Work pressure and communications

I think perhaps my family and friends are starting to realise that I'm going for 3 whole weeks. I seem to be beset by requests for help. In much the same way as at work on my last day before any kind of leave I usually end up working quite late, tying off all the loose ends that my substitute would not notice.

Requests range from fitting lights, installing routers and hanging doors. Could not do any training today, the kids wanted breakfast and then I realised that I need the car go buy a decent set of wood chisels to hang the new doors.

I still have an array of thing to do for the camino, trivial things like source a bigger first aid bag to more important items like make sure I have sufficient medical insurance in place. 

 

One tip I picked up from various forums was to take an small album and fill it pictures of your family and friends, it has the duel purpose of being a source of comfort and also being a nice “show and tell” item when getting to know new people on the camino. 

 

The jury is still out on the communication front, options are

• Use this blog as my communication method, assume that not much will happen at home in the next month, and accept that if something did there would be little I could do about it.
• Take a PAYG phone and get a Spanish sim card, use the cheap Spanish SMS to communicate, this makes me contactable in case of emergency.
• Accept a blackberry from work, upside it would be free to me and I could email posts to the blog, downside work often would intrude on my camino.
• Finally set up a contract phone with a decent smart phone that I could use to blog and communicate with family only, take pictures etc.

I'm inclined to get a Spanish €10 sim card, more for the peace of mind of my partner than myself.

 

A good tip, add an In Case of Emergency number under the name ICE into your contact list, if your found unconscious ambulance services would check your phone and call the ICE number.

I've replaced the “starting point last poll” with a list of good blogs, its a mix of literature, bush-craft, hiking and camino blogs that I've found interesting, I'm sure the I'll adding to that list. I may be somewhat late to the party, but I'm getting quite into blogs and blogging.