The Count Down Begins

Madeleine Knight
Oct 25, 2015
2 min read

So it's Sunday night, watching Homeland with mum asleep on the sofa and a glass of rum and lemonade, thinking about this coming week.

This week begins the count down to the beginning of 5 months of hard work, excitement, new people, beautiful places, hard work, amazing experiences, and hard work. And stage one of this is, packing.

Now for your adverage long-holiday holiday-goer, packing can be a stressful experience... How do you cater for a few weeks worth of holiday fun with a suitcase that seems smaller every time you look at it? How do you know whether you need all 12 wooly jumpers you've packed, or whether your adundance of suncream is really necessary? How do you re-pack 129 times and STILL manage to forget something after creating list afer list and checking a thousand times?

For your long-time-travel-work-goer, you don't know exactly how long you'll have to re-wear clothes before the 8-washing-machine-strong laundry room on ship will finally have a machine free. I can, however, assume (heading to Australia) it's likely to be warm, hot, or extremely boiling, which does take away from the initial stress, and as a Seafarer I am allowed to take 40kg with me.

However, after looking up all the space saving ideas possible on the unlimited articles the internet now provides you with, I can honestly say this job is impossible. I've always thought of myself as a lightpacker, but my room is covered in clothes, shoes, uniform, cameras and a lot of little bits and pieces to make my room feel more homely. I need to re-pack but, in the end, whatever I leave behind i'm going to regret not taking.

Packing stresses me out more than I care to admit really, but it does give you time to metally prepare for where you are going and what you're getting into. Imagining my wardrobe all neatly put away in your room, my new hippie wall hanging laid out on my bed, wearing my neatly pressed uniform and looking forward to exploring tomorrows port in one of the summer dresses I didn't leave behind.... It's all worth it in the end! I promise!

I'm excited. I'm nervous. I'm very much looking forward to seeing some old faces this time next week in Melbourne...

Bring it on Jewel, I'm coming for you! (In 4 more sleeps anyway...)