling over and tooting her horn. Seems the charge didn't really hold, and on low revs the engine just cut out.

So I raced back up the hill to get her father and brother. They both came back down and charged the battery again. All us then drove to cheap auto to buy a new battery. All was good and set, and about 1.5 hours after we planned to leave we were going to mums.

We had the BBQ there and then I went to set up my computer for mum. Everything plugged in and worked fine. Then we remembered we had to get the old data of mums computer. Not wanting to plug the old monitor back in I just ran the cable from the old (old, old) PC into my (new, new) LCD monitor. One or two screen modes later and the monitor was totally kuput, so I had to throw mums old monitor back onto the system. When we had got to mums Edyta had said she was worried the LCD may have been damaged from sliding around in the boot. I think we both jinxed each other on that day.

Now on the way out of the country I have to stop at Ebor to drop of a monitor for warranty repairs (lucky for me I had to stop there anyway to get my reference).

So that was the day before we left. Hopefully that is all of the drama out of the way now. My next update will probably be before I leave the country again, and then after that Dubai or Heathrow. Bon voyage (Edyta and Lance).