The home stretch

For so long now I've been talking about my holiday using the "far off" future tense. It never seemed close enough to even be a reality, so there hasn't been a great likelihood of me freaking out or changing my mind.

But here it is - just over a week away and I can almost taste it. Pretty soon my suitcase is going to have to come down from the top of the wardrobe, dusted off, and be packed (and re-packed) will all the jet-setting precision I can muster. Am I up to this task?

I have been trawling travel websites and have purchased an array of knick-knacks to maximise my in-flight, transit, transport, and accommodation comfort. In this sense, I am ready to go.

But nowhere in my bag of tricks do I have a magical remedy for coping with the weather extreme that my body is about to endure. Rome and Glasgow have a 5-day weather forecast that I previously would have reserved for the Arctic! What's with all this "2 degrees Celcius overnight" and "10 degrees celcius maximum daily temperature" stuff? Hard to fathom when we're sitting here (albeit FINALLY) with 38 degrees Celcius.

Hard to fathom, but harder to dress for. I can see it now that I am going to resemble a human lasagne. Layer upon layer of insulation, waddling like the proverbial Michelin Man down the main street, trying not to slide on icicles the size of my head. Here's hoping the coffee is up to par, as I believe there will be some serious caffeine consumption occurring - in order to defrost from the inside out, if nothing else.