Preps on Tour 2011

Eeeeek!!!! I am 4 days away from leaving on a 6 week holiday and I am SUPER disorganised!!!! What's more, I can't seem to get myself organised. I just know that I am going to spend all of Friday night running around like a chook with it's head cut off trying to do everything at the last possible second - in true Bianca fashion.

I have been dreaming and planning this holiday for YEARS. Ever since Ben and I got together I have been nagging him for a caravan (filled with lots of children of course) so we could drive around the country together. And I am pleased to report that nagging works! Yes I managed to talk him into having 4 bundles of joy - AND I managed to convince him we needed a caravan. I should have been in sales!!!

This 6 week, through the centre of Oz, trip has been in the pipeline for years. We have been talking about it, planning bits and pieces, discussing appropriate names (I am going for Prep Tour 11, Kristy wants Grey Nomads in Training). Now it is less than one week away!!!

We are heading West from Bris and going to the Northern Territory via Longreach, Winton, Mt Isa etc. We are planning to spend a few days doing dinosaur things in Winton and a day or so looking at aeroplane things in Longreach. Once we get to NT we are going to Darwin via Kakadu, then back down through the centre, stopping to see Uluru and Alice Springs. We finish our trip by heading through South Australia and back up along the NSW inland highway. 10 000km's with 6 weeks to do it in.

There are a few families going. There will be 5 caravans and 4wd's in our convoy. I'm sure you will get to know them over the course of my blog.

Tonight I should have been packing/organising but instead I went to the gym (not for an actual workout - I just wanted to get out of the house so I went to talk to the lovely staff there) and watched a ton of reality tv. The whole time I was thinking about all the things I have to do.

I just don't know where to start. Everything is sort of semi packed and semi organised. But my house is a disaster zone and I keep wandering around aimlessly thinking 'I'm sure I should be doing something'.

Anyway, just to give you a little bit of an insight into the preparation that has gone into our trip I thought I'd share with you a few tidbits of info.

1. Kristy and I prepared 23 meals and vacuum sealed all of them. It took 3 days of work but will be well worth it not to have to cook for at least half of the time we are away. We made lots of stews and curries and added a ton of veges to each.

2. I have made the kids 'busy boxes' for the car. Ben is vehemently opposed to dvd players in the car so my children will have a tiny box filled with note pads and pens, tiny books, mp3 players etc to keep them busy.

3. I am taking most of the food with us so we don't spend a fortune on food in little outback towns. I'm sure it will be expensive enough as it is just buying the fresh stuff. Trying to work out how much food 6 people will eat over the course of 6 weeks was a huge challenge. I have had to do many experiments in the last few months so I can correctly pack the right amount of food. These experiments included opening a pack of rice cakes and seeing how quickly they disappeared and how soon after the kids started complaining of hunger. I also had to train Kylah up to eat weetbix for breaky. She really doesn't like cereal and to be quite honest - I hate it too!! But beggars can't be choosers (well actually I can be choosy as I am the one menu planning and I made sure to include my standard yoghurt and muesli for breaky). Kylah usually has fruit and toast but in the outback I can't guarantee we will have much of either. So I have been forcing her to eat weetbix these last few weeks. The other morning, faced with yet another bowl of weetbix, Kylah asked Ben if she could eat a raw, rotting sweet potato instead. He said yes and she ate it!!!!

4. We have had 3 planning nights with all the families. Two of them were a disaster that ended up with everyone shitty at everyone. Only one night was productive. I am wondering how long it will be into our trip before the first fight erupts and who it will be between.... (past experience has Kristy and James winning hands down but this trip there may be some feisty couples that either fight with each other or other couples!! Hmmmmm..... maybe I will be able to provoke Ben into having a fight with me.... more flash dance pants would do the trick!!!!)

5. I am taking faaaaar too much stuff. On top of expensive linen, latex pillows, body pillows, a whole library of science books, about 1kg of chocolate and 4 pairs of flash dance pants.... I am taking my yoga mat and boxing gloves/ pads. I'm pretty sure Kristy is placing bets with the other couples on how many times (if any) I will use the sporting equipment. I am determined to prove them all wrong. I plan to start every day with some yoga and finish with a bit of boxing. I will probably need the boxing to vent all my frustrations on traveling with other people!!! Actually, we all get along pretty well and have traveled together in New Zealand in a convoy of caravans back in 09. That was the original 'Preps on Tour' trip.

6. Ben and I were almost headed to the divorce courts over my decision not to cancel foxtel for the 6 weeks we are away. He does not see the point in having to pay an exorbitant amount for tv when we are not home. I mean while, can not stand the idea of not taping Australia's Next Top Model, Project Runway, Teen Mom and Wife Sway USA while I am away. Do you have any idea how excited I will be to return home to 100 hours of trashy tv?!?!?! If I do not tape these shows on my IQ box (which I am quite certain is called that because it actually lowers IQ's) then I will return home with a whole lot of washing and cleaning and be on a big downer because I am no longer on holidays. Besides, I need something to watch while Ben is at Fraser Island fishing. Yes, we get back from holidays and Ben leaves to go on a fishing trip. (Just to be clear... I don't mind him going on the fishing trip - he better bring me back a ton of fish though!!!)

Anyway I had better go to bed. Tomorrow I am getting my legs waxed and on Wednesday I have to take Diddy back in to hospital so the Dr's can work out a safety plan for our trip (I'm not sure what a safety plan will involve but it sounds like something that will be good to have!!!). In between all that I have some friends visiting, who I hope will read this and force me to do things while they are there. I am quite productive if I have someone to talk to while I am busy, especially if they make sure I stay on task.

I plan to update this blog regularly while I am away. I don't plan to do anymore blogging this week but as I have so much to do I'm sure I will. It appears that when I am faced with a huge amount of work, rather than tackling it, I beeline my computer to blog about it. But I ALWAYS get things done... eventually!!! (and maybe not quite up to the standards of others!!!)

xx