Happy Birthday to Fleur!

Just a quick special post for Fleur to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! For anyone who doesn't know, Fleur is my sister and she turns 31 today, the little witch that she is!

Have a spookily happy birthday Fleahead (don't ask!) and don't forget to open the card I left for you.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I wish they hadn't been listening...

The Shinto Gods in Japan have been very kind to me. I wished that I would please find my rail pass. However, for the future, I think I will be more specific and remember to add some timing into my prayers if that's an important element.

I found my pass today, exactly where I left it, in my bag. Where I had placed it away from all the other bits of paper for 'safe keeping'.

Still, can't complain really. They did grant my wish for me.... it's my own fault for not saying I needed it before I left Japan.

Koalas, the Opera and how to have fun on your own...

So Saturday was a really fun day. I caught the bus into the City and it was lovely weather for the first time here - it's warm but been cloudy or raining a lot. I wandered around a bit and then went straight to the Chinese Garden. I think I now really like all things Asian! It was similar to the gardens in Japan and I loved it.

Bonsai trees in the Chinese Garden in Sydney

Chinese Garden in Sydney

Next I went to a wildlife centre which has Australian animals... and I got a photo taken with a koala bear! So very cute...

Me looking very happy...

There were lots of other animals as well including possums and kangaroos and wallabies and even a butterly enclosure! More photos on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=558445&id=799440229&l=56b744e1ba

By the way, please excuse any typos, I've read back a couple of entries and have spotted a few - it's just that I'm usually rushing when I write these!


So anyway, in the evening Isabel took me to the opera in Sydney Opera House. It was a German one called Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss and I did enjoy it, although we both agreed that Italian ones are a bit nicer!


And to anyone who advised me not to bring all my dresses - I was able to wear a beautiful, full length turquoise dress from Monsoon and looked better dressed than a lot of other people! So that made me happy...

And as to how to have fun on your own? Well, after the Chinese Garden and the wildlife centre, I went to find myself some dinner before the opera. Anyone who's been out to dinner with me more than a couple of times will know that I love Wagamama's, where I alwasy eat the same thing - Ginger Chicken Udon. It's divine! So I sat, in the sunshine, eating that with a glass of chilled white wine, looking out over the harbour. Heaven:



Ginger Chicken Udon and wine at Wagamama's



Birds, frogs, birds, bats and more birds!

So, here are the things I had not realised about Sydeney:

1. It's really very beautiful place. I had imagined it to be rather like any big city - full of grey buildings - apart from the opera house. But actually, it's really pretty with lots of parks and pretty buildings
2. there is wildlike EVERYWHERE! possums, rats (cute ones), lizards, frogs and crickets are just a few that are in the garden! There are amazing birds everywhre, not just rainbow parakeets but Mynah birds, Cockatoos, Ibises... and huge fruit bats in the botanical gardens!
3. It smells really nice, from all the tropical flowers and plants everywhere

I had a walk around today with isabel, who I'm staying with. She is my mum's cousin and has lived here for over 20 years. I'm living in comparitive luxury with my own bedroom and my own bathroom, which is lovely.

Here is a link for non-facebook people to the Sydney pictures I have so far:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=558445&id=799440229&l=56b744e1ba

 

I've also updated the photos for Japan with the last few including a view of Mount Fuji:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=525877&id=799440229&l=8840d15569

 

But here are a couple of Sydney anyway:

 

The beach a few minutes from where I am staying



Sydney Opera House



Ibis birds



a Fruit Bat!



 

Down Under

Hi all,

Just a brief post to let you know I have arrived safely down under. I am very tired as I was an extremely good girl yesterday and set off at 11.30am for the airport. I got there over 4 hours before my flight left at 8.30pm and had to hang around for an hour before I could even check in, but better safe than sorry. I didn't sleep on the flight and have been battling tiredness and sore eyes today as I really feel like I was travelling for about 24 hours. Although I wasn't. 

More tomorrow when less tired.

xxx 

Hiroshima

So, today I went to Hiroshima. Words can`t describe really. I had only 3 hours in total and half an hour was taken up each way getting there and back. I spent the first hour or more reading everything single word, which was downstairs, and that was awful enough, but then I went the main museum... and it was just too much. I was running late for my train anyway so I ran through most of it, but don`t think I could have stayed much longer anyway. I won`t go into too much detail, but when you read about how calculated the Americans were (and the UK, they were in on all the meetings too) in choosing somewhere so populated for maximum impact, and how they chose not to give any warning... and how part of their strategy was about proving that they hadn`t spent so much money and time for nothing... it just was utterly appalling. I don`t think I`ve seen anything so harrowing. I was close to tears by about half way through and then it just gets worse... I was still on the verge of tears on the tram to the station and on the train as well. I just didn`t want to cry in front of all the Japanese business men on their way home. But it was hard.


It`s an incredible museum and I really recommend you go if you`re ever in Japan. There is an eternal flame, only to be extinguished when the last nuclear bomb is got rid of and one wall is filled with letters from successive Hiroshima mayors to every country when they conduct nuclear tests asking them to stop. 


So from that I went back to meet my new friend Regina, the German girl from last night. We had some more sake a met a guy from Clapham. Dinner went out the window again. I wish I didn`t have the 11pm curfew here. I`m really sad to say goodbye to her as I really feel like a made a new friend, but she has invited me to see her in Hanover and I`m sure I will meet more amazing people soon.


I have an 8.30pm flight to Sydney tomorrow. I`m excited to be going, but sad to be leaving as well. 1 week doesn`t seem long enough. Just a quick moan about he trains though... 10,000 Yen was actually only the one way price. A return ticket was over 22,000 Yen... that`s I think around 180 pounds. Ouch. Lesson is, don`t lose your rail pass. I dread to think how much the return to the airport will be... I`m still trying to be Zen-like about it!


Next post I think will be from Sydney... unless I get bored waiting for the flight!


xxx

All the way to the top of a mountain...

Hey people,


So, night before last I ventured back to the `no fish eyeball in the ramen` place and took a little longer over he photos this time. I went for meal 28 which was udon noodles in a miso soup with chicken and spring onions and it was... very nice! Finally...


Yesterday I just wandered about Kyoto from about 10am, going into any shrines and temples I saw. Had a really, really lovely day. It`s raining here, but that doesn`t really matter, I have an umbrella. You`re supposed to make a wish/pray at the temples and shrines so I had fun doing that... firstly I made two wishes for a safe and happy journey for myself, then made a wish for my dad`s business at the shrine to the god of business (seemed to make sense!) and then made two more wishes for my sister Fleur who`s not feeling very well. Let me know if they worked Fleur!


At 4pm I was making my last temple visit, which was up about a million stone steps, up a mountain. Kyoto is bordered on 3 sides by mountains and I had been heading towards the nearest set all day, I was hoping for a beautiful view out over the city. In the end, although I did get to the top it was obscured by trees. But very good exercise I can tell you!


Going up the stairs I also met a German girl called Regina and we spent the rest of the evening together. She invited me back to her guest house which had a bar, and although we had meant to made it to dinner we ended up chatting away until suddenly it was 10.40pm and I had to run to make my curfew. We`re meeting again for dinner tonight. And yes, probably some more sake too :-)


I`m starting to get the whole travelling thing. What it`s about as much as anything is the people you meet. I`ve been so lucky to have met several amazing women and had the most interesting chats My flatmate Christopher was right when he said `it just happens` - it really does! I`m not lonely at all and have been learning so much about other countries, other people`s lives and just how very kind and friendly and lovely other people can be.


And now, I really am off to Hiroshima finally (no sign of the pass, so will just buy the ticket) to see the very opposite of the above.


Hope you all have a lovely Tuesday xxx

Photos

This is for anyone not on Facebook (mainly my mum. Get on Facebook mum!!) - here is a link to my photos so far... beware there are 102 of them!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=525877&id=799440229&l=8840d15569

Toi-Ley

Japanese for toilet, which my sister Holly has made a request for more information on. Apologies to anyone who doesn`t want to read about what goes on in the lavatory, please skip this bit!


So... they usually have lots of buttons. Four main ones, one for a jet of water on your bottom, one for a `bidet`.. (erm, especially for women), one to stop the jet of water and another which makes the sound of flushing water for 25 seconds to cover any embarrassing noises. You can put the volume up and down and also the pressure of the water spray. Some have an automatic flush when you get up, some automatically lift the lid when you walk in, most have heated seats. there are also sometimes an array of other buttons, but they don`t have pictures so I don`t know what they do. I can`t imagine what else you`d need really!

I knew it was coming...

So, today has not been quite so good, we have had the first mini-disaster (much more interesting to read about, I bet!)


I left my Japan Rail pass on the bus yesterday. Trains over here are very expensive (for example, a 2 hour journey costs over 80 pounds) but you can buy a 7 day pass for 214 pounds, but only from outside Japan. 


I had planned a trip to Hiroshima today but instead went to the Train station to check if I could get a replacement. I was told no. I then checked if the tickets I had already booked (with the pass you can book all your tickets in advance as well) would still be valid. I was told no. This presents a real problem. I had planned to go to Nagasaki next, which would have been a 5.5 hour journey. I think that journey alone may be equal in price to the whole rail pass. Then I`d need to get back to Tokyo - that was due to be a 10 hour journey on Wednesday. The price of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and back to Tokyo I think would come to maybe close to 1000 pounds, which is rather prohibitive. I have e-mailed the tour company in the vain hope that they will be able to retrieve it - unlikely as it was in a bag of rubbish.


So, I walked around Kyoto today - nowhere special, just around the station and a shopping mall. At first I was fizzing and boiling with rage, mostly at myself, with a stream of bubbles of self pity and self recrimination. I spent an hour in my head saying `if only I had checked the bag before I left the bus, if only I had brought it back to he hostel with me to throw away, if only I hadn`t emptied out my handbag of rubbish, if only I hadn`t brought the pass with me...` you get the idea. Then I stopped and thought of practicalities over a coffee. There is a less than 10 percent chance that I will get the pass back. I may have increased my chances by stopping this afternoon at a Shinto shrine and pausing to pray (bowing and clapping my hands twice) for it`s safe return, but I`m not sure the gods can stretch that far. So... Nagasaki is out. I cannot afford the trip there and back. On reflection, maybe this is not such a bad thing. I like Kyoto and will enjoy spending more time here, plus it did make my schedule very rushed and 10 hours on a train was not going to be fun, especially followed by a 10 hour flight. I have booked in 2 more nights at this stinky hostel and cancelled the Nagasaki one with a 50 percent penalty for one night there. Hiroshima and the train journey back to Tokyo (3.5 hours) will cost me about 230 pounds maybe. It could be worse, I could have lost all my money. I could have got hopelessly lost. I could have lost my backpack. I managed over the course of several hours this afternoon to talk myself back round out of the rage and into acceptance. Buddha would be proud of me!


One good thing did happen which helped to cheer me up. Despite the strict curfew in this hostel between 11pm ad 7.30am there is a girl in my 4 bed dorm who rustles and clumps about constantly. She completely ignores the curfew. Yesterday morning sh was up at 5.30am and very noisy with it for about 2 hours. She did the same between 11pm and 12.30am last night. And again this morning from 6.15am. She has also been giving me The Rage. In my last hostel, which was a `party` hostel and I was in a 10 bed dorm, everyone was like a mouse the whole time and I slept perfectly. Anyway, I only brought one ear plug with me. Don`t ask me how, I`m not sure. But I have been hunting in every shop for earplugs since I arrived and cannot find them anywhere. The searching got more frantic since that girl (I want to call her a nasty name but will refrain) and finally, I found them today, in Muji in the shopping mall, when I wasn`t even really looking for them, just wandering around trying to calm down. They will be my saviour. Just wish I had found a nose plug as well.

Bottom biting deer

Yesterday was a good day. I had a tour scheduled around Kyoto in the morning and Nara in the afternoon. The nearest pick up point was a hotel about 10 minutes walk away (there were about 10 pick ups, all outside hotels) and I made my way down there about 10 minutes later than I had planned (of course!) which was OK as you were asked to be there 15 minutes early. I arrived at 8.22am for the 8.25am pick up and, standing outside, could see any sign of a bus. So after a couple of minutes, I decided to walk down to the next hotel, 2 minutes walk away, which had a pick up 10 minutes later. In between the two hotels a woman literally ran up to me on the pavement and asked if I was there for the tour. So that was easy... my Japanese travel luck continues!


The morning consisted of Nishi Honganji first - this was actually the amazing temple I had looked around the afternoon before. It was supposed to be the Imperial Palace, but it is apparently closed on the weekends and they substitute this temple instead. I didn`t mind too much, although I kept wanting to correct the guide - after 3 hours including a very comprehensive talk all about the temple, the history and the religion I already knew more than her about it!

We continued to Nijo-jo (Nijo Castle) which was just astounding (as well!). It was a shogun castle built in 1603 and had the most beautiful buildings as well as incredible gardens. The whole castle was built with security in mind - apparently if you`re a shogun people are forever trying to kill you. It has a series of 5 large rooms, situated diagonally and upwards from each other to form a zig zag line and connected by corridors. Each room had a different purpose, from receiving an imperial messenger, to receiving feudal lords (one room for those you didn`t trust and another for those you did), and finally his inner quarters, where only women were allowed with him. 

The security measures were ingenious. There are wooden corridors around every room which have metal nails attached under every floorboard. When you walk on them they squeak and sound exactly like Nightingales! So you couldn`t ever sneak in unnoticed. Every single room, even his personal quarters, had a secret compartment behind which bodyguards were hiding, ready to leap out if he clapped his hands. The room where he received feudal lords he didn`t trust was the biggest, meaning he was able to sit very far away from them. He had a young boy at his side with his sword ready (a young boy not old enough to use it effectively himself). He had created a uniform that had to be worn by all lords in his presence - it had long pleated trousers that restricted movement. They had to kneel at all times, facing him. They usually carried two swords - one long one for attacking and a short one for self defense - they were only allowed to carry the short one in, and were also required to hold a fan in their right hands at all times (their sword hand). In addition to this, the special clothes they wore had their family crest all over it, so if someone did attack the shogun he would know who it was and seek retribution on their family.


After this we went to Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavilion). It is a three storey building with the two upper floors covered in gold leaf and again it is in gorgeous grounds.

The afternoon was spent at Nara, which was the capital city for 70 years from 710. It has an enormous temple with the worlds largest bronze Buddha inside and also a beautiful Shinto shrine. But actually, the thing I was most excited about were the deer which roam freely about all over the town. Although still wild animals they are very used to people and get fed a lot (you can buy special biscuits to feed them) so they are quite bold. They don`t flinch if you go up and stroke them and get very feisty when you have food on you, sometimes giving you a gentle bite on the bottom to hurry you up! They also tend to eat any paper they can see and occasionally clothing too... so you have to feed them quickly. The most amazing thing though is that they have been taught to bow their heads twice if you hold the biscuits up high. I tried it and they really do!!!

When I got back to the hostel I went out to dinner with a new friend I made, Lisa from Taiwan) if you remember, I was meant to go out to dinner with a new friend in Tokyo as well, but unfortunately she didn`t show up due to the fact that she got lost in a forest in Nikko - that was the carbonara night). WE went to a real Japanese place and I had a set meal of Teriyake chicken which was delicious, and I even tried some of her sashimi. Yes, RAW FISH!! And I didn`t mind it (it was tuna I think) but to be fair all I could taste was wasabi and soy sauce. And we had some sake, and some interesting conversation. We decided that boys everywhere are the same, I am very lucky to have Western parents who are supportive and not terribly strict and I explained what sausages are. Well, probably not quite, I just said they are long pork meat things... didn`t mention what else can go into them.


So all in all, a very nice day.

Please tell me there`s no fish eyeball in my soup...

So, last night I was feeling very hungry as all I had had to eat was one slice of toast and a croissant, so by 9pm I was ready for dinner. I asked at the front desk and they recommended somewhere close by.


I turned up and it looked rather strange inside so I loitered for a few minutes and then had a stern word with myself and told myself not to be such a baby and just to go in and try it, so I did.


There were funny machines in there, like vending machines for dinner! It looked like you got a ticket by pressing the button for the meal you want and paying at the machine, then there was a counter like at MacDonald`s. But everything was in Japanese and I was struggling until the kind girl working there came round to the front and helped me.


I picked number 1 meal (there were about 50 with pictures) which looked like meat and noodles plus a bowl of ramen. I got a tray and a number and sat down... then suddenly thought that they were calling all the numbers out in Japanese and I wouldn`t know when to go and get my food. But the kind girl brought it round for me.


So, it was beef I think, in very thin slices and a very few noodles on rice with a kind of soy sauce. It was... ok. And the ramen had udon noodles, which I was excited about as I love them... but as I bent over it I got a very powerful, salty fish smell and recoiled in horror! Then gave myself another swift talking to a reminded myself that I like fish now. But still, not that much. I ate a few noodles, but couldn`t really bear the smell. Too fishy, much too fishy... And then I had a sudden vision of stirring it and and a fish eyeball floating up to the surface.. or a tentacle, or something equally fishy and nasty. So I stopped eating it (after stirring to check - it was actually fine)


But all in all, a real Japanese meal. And I said thank you in Japanese and left. Better than Carbonara again I guess!

Please chop my nose off...

I am in the most disgusting, revolting smelling hostel ever. It smells of stale pee and mould and damp and... it:s just too awful to explain. There:s also a curfew. You have to be IN BED by 11pm and are not allowed up before 7.30am. More research needed next time. However, they do give out free sake at 8pm as presumably no-one would ever stay here otherwise.


I had some luck today. I had allowed an hour to get to the train station from my hostel as I had a train to Kyoto at 11.03am and I wasn't sure how long it would take me. However, I was late (such a surprise!) and left at 10.25 instead of 10am. I had a go to a new metro station and lost precious minutes trying to find it. However, once there I caught the train OK and changed trains easily too at the next stop thanks to some brilliant directions from an Australian girl called Hannah. I got to Tokyo station at 10.47am and managed to figure out the platform I needed from the information board of departures, which was in JAPANESE! I got to my train with 8 minutes to spare. The travel gods of Japan are smiling on me.


I also feel very proud of myself for asking for a cup of coffee on the train in Japanese. Granted, the old Japanese men next to me did laugh, but they also smiled and nodded at the same time - which I took to mean that I sounded ridiculous but they were pleased I was having a go. Plus I got my coffee, so it must have been comprehensible.


I went around a beautiful Buddhist temple today and got a very interesting talk about this particular type of Buddhism. It sounds so lovely that I may convert...


A word about Japanese toilets - I love them! I can`t go into too much detail without being vulgar but there`s all kinds of interesting buttons to press and they do brilliant things with water. I want one at home.


Tonight I am on my own having made no friends yet, and I may venture out for dinner alone. Haven`t managed to get any Japanese food yet - terrible I know, but it`s not easy to pick things up from the shops when you have no idea what they are! I made spaghetti carbonara last night after spending 20 minutes trying to find anything I could recognise...


P.S, I am trying to get photos up, but it:s very hard as all the instructions are in Japanese... but they are coming, I promise.


P.P.S, please feel free to leave comments so I don`t feel like I`m typing to myself (yes, mum and dad, you would be able to see them if you had successfully left any - try again!)

Lucky in Japan

So, last night I only made it to 5.30pm before crashing out... but still a good effort as that was over 24 hours on maybe 90 mins of sleep. I set my alarm on my phone for 7am this morning. I woke several times in the night, but at one point it was clearly morning as a grey light was seeping in under the curtains. I went to check my phone and found it had run out of battery in the night and was completely dead. I got up in a panic as I had a tour to catch today and ran to check the time on the computers here... it was 7.06am. I call that pretty lucky. I managed to negotiate the trains fine again, and find the bus station pick up point pretty easily. I even bought a metro ticket for the right stop from a Japanese machine, so was feeling pretty pleased withy myself as I got there with 15 mins to spare. Those who know me well will agree that is something of a miracle!

The tour was fine-  we saw a lovely shrine and garden, but some stops were a bit pointless, akin to having a London tour stop at a shopping centre in Lewisham (it was a small shopping centre in a new district that mainly just has building sites and hotels so far - we stopped for Starbucks?!). I sat next to a lovely lady from Colombia and we chatted in Spanish all day, which had the unexpected side effect of my thanking all the Japanese people we met by saying 'Gracias'. Clearly my brain can only cope with 2 languages at a time, becuase I have learnt the Japanese for thank you!

I sort of made a friend last night at the hostel and we made tentative arrangements to go out for dinner and sake tonight. So, I'm off to go find her...

And just to say, for anyone worrying about me, so far I'm feeling happy and lucky and like a very clever girl for not getting lost! Kyoto tomorrow...

Lost in Translation

So, I'm in Tokyo. I made it through the airport, on 2 trains and used my map to get to the hostel and it all went seamlessly. I am rather in shock about that (as well as very tired and a bit disorientated) and still waiting for things to go wrong. That may happen with the tour I have booked tomorrow as they still haven't told me where they are picking me up. Oh, the optimism.

I sat next a lovely couple in their 70's on the plane over. They enquired about whether I was travelling alone and I told them I was, and at the start of months of travelling. "Oh, I suppose you've just finished school or college, haven't you?" came the polite enquiry. I was tempted to say yes. They stared with consternation at the lunch trays when they arrived. It wasn't the food - that was soy and ginger chicken with rice, and was lovely - but the fact that it was delivered with chopsticks as well as plastic cutlery. They confided that the chopsticks scared them and they had brought their own supply of plastic knives and forks with them "so we don't starve". I confess the thought of chopsticks had not even occured to me yet, but I silently offer up a prayer of thanks to my parents for teaching me how to use them at a young age. I used them to eat my lunch.

The toilets here are scary. So far I've avoided the ones that squirt water, only because at the airport in Tokyo all the ladies were queing for those ones, and seeing my blonde hair, they ushered me to the front of the queue and into an empty cubicle on the end. I thought maybe they were bring nice, but no - it was a scary hole in the ground thing that clearly no-one wanted to use. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to pee without getting any on my jeans as I haven't had to squat like that since I was a kid. But anyway, yes, that's too much information really, I'm quite sure none of you want to hear about me peeing.

Well, that's it for now. I'm just hanging out waiting until I can check in. It's 2pm here, but 6am for me and I only slept for about an hour and a half on the plane.... zzzz.......

Friends and Family

So, I just want to say goodbye to everyone and a massive thank you to everyone who has already phoned or texted to say goodbye. I'm finding it a little bit of an emotional overload so think I will do one long, continuous, bawling, snivelling phone call back - person after person, like a marathon - from the airport. I'll be sat there for about 2 hours with nothing to do, and I've been putting off answering anything is it makes it too real.

Suffice it to say that I will miss you guys more than you will miss me. But let's just be happy about it and look forward to the countless ridiculous and embarrassing stories I will have - I manage several each month in the normal course of working and living life in London, so we all know travelling for me will bring a multitude of giggle inducing moments :o) For you guys that is - pain and trauma for me, but I live to amuse....

miss you and love you all....

xxxxxxxxxx

To shoe or not to shoe... that is the question

So, this is my dilemma. It involves these shoes:

Yes, they are 5.5 inches tall. Yes, they are uncomfortable, yes I fell over wearing them once and hurt myself enough to still have scars well over 6 months later.

But... they are beautiful, they are gorgeous, they are a queen amongst shoes. They make me feel tall, sophisticated, sexy and utterly gorgeous.

To shoe or not to shoe... although the question may be answered by the size of my back pack in the end!

"And there's one more thing...it's been emotional"

So the time has almost come to say goodbye. I've had my farewell party, and cried at that. I've had a farewell lunch with my sister, brother and cousins plus their partners and only just managed to bite back the tears at that. I had a lovely goodbye message from my brother in law who's in Ethiopia and very nearly cried at that. I was waved off at the station today by my parents and other sister after popping down to Kent to see them and cried again, after several bouts of tears earlier and the night before. I'm not used to this - I hate crying. I have cried more over the last couple of days than in the last several years.


I just want to be gone now, and not in this horrible, almost gone state of being sad and scared and crying and feeling all the time in the pit of my stomach how very, very much I am going to miss all my family and friends.


OK, after hopefully having made you all a bit sad now (misery loves company), here's the making you jealous bit - my itinerary!

• 19th October - fly out to Japan. I'll have 2 days in Tokyo (inc. a full day tour of the city with a tea ceremony), 3 days in Kyoto and Nara (Nara has tame deer that apparently come and bite your bottom to get you to give them your food!) with a trip to Hiroshima and then 2 days in Nagasaki.
• 27th October - fly to Sydney where I will spend a week visiting my lovely Auntie Isabel and her two new kittens. It'll be lovely, even after a week, to see a familiar face and have someone to hang out with.
• 5th November - fly to Fiji where I will spend a week island hopping, snorkling, swimming, sunbathing (yes mum, with factor 30 on) and generally relaxing. I do seem to have picked the rainy season for this, but it will be hot nevertheless and mostly the rain is in short bursts with sunshine the rest of the time. Hopefully.
• 12th November - fly to Auckland, NZ. I haven't really planned anything much, I just have a vague idea that I want to spend a few days visiting things I haven't seen yet, such as Milford Sound, and visiting my friend Daran and his wife (I worked with Daran for a few years previously) before settling probably in Wellington. I plan to get a job and a flatshare - and if that doesn't work I'll pop over to the south island and get some work shearing sheep or something.
• 1st April 2011 - fly to Santiago, Chile where I'll join a month long tour that winds its way through Bolivia and Peru. Highlights will include a 2 day stay in the Amazon Jungle, doing the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu, Visiting the Witches Market in Bolivia (women in bowler hats sell dead cats and llama foetuses - yuk!!) and the Salt Flats at Atacama.
• 8th May 2011 - Land back in London (jobless, homeless, poor... oh wait, I'm still supposed to be making you jealous here...)

Clearly it's going to be utterly amazing and I am a very, very lucky girl. I know I am really. Once I get out there the excitement will properly kick in and I might well cry just as much at having to come home...

Vegas Baby!

So this is my first post and basically I'm practising for the real thing. And no, Holly, I don't mean your wedding wasn't the real thing....!


Anyway, Vegas was AMAZING and here are a few highlights:


getting my chest signed by four Chippendales on Holly's Hen Night!

Going on the roller coaster that loops around the New York New York Hotel:

And of course, the wedding!!! (with Elvis at the reception, which was in an amazing suite on the 32nd floor!)