New blog.

I've decided to carry on with the travel theme, but without limiting myself timewise, so please check out http://cheeseofvictory.wordpress.com/ for my further travel adventures.

Countdown to Russia: days 3, 2, 1. No longer Her Majesty's subject.

Chile chapter finished. Now I have to do a heck of an editing job before we hit the train to Irkutsk because I'm five pages over the limit, never mind actually cutting the text.

Maps finished, photographed so that I can compare the first edit to the amendments the cartographers email me while I'm on the road and sent to James.

Have sent my Lithuania contract to my Lonely Planet editor.

The day before departure is a frenzy of packing, finishing the Peru chapter, and removing all traces of my existence from my room so that Qing can move in in my absense. Pre-trip blues. I don't want to leave; I want just a few days to myself, at home, with no work to do, so that I can just play computer games and read a good book.

Pre-trip injury in the form of a gash in my leg from where I collided with another cyclist at a blind corner; I came off worse than she did. There was blood.

Get less than two hours' sleep before departure day because there's too much to do. This is the first time I've checked in using a Russian passport in 14 years.

There's a fat chap in the departure lounge talking to a familiar-looking man in a grey suit; why, I do believe the besuited man is the Russian consul.

A three-hour sleep later, I'm whisked through the immigration point at Moscow's Domodedovo. I'm no longer Her Majesty's subject.  

Countdown to Russia: days 5 & 4. Passport lost and found.

Final visit to the Russian consulate for a while, I hope. They're satisfied with the translation of the deed poll and charge me £20 per page for checking the accuracy. The consul then talks to me about changing my surname in my Russian passport - either do it in Russia, or it'll take up to 9 months if done through the consulate. He waves my deed poll and says: "It's not really a legal document to us, nor to the British government, for that matter." And that's after I'd spent around £200 legalising it, translating it and going to and from London.

Inside I'm screaming, trust me.

I want to tell him that it bloody well is a legal document in this country, that the passport office certainly thought so when they issued my new passport, but I just don't have the energy. His attitude makes me wonder whether it all makes any difference at all to whether I'll encounter trouble at the border.

Coffee with Georgia, lively fellow Rough Guides person who'll be covering the northern half of Peru. I answer questions and share travel tips.

Second tick-borne encephalitis jab. If you pay attention to the doomsday posters on the wall, you'd think that pretty much anyone in Europe's in immediate danger of dying from it.

Everybody knows that the plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast...
Leonard Cohen, "Everybody Knows"

Try to collect Steve's passport from the Chinese visa section, only to encounter unexpected trouble. Text Steve: "They've lost your passport. Am waiting while they look for it." Steve has kittens. It turns out that it was erroneously given to some guy who wandered off with it without checking that he was given the right passport. Luckily, he returned it straight away, or it would've been the end of the (train) line for Steve.

Most hostels booked. Am debating whether to look up my mother's third cousin's daughter when in Novosibirsk.

Bryn's sent me the text; it seems to be all in order.

Working steadily on the Chile chapter. It's going to be a tough last two days.

Countdown to Russia: days 9 - 6.

Bryn finally gets back to me. We’re trying to organise it so that I get a letter of introduction from Trailblazer, as well as business cards. Have approved the design of the cards, have translated the letter into Russian with assistance from my mother (I lack certain turns of phrase, and some of my Russian turns out to be a direct translation from English); now waiting for the delivery from Bryn.

Friday is hectic. I haven’t had word from the translation company to say that my deed poll is ready, but go to the office anyway; I need to have the translation in time for my appointment at the Russian consulate. It’s pretty close; get it with 10 minutes to spare before my train’s departure. Make it to the consulate with a minute to spare after sprinting from the Tube, only to be told that a) they don’t want the translation agency’s stamps on the paper, just the translation itself and b) that the translator’s made some sloppy mistakes (she has) and that the whole thing needs to be redone. If I’d known that, I could’ve translated the damn thing myself! Arrange to return on Monday.

Mike and Monica have come down from Peru for Cristian and Sophie’s wedding. Stay at Mike’s parents’ and work all evening. I’ve thought about not coming to the wedding, but didn’t want to let Cristian down at the last minute.

Work all Saturday morning until we have to drive down to Portsmouth for the ceremony. The evening’s gone; the reception at Sophie’s father’s farm means hours and hours of drunken revelry. The more pink champagne I have, the less likely the chance of doing any work.

Making progress on the train this morning, though. I’m not quite on target, but I’m no longer at that horrible stage where I can’t bear to think about how much work I have to do, because if I do, I freeze because of the stress, and can’t focus at all. Peru chapter almost finished, and I can fine-tune it on my one day in Moscow.

Alarming message from Steve last night; he's cheerfully hyseterical. He’s flying to Moscow with German Wings (which I’m not convinced is even a real airline) and is landing at some obscure airport that is neither Sheremetyevo nor Domodedovo. He's convinced that he won't register his visa on time and will become a fugitive from the law. I have no sympathy for him at all. He can make his own merry way to the hostel. My mother informs me that it has to be Vnukovo, formerly for internal flights only. I think I'll put Steve to work, writing about airport facilities for the guide.

Ulan Bator hostel booked. We’re looking into the ‘staying with nomads’ options, and three days/two nights is such a short time. I want to get a proper idea of nomad life without doing anything too touristy and gimmicky, whereas Steve wants to cram in all the camel rides he can get.

Staying at my sister’s. Alarmed at how expensive Russia accommodation seems to be. Or maybe that’s because I’ve already somehow managed to spend a substantial chunk of my trans-Siberian advance. Trouble.

Have printed out the new, corrected deed poll translation for the morning visit to the embassy.

Countdown to Russia: days 11 & 10. Mentoring session and another obstacle.

Yesterday I had my video call mentoring session with Brandon, my Lonely Planet mentor (every new writer is assigned a senior writer). He sat in a cafe in Turkey and talked to me in detail about how the system works. How to get more gigs: do a great job on your first one, since you're 'on probation'; build positive relationships with your editors and fellow writers - that way you'll know what's available to pitch for and if editors trust you and like you, you'll get more work. Don't be a 'pitching whore' - someone perpetually available who pitches for everything (after all, there must be a reason as to why you're perpetually available, and editors prefer writers who are clearly busy and sought-after). So one hand, I have to try and get as many gigs as possible to establish myself, but without seeming too desperate for work. Catch 22. 

It's not what you know, it's who you know. Editors give you first pick if you've already worked on a guide.

He explains how it's possible to go from one gig to another in different parts of the world: "You don't have to be an expert on a destination. But you do have to be an expert on finding the expert." That makes sense, but goes against the advice given to me by a senior Rough Guide author, who is indeed an expert on two distinct regions.

Then follows the technical information - where to find the Author Manual, how to upload diffent fonts used for specific guidebooks from the Lonely Planet FTP site (because anything else will bugger up the text you're working on), how to approach editors and when to approach them.

Every year we have to fill out an 'Author At A Glance' Excel document, describing our travel experience. Brandon disabuses me of the illusion that it's an important document. "The editors' cubicles are all next to each other. If they want to know something about you, they just turn around and ask an editor who knows you."

The Skype connection is dreadful and we keep getting cut off. I appreciate Brandon's persevering. Since he's doing the Latvia chapter, we agree to meet in Riga when I go and do Lithuania.

Get a horrible shock when I check my bank balance. Somehow I've managed to spend almost £2000 in three weeks. All those visas, trips to London, essential purchases (Gore-Tex jacket, rucksack, Microsoft Office 2010), flight...it all adds up. Really need to sublet my room, otherwise am financially buggered.

Plod on with the finicky bits of the Peru chapter. Have a single house viewing by a Cambridge grad student. He seems to be interested in the room, and confirms his interest in the evening. Whew.

Today I get onto the urgent task of having my legalised deed poll document translated before Friday, when am due to go to London. Call several companies for quotes. Luckily I have the presence of mind to go on the Russian consulate website to discover that I can't just turn up with my deed poll and expect to have it ratified; I need to make an official appointment with the notary, and, as it happens, there's only one available slot this Friday (and none next week!), so I rush to a translation office and implore them to do my document in 46 hours, rather than 48, otherwise I'm in serious trouble.

Lunch with Sonia, my manga artist friend. Since we're both in the creative, freelance business, bounce a few ideas for new guidebooks off her and she gives constructive advice. To sell a good idea to big publishing company or to self-publish? Or even to sign a non-disclosure agreement and ask to work in partnership in exchange for financial backing and recognition? I've got a couple of ideas to pitch to Trailblazer, but I really need to hear back from Bryn first.

Feel sapped of creative energy, so focus on the mundane 'Directory' sections for each Peruvian city - addresses of airline companies, pharmacies, post offices, police stations, etc. It's slow, methodical work. Feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

Countdown to Russia: Days 14-12. Dress shopping and Milton Keynes.

Much of my Saturday is taken up by helping my friend Sara (who is getting married in February) and her bridesmaid Dawn sort out their dresses. After all, my sartorial eloquence makes my advice invaluable. Sara the power-tripping bride gets me to try various dresses 'for a laugh'. The experience is not terribly traumatic, but it is time-consuming. Helping people shop for clothes is not unlike being in a museum: you may not have walked far, but your legs really ache by the end of it.

Work on the Peru chapter between the shopping and group dinner with friends, then burn the 2am candle.

Spend the whole of Sunday behind my desk, but the Peru chapter is finally shaping up. The only problem is that I do the easy stuff first - re-writing or editing the text on attractions, but leaving the time-consuming and finicky listings until the end, which is what's happening now. At the same time, I need to decide on all the listings in order to complete the maps. At this rate, it may all be as I'd feared: I will end up taking the text to Russia and finishing editing on the plane or even in Moscow.

Put up an ad to let my room while I'm away. Lonely Planet pay sufficiently for me not to have to do this, but the other guides do not.

Spend almost my entire Monday at Milton Keynes, trying to get my deep poll document legalised for the Russian consulate. I get there early, having caught the 7am bus, but it takes me forever to walk up from the bus station to the legalisation office along Silbury Boulevard, which turns out to be a lot longer than expected. Milton Keynes has got to be the armpit of Britain; I've never come across an uglier, less pedestrian-friendly place in my life!

First the office sends me to a nearby solicitor's, so that he may sign the deed poll to confirm that it's genuine. Then I wait. And wait. And wait. As Sod's Law will have it, this is the first time in ages that their network's gone down, so the promised 90-minute turnaround turns into a 6-hour turnaround. I manage to use the time productively, tweaking the Nazca and Paracas part of the Peru chapter and reading Robert Harris's "Lustrum", but it's not the same as being in my 'office'.

Get through to the Trailblazer office; Bryn's away until Thursday, but he'll get back to me as soon as possible, I'm promised. Just as well really; I need that text and those maps before I go. Must print out all the Lonely Planet Lithuania stuff as well before departure.

Have to abandon my plans to visit my friend Kala in Coventry, meet her new children and gorge myself on her Jamaica cooking. At coming round to the realisation that I'm trying to do too much.

Countdown to Russia: days 16 and 15.

Go pick up my passport from the Chinese visa centre. Their £30 visa charge is deceptively cheap; turns out they charge just as much for 'visa processing'. Daylight robbery. Oh well, at least I have all my visas now, unlike Steve, who's hated by the Chinese.

Take Christine around. She's getting very irritable and monosyllabic. I recognise it as travel fatigue; the difference is that I'd only be getting to that point after months on the road, rather than one week.

We meet with Subo, who will know next week what shape his life will take over the next two years, depending on the outcome of his interview at the Japanese embassy. This is followed by dinner at my favourite Georgian restaurant with my friend Paul, a fellow intern in Jamaica in 2006, and his girlfriend Kelly.
The dinner get more raucous with each subsequent bottle of wine, as my friends quote more and more scandalous anecdotes from my past life. Paul gives me and Steve tips on Beijing and how to get around. I produce a 2008 copy of the Moscow Times, featuring Solzhenitsyn's death on the front; Paul's a big admirer and I've been meaning to hand it over.  My work plans go out of the window as I go for another drink with Paul and Kelly and resign myself to arriving home after midnight, worse for wear.

Make up for it today by sitting at my desk pretty much all day and working on the Peru chapter. I can't seem to focus on any single bit today, so I have to work with my limited attention span and jump from one part of the chapter to another. My goal is to submit all the maps on Monday.

Still no word at all from Trailblazer. This is rather worrying. Will give Bryn another three or four days and then I'll have to phone him. It'd be rather difficult to update the guide if I don't have the text that I'm supposed to be working on.