The Beginning

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Tuesday the 15th of March was my final day of work in Port Talbot, after the brisk handshakes and goodbyes, I rushed out in a huff at 4pm, only to forget some very important travel documents on my soon to be ex-desk, which came to mind as I was flying down the M4 back to Cardiff, after a swift back-track I was home 45 minutes late to be told I had missed the polish guy on his miniature motorcycle who had been waiting to retrieve my company car. Time to start packing! The moving company were arriving at 8.30am the next morning and I hadn’t so much as made up a box yet. As I got to work on the packing, a Storm started brewing about the last minute nature that I was attending to my tasks, it’ll be ‘sweet as’ I reassured. My watch said 2.30am, and my brain said I had done enough packing to make it through the morning, off to bed, where the threatening looking Storm had receded long ago.
The door bell rang earlier than I expected, with my handwriting on the boxes somewhat hurried, I was happy to greet the polish guy. I handed the car keys over, showed him to the car, and helped him with his miniature motorcycle into the boot.
After seeing my consignment of personal effects out the door an hour later to embark their own around the world journey, now came the task of seeing if I could fit everything I had left behind into my humble pack that was probably older than I was, and been around the world countless times. Waiting like vultures, the housemates would be the beneficiaries of any leftovers.
After a delayed transit to London that afternoon, to my dismay, the rugby ball, a spare pair of lime green flip flops, and some slacks were a few more victims to cutting the bulge in my pack. Storm, my partner in crime, had to be more aggressive, and with the things she removed from her pack, you would think that she was travelling to supply third world beauty salons. So we holed ourselves up in a good friends dig for the next 24hrs before Heathrow summoned us to the Gate - Flight 9W117 Bombay - Cochin - India.

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