home, sweet home

Back in the land of OZ and home again after 2 months on the road. A very exhilarating and worthwhile trip to Europe that has left us all a bit stunned. Bit hard to believe where we've been and what we've done, actually visited 12 countries! Now we really need to sit down and have a de-brief and look at the blog again and all the photos. Will probably do something like a country at a time and talk to the boys about it. Poeple are asking how the 'holiday' went but it doesn't feel like a holiday - not in the sense of lying on the beach in Bali reading novels all day. It was a journey, and at times fairly hard work. Anyway, a fantatsic experience for all of us and a great insight into both eastern and western Europe.

I'm happy to be home and while I could probably live in Europe, I do appreciate what we have here in Australia. Lots of thing to think about regarding what we've seen and experienced but that will be material for later posts.

While away we attended the 13th International Conference on Thinking in Norkopping, Sweden. Very busy (5 x 1 hour sessions per day on average) and usally fairly interesting and stimulating presentations. Lots about learning and teaching but also stuff on how the brain works and what education can do to develop cognitive ability.

mid week

So much to do, and so little time. Tidying up things at work before I go and organising things for while I’m away has kept me busy this week. Still a little bit to do and sign off on. Should get most of that done and then tidy up my desk on Friday.

Then there’s the travel plans... Still looking for some reasonable accommodation in London but otherwise it’s fairly well all done. Bags are getting packed and instructions written for the boys left behind.

The idea of heading off to a foreign country is causing me some grief - all the unknowns etc. Once we’re there though, things should be OK. I have done it all before, but it’s that anticipation that’s driving the fear of the unknown. It will be Prague first off, and we’ll see our eldest son again. Will be nice to chill out for a few days and catch up on all his travel adventures. I’m hoping to catch moments like the child in this photo, candid and with a sense of wonder.

counting the sleeps

Must getting close, I’m counting the sleeps. 7 to go! Have sorted out a three day trip to Paris and also picked up a few more travel things, so we’ve ticked off about the 90% done so far. Packing bags next...

Work will also require some attention during the last week, although much has been done in regard to getting things in place. It’s amazing how much I’ll miss in the 2 months I’m away, and then there’s always new things coming up. On the other hand I need to remember it’s a lot of ‘same old’ and the wheels keep turning.

We’ve had some nice rain over the last couple of days and its nice to see the ground damp and the new green sprouting - it looks so lush.

The trip blog url has changed and will be theWarrens2007EuropeTrip. (I’ve corrected this in the posting on the 11th of May)

the 80/20 rule

the ubiquitous eighty/twenty (or Pareto principle) rule is alive and well... Now that we’ve got about 80% of the trip organised, I’m finding the last 20% is taking 80% of the time! It seems that you can spend an inordinate amount of time trying to tie up the loose ends. Maybe we’ve got enough planned and we should just let the rest happen. In a state of near exhaustion it’s hard to remain motivated and excited attempting to dot the last i’s and cross the last t’s.

Looking over the itinerary, I reckon we’ve managed to put a fairly good trip together. Couldn’t have done it without the Internet and I’ve been impressed by some of the booking systems encountered, some others aren’t helpful at all. There are some language barriers but there’s no excuse for not having secure credit card payment available.

Anyway, it’ll be bag packing next week and I don’t think we’ll go to the lengths of Crazy Eric! As long as I’ve good socks and shoes, camera, hat & sunnies, a good book and some clothes, all will be well.

Two weeks to go

Only 13 days/sleeps till we’ll be ‘flying on a jet plane’. Still a bit to do, some accommodation to finalise, car hire to suss out, investigate whether it possible to fit in a trip to Paris, and the train timetables to sort out.

I’ve decided to write the trip blog on another site so make your way there to read what’s going on from the 26th of May.

Now that things are getting so close there is a bit of panic setting in. So much to finish at home and small details to attend too. I’l try not to get too hung about things and make a list and tick things off as they get done. Main thing will be to pack the bags (although Wendy’s way ahead of me).

The break from work will be nice and seeing some of the history of Europe should inspire. The Thinking Conference in Norrköping (look it up on Google Earth) during the 3rd week of June will be great, and it will nice to see some familiar faces there.

... and then there’s the weather. Last time in Europe for the winter, this time in summer. I’m expecting it to be completely different but might have to experience the green and sunshine (rather then the grey and cold) for it to be real. I just hope there’s no heat wave as I don’t feel like traveling if it’s uncomfortably warm.