India - I've done a risk assessment and I've decided that there is some

My visa came this morning, so I really am going to India, and I'm going this Sunday.  I thought I better go as soon as possible, before I start thinking too much about things.

Also, I'm hoping to see Elsa in Delhi before she leaves on Tuesday.  And Dean's getting there on Sunday.  So the timing's about as good as it can be.

Booking things was pretty easy.  Not unlike booking a train ticket to York or a Travelodge in Surrey.  Much easier than last time I had to organise an overseas trip myself when I had to ring up hotels in Turin and try and organise a hotel room in the broken Italian that I don't speak.  Thank goodness for the internet. 

I've had all the jabs I can get, including a £65 rabies shot.  I complained to the doctor that it was over too quickly for the money and I could have had a night in a B&B for that, and so she offered to hurt me some more to give me better value.  I said no thanks.

I went to the pharmacist today to ask about malaria tablets.  She seemed disapproving that I was going at short notice, on a bike, to India and that I didn't even know where I was going when I got there.  I could see she took me for a nutter.  I told her the places I was definitely going and she told me that I didn't need any tablets for that, but to seek advice if I went anywhere else.  Don't worry I won't hold you personally responsible if I get malaria, I could have said.  And I'm more worried about snakes, elephants and taxi drivers than I am about mosquitos I also didn't say. 

I haven't done a formal risk assessment, but I'm aware that I'm taking some risks by going, and I'm okay with that.  What's the alternative?  I could wrap 3 metres of bubble wrap around myself and never leave the house again.  But even that's not safe.  People fall down the stairs all the time, and fall on their heads putting socks on, and stab themselves doing the washing up.  More accidents happen in the home than anywhere else, but  I'm not planning to move to a bungalow, go barefoot or only use spoons.

If I don't go, what shall I do?  Sit and listen to the clock tick down the years to my inevitable doom?  Go shopping for the old people's home I want to live in?  Watch a few gameshows?  No, I've accepted the risk, because I think it might be amazing, and even if it isn't, going is the only way to find out.  

Phil has kindly lent me a proper bike carrier, with a frame in and padding and everything, and I've started piling stuff on the dining table I might want to take.  Dean says a tent might be a good idea, so I might take one of those too.

I went on a practice ride today with Phil and Ruth, and got my hands and feet nearly frozen off.  India might be Diarrhoea Central but hopefully it's a bit warmer than here.  Phil offered me the use of an Elswick Hopper Roadster instead of the Green Dawes I was planning to take.  It's a very old fashioned bike that looks like it might have been ridden up that hill in the Hovis adverts and I rode it round the block to see if it might be suitable for me, but when I crashed into a hedge the first time I tried to turn a corner I thought it might be safer to stick with what I know.

I'm flying Newcastle-Heathrow-Delhi and I've asked the hotel to pick me up from the airport as I don't fancy riding out into the Delhi traffic straight out of the airport.  I might well never fancy riding in the Delhi traffic, we'll have to see.

I've booked the first two nights in a hotel because I think I might need time to get used to the shock of being there, and I don't want to have to find a hostel or put a tent up while I'm still in shock.

Ruth said I'm talking like someone who's full of adrenaline and yesterday I was awake for 22 hours straight before passing out at 1 o'clock this morning, but I don't honestly feel that the fear has really kicked in yet.  I expect that to happen somewhere between getting on the plane and getting off it.

I feel a bit nervous, and it's similar to the kind of nervousness I feel before I set out on a 100 mile bike ride.  Because I've planned it, and I've told people what I'm doing and where I'm going, but at the moment I'm still sat in the house, and I haven't been anywhere or done anything yet.

Normally when I plan our holidays in this country I try to think of everything, and I try to know things in advance and to control as many things as I possibly can about the trip.  But this one's just too big for that, and so for once, all I can do is go.