Today is my last day at home. It will involve a lot of packing and list writing. Ideally I’d love to be able to squeeze in a bikini wax and pedicure too. Not because this sailing trip is remotely like a cruise in the Med wearing bikinis swirling gin and tonics, but because eventually I will end up in Rio and although my bikini line and toes will be positively manky by then, they’ll be less manky if they get a seeing to before I leave.
I’ve now managed to handover all of my work. I feel more free than I have in years. And my inbox contains just 2 emails - one from a friend and one being the shopping list of food I need to buy for the boat in Hull. Normally my inbox takes several mouse scrolls to get to the bottom of it.
I’ve also spent this week giving my boys extra kisses and cuddles. We’ve worked out a way to send long distance kisses. I’ve promised to send them daily from the boat. I’ll blow a kiss into the wind and it will blow it’s way to them. I’ve told them that they might not feel it because it might land on them when they’re sleeping, but they should know that it will come every day. And in return, they promise to blow me a kiss every night before they go to bed.
While I know they will miss me - not to mention how much I’ll miss them - they seem fairly pragmatic about it all. They are really looking forward to getting a phone call from me from sea because I’ve explained that the call has to go up into space to a satellite before it comes back down to them. They now think I’m part sailor, part spaceman. Both are cool.
This is my last blog post from land. We set sail at 2pm on Sunday 13th. Watch the news, you never know, it might make it on as a news story. I believe we can post blog updates from sea, but these will be posted onto the Clipper website. I do have someone who will look out for my blog posts and add them to this blog, but otherwise you can read them direct by going to:
http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/qingdao/index.php/CrewDiaries
Or just navigate your way to the Team section of the Clipper Round the World website, find the Qingdao boat and click on Crew Diaries. You will also be able to track the progress of the boats by going to www.clipperroundtheworld.com - this function is not yet live but will be once we set sail.
Thanks to everyone who has supported me during this year including Newbury Nannies who helped me find the nanny who will be replacing me while I’m away, all the mummy bloggers, my clients who donated prizes for my auction, my friends and family - and most importantly my husband who has supported me every step of the way.
I’ll tell you all about it when I get at the end of October. Here goes nothing.
Home Office Mum resides in West Berkshire. Take one tired mum. Add two small boys. Mix in one manic home business and one long suffering husband. A simple recipe for chaos. Read all about it at her blog. She is also embarking on the Clipper Around the World Race, you can keep up with her at More to Life Than Laundry.
Photo credit: tiarescott
