In all honesty my major preparations for India have been about making sure that my current employer doesn't miss me when I'm gone. I've been working my little cotton socks off for the past few weeks to make sure when I leave that all my documentation, logins, and systems are all up to date and can be easily transferred to being the responsibility of another sysadmin.

It's pretty hard work, though I'm lucky enough to have 'seen the light' pretty early regarding doucumentation, and have much of it already stored on my private wiki. It seems weird that in the current economic downturn, work is piling up so high for me at the moment. I guess that shows that as more people choose to get more value from their IT, that open source really is the answer.

So, regarding my real preparations for India.. so far I've manged to book myself a Dentist appointment for the 20th Feb.. and hopefully going to arrange to have some more injections (as I'll be traveling down to Birmingham for them both). I've also started thinking about what I'm going to be doing out in India.. and what 'equipment' I'll need to take with me.

Thus far, I've decided that I'm going to operate a client/server setup regarding data. I don't want to be carrying my only computer around with me during the clinic work, only for it to break and leave me with no usable machine. I have a reasonable camera, which will suffice for most of the work I'll be doing, as is old and durable enough not to be seen as too valuable to lose.

One thing I'd like to source before I head off is a video camera. I think creating videos is going to add to what we're doing out there - so that people back in the UK and elsewhere can really see the difference that the doctors are making out in India. The HD Cameras have really come down in price, with a friend of mine offering me a Sony HD handheld for around £280 (mates rates). Unfortunately all my effort at the moment is being spent on saving up as much as possible before I go.. however, with a car to sell, I think I may be able to afford on just before I head off.

It's only a few weeks away now, and seems to be coming round alot faster than I'd originally anticipated. I may be putting some stuff up for sale/exchange over the coming weeks.. so keep your eyes on the blog for any announcements. If you also have anything you'd like to donate, then feel free to contact me, and I'll give you more information on what I can expect to be doing.