Preparations

Tomorrow I have to find the best place to get Danish money. If anyone says ‘Denmark’ I’ll poke them in the eye.

Then I have to get something so strange I won’t even say what it is – it might spoil a surprise. It will add to the contents of a suitcase I already shake my head at in disbelief. If anyone had told me, even a few months ago, what I’d be packing now I’d have laughed. I’m not laughing now, but smiling quite a lot. Which is, in itself, a hell of a change.

If this case gets searched on the way over I will have to come up with some of the fastest talking I have ever done in my life. It’s not just the things, it’s the combination… the last dregs of street cred lie in bubble wrap in a suitcase here. Is it all worth it? Yes, it is.

It’s not just a trip I’m preparing for. It’s what Dr. Who fans would call a regeneration. The entire destruction of a previous life and its replacement with something completely new. I did it once before although that was unintentional, and I didn’t obliterate the old life entirely. This time there will be carry-overs too – such as this blog. But a lot of things are going forever. One in particular, but that’s a story for a later day.

I’ll sell a lot of it, even the irreplaceable stuff. The 1/24th Opel fire truck I converted to RHD. The kit no longer exists. The black DAF box-van with the dragons, also converted to RHD. There never was such a kit.

Most of the train stuff (but not the 9Fs, I won’t part with those). I already had to part with irreplaceable stuff to pay bills in the lean times before the Local Shop job – some will remember because I know some of you bought a few of them. Thanks. I had no help at this end, it was good to know there was help out there.

I have a carved Naga staff, a Hellraiser box, a replica of Conan’s sword, a battle axe and mace and Ninja darts and knives – more than enough to scare a drone to death. So much accumulated stuff and now I realise I don’t need any of it. The important material stuff, the stuff that I do need, is small and easily replaceable. For the rest, well, I did it once so there is no real need to do it again. It’s enough to know that I can – or could.

I have to apologise to regular readers for the current state of this blog. It is not what you have come to expect but then this year was not what I expected either. A year of massive change with huge complications built in. It’s going to be chaos. It’s going to be stranger than anything even I have experienced before, and it will have difficult, even painful parts.

But it will be worth it. Every dart that landed in me, every stab in the chest, every cigarette burn will be worth it. It will be intense and nasty and hard but I’m going to do it anyway.

And you know what? I’m actually looking forward to it.