Leaving on a jetplane...

I have pretty much always had a job that involved some international travel - sometimes way more than I'd like (which is a whole other story), but in my current role I think it's about right: 6 weeks a year on the road, or thereabouts, and mostly in places I like to visit (namely the USA or Japan). That's enough for it to be interesting without being too much of a burden, at least to me. (I suspect my absence is more of a burden to Nini, but only in some ways - i.e. coralling two shrieking daughters into bath and bed - but in other ways it its doubtless a Godsend: see previous posts on grumpiness, farting, craven ingratitude, unwelcome bossiness, etc, etc)
In any case, despite travelling for over 15 years - and my currently being happy with the amount of time I spend doing it, and where I go - the actual 'going away' part never seems to get any easier, and has worsened significantly since the girls were born. And as I well know, I am an absolute bear to be be around on the day before I leave.
When I am about to go on a trip, that last day before I leave is when I am preparing for the trip in my head; throughout the day I am mentally packing, checking tickets, hotel arrangements, taxis, currency, etc - and also preparing myself for the inevitable scramble out of the door with a wife and two children waving me off. I get miserable just thinking about that moment, and it affects me for the whole day beforehand: I am surly and uncommunicative, easily irritated and take offence and the most trivial things. (There will be those of you reading this that think: Aren't you always like that? How can people tell the difference? To which I reply: har har, aren't you the funny one? And believe me, people can tell. Let me show you: Do you want some, eh? DO YOU WANT SOME?)
Why am I mentioning this now? Because I leave for L.A on Monday, and this weeks blogs will be from the City of Angels. Meantime, my own little angels will be tearing it up at their Grangee and Pops house. If past experience is anything to go by, they'll be having such a good time that they won't even want to come to the phone. That doesn't make the trip any easier...