Less than a week

...before I head back to Norn Iron to do all the rally-esque things that might need doing over there, like whoring ourselves to the media over and over again and that final push for sponsorship.

Thanks to the sponsors who have been donating online - Mark d'Inverno, the Pupillis and Mudcat's Ella - we're delighted with your help. (Anyone wanting to join this list of benevolent philanthropists can visit our justgiving pages: http://www.justgiving.com/feckinirishrovers, http://www.justgiving.com/feckinirishrovershopeandhomes, http://www.justgiving.com/feckinirishroversnicfc.)

I haven't packed yet. I haven't had time. I thought work might ease when term ended but it hasn't. However, a few hours spent navigating the autobahns in Germany this week has now prepared me for the first leg of our journey and I'm assured we can get to Prague in 10 hours. Getting through airport security with a laser scanner when the alert level had just been raised (to "orange" or "careful now!" or something) was a much harder task. I thought they might be distracted by the fact that Pikey was carrying a selection of loose human teeth in his pocket, but he breezed through. Perhaps I look like a threat to world peace. I hope not, because I want to get through Russia without being strip searched, for their sake as much as mine.

Hmmm, lunchtime. I should really eat. I keep forgetting to have food, something that never used to happen to me. Unfortunately my clothes are now too big and I have to use belts for all my jeans and I'm pretty sure I'll be eating erractically on the rally, though I intend to take the gourmand approach and trough a load of exotic (and probably mutton-based) foreign dishes into me.


Sometimes you hear, fifth hand,
As epitaph:
He chucked up everything
And just cleared off,
And always the voice will sound
Certain you approve
This audacious purifying,
Elemental move...

Philip Larkin
Poetry Of Departures