Book hotels…check.

Get Australian visa…check.

Arrange pet sitting…check.

Travel insurance…check.

(My God, I’m actually leaving in less than two weeks!!!)

I think I’ve bought or arranged just about everything. The last thing was a prescription for Ambien; I called my doctor for that today and hopefully will be able to pick it up in the next day or two.

The flight to Australia is 14.5 hours, leaving at 10:30pm from SFO and arriving at 8:00am, and I know that without Ambien, I will not sleep a wink. When I went to Europe for the first time in 1997, I only got 3 hours of sleep the night before, to ensure I would be tired enough to fall asleep on the plane. It didn’t work. Instead, I got into Paris at 8:00am having only had 3 hours of sleep in the past 48. I actually got through the day reasonably well (by staying outside in the sun), but the one glass of wine I had with dinner rendered me almost incapable of walking.

So now, I’m going for the industrial-class sleeping pills.

I’m going on a long (2.5 week) vacation to Australia next month.

So (having been inspired by Nick) I’ve decided to start a travel blog to record my trip.

I’m leaving on Saturday, February 16 and will be back on Wednesday, March 5. I’ll be visiting:

1. Cairns
2. Melbourne
3. Ayers Rock/Uluru
4. Sydney

More to come…