Blog - Making Arrangements for my Trip to Kazakhstan (2008-02-11)

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Making Arrangements for my Trip to Kazakhstan (2008-02-11)

Category: Diary. Posted: 2008-02-16 15:20:10 GMT.

I started work still with no idea whether my passport would arrive, so still with no idea whether I would be flying to Kazakhstan tomorrow, or not. The hotel still had vacancies when I got our customer to check on Friday, there were still flights available, and the Royal Mail website said that Postie had my passport. Things were looking good. At about 10:30, Postie arrived with a Special Delivery envelope with my hand-writing on it. Job done. I then had to make the necessary arrangements, but should I book the hotel or the flight tickets first? I went with the flight tickets, and, over one-thousand pounds later, I had an economy return flight to Kazakhstan.

The next step was to sort out the hotel. I tried calling, but got the engaged tone every time I called. I then got an e-mail from our customer saying that the hotel's telephone lines weren't working. A bit later, I got an e-mail saying that it was fully booked, and that she would try to book me into another hotel. Her final e-mail said that she was going home, and I should call her on her mobile in an hour. I did this (I reckon she just wanted to chat me up!), and she said that she'd sort out a hotel tomorrow, and the driver who met me at the airport would know what hotel to take me to. After spending that much money on a flight, I was going to use it. My boss's words as he left for the day were, "Have a good trip, and don't forget to pack a warm sleeping bag, just in case". Oh how I laughed!

I couldn't decide whether to leave my bike at work, leave it at home, or cycle into Heathrow. I decided that I would cycle home, and decide between the other two later. Back at home, I'd received my weekly organic delivery. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to cancel it on Saturday. I decided that the best thing to do with all the fruit was to make the smoothies as normal, and then freeze them, along with the milk that had also been delivered. After doing all this, the freezer was totally full, although I really ought to defrost it sometime. I still hadn't decided whether to cycle to Heathrow, or not, but when I checked the weather forecast for Kazakhstan, I realised that there wouldn't be enough room in my hand luggage for my bike stuff, and the warm weather gear that I needed to take. When persuading me to go to Kazakhstan, my boss told me that the horror stories that he'd told me about his trip were an exaggeration, and "it won't be that cold". Well, the second part was definitely a lie!

Before going to bed, I walked down to the bus-stop to see what times the buses left. They seemed to leave about every 10-15 minutes, although I wanted to avoid using a Beeline bus if I could help it. On the way back, I had to take a picture of a car for bad apostrophe usage before going to bed.

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