Practice, they say, makes perfect, and we've probably had enough practice to get most things right when it comes to heading off for a week or two.
There are, of course, issues, many of them relating to two furry felines who are deprived of their regular indoor comforts when we head off, and tend to display a degree of resentful disdain when we return. On this occasion, we've enlisted the help of a feline friendly volunteer and expect to return to find LikLik and Ninja are much more welcoming of strangers, having been feted with food and an appreciation of feline sensitivities over a period of just over a fortnight.
Or maybe not, but we did try.
On previous trips away we've questioned whether the hot plate on the stove has been turned off, had Hughesy fail to switch off the air-con before the cheap tariff down time kicked in, and have been known to make the odd U-turn just to make sure whatever concern has just been raised has, in fact, been addressed.
Each time we do that, of course, we find another thing to add to the pre-departure checklist, and repeated practice has delivered a routine that should ensure all eventualities have been covered.
That was the way it seemed, anyway. Both of us threw in minor suggestions that were met with a checked that from the other side, and it gave us something to do on a two hundred kilometre leg that has been done so often that there's practically nothing short of a major disaster that would provide anything out of the ordinary to remark on.
And we don't want major disasters, do we?
That doesn't mean there's nothing in the pipeline as far as things to comment on are concerned.
As usual we hit the shortcut just south of Ayr, where Hughesy once again was foiled in his desire to have us pull over so I can get a photograph of the sign advising the presence of an entity called Ayr Boring Company. When I've got the image I've got the caption (and the conversation's not that much better on the other side of the river either) to go with it.
The short cut probably isn't that much shorter, but avoids traffic issues in downtown Ayr, and for the past year or so has delivered the added advantage of avoiding much of the road work going on to the north of Brandon. For a good year before that it skirted past roadworks to the south of Brandon as well.