A week of final preparations, adding things to my multiple to-do lists as fast as I check them off. Confirmed all the images have been transferred to the computer from the Nikon D300 and P5000 memory cards, backed them up and deleted everything from the cards. Charged the camera batteries. Finalised the printed backup information and tickets, and taped it all in two envelopes under the lining of the case so it doesn’t get left anywhere.
Fiddled with packing, though some difficulty making final decisions on clothing. And no way I can carry the Epson P2000 [a portable disk for image storage] as backup, so I'm a little concerned in case anything happens to the PowerBook. I guess I’d just have to shoot JPEG only, not RAW+JPG as I normally do, and probably buy more cards.
Phoned the hotel in Milan to say I will be arriving late; the train is due in at 10:30pm, and I’m told that some TGV-Artesia trains can run quite late. Relieved to hear the hotel has my reservation – I’d had a slight fear I would arrive in the middle of the night and they’d know nothing about me!
On Grand Tour 1 I carried the Rough Guides to Germany and Austria, but never referred to them except to look up restaurants a few times. And the books are heavy. So this time I’ve scanned the restaurant pages for Bologna, Florence, Rome, Lucca, Venice and Vicenza; no problem with copyright, I think, as this is strictly for my personal use. Adjusted the scans, saved them as JPGs and also combined them into a PDF for easier 2-up printing (which I almost forgot to do).
Transferred the restaurant JPGs to the Files app on the iPhone, together with a PDF of the Cremona-Busseto-Bologna train timetables from Trenitalia. The timetables now show fares for these regional trains – just €2.80 for Cremona-Busseto. Files was behaving itself, and not causing the Mac Finder to hang as it has ever since I upgraded to the full app; I did quit most other applications on the Mac first, which might (or might not) have made a difference.
Even spent some time relaxing in the sun today, between sorting out paperwork and fettling the suitcase.
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