Leaving home

Things not to leave to the last minute when leaving the country for a year:

- insurance
- foreign currency
- visa
- packing

However I am not completely unprepared. For one thing, I now have a good leather jacket. This may not seem as important as say, my visa, but it looks cool, was half-price, and it'll probably be quite hard to buy for my size in a land of tiny Japs. Also, it looks cool.

So that's an important aspect of my winter wardrobe sorted.

Also helping alleviate my complete lack of preparation is my Uncle Roydon who has given me an 'Emergency kit':

- A small little plastic bag with a small toothbrush and toothpaste in it.
- An old silk tie.
- A full length dark purple anorak.

If you don't know him this is a quite typical Roydon package.

An ex-RAF supply officer, civil servant, and now OAP bachelor, my Uncle Roydon now lives with my Grandma near Clapham Common, South London. Under his mop of grey hair (kept trim by his own hand) is a genius for thrift and the 'deal'. As well as cutting his own hair, bartering everywhere ("even at Dixons"), using out of date diaries as "surprisingly good" note books, Roydon is always on a general scout for bargains. He recently "snapped up"an odd 100 or so bottles of red wine from Sainsbury's as some kind of investment, which was an improvement on past efforts: 50 metric tonnes of baked beans still sit in the larder from a savy purchasing spree during the supermarket "baked bean wars."

As well as crusing supermarket aisles loitering around the banana stand in anticipation of the 2 for 1 sticker man, Roydon also frequents car-boot sales and charity shops. A lot of the content of these purchases are passed on to our family as christmas and birthday gifts.

One Christmas for example, I got:

- A Hilton Key Ring

- A US Airforce mouse mat.

- Some small photos of some NASA space shuttles

- And a whole bunch of camera stuff which was just invaluable.

However, amongst such jewels however, are some amazing finds. For example, that Christmas I also got an old - but excellent - Pentax camera. I of course, thanked him profusely. However, because Unlce Roydon is proud of a bargain, he will invariably - just in case you were confused - tell you happily: "Oh yes, that old thing - only paid 10p for that"

So why am I "becoming my Uncle"?

Well as I leaving the countyr, I am taking this opportunity to clear my room. Which means I've passed on loads of stuff to younger brother Leo. A sample list:
- a bouncy ball
- also a ping pong ball
- an Exit sign I stole from somewhere
- a Women's toilet sign I stole from somewhere else
- oh also a fire hydrant sign. I must have found that, as obviously I couldn't steal something like that. That would be dangerous.
- a George V staff t-shirt and two St Anne's Freshers Week t-shirts
- one of those reading lights that stick to the end of the book.

Oddly I am not the only 'Roydon' in my house at the moment. Housemate Karen is also clearing. This means that as well as a good brown leather jacket to take to Japan I now have a black one too, a furry coat, a yellow poncho, and a full body anorak.

All good stuff, and I got it for free. Maybe I'll give it to Roydon.