If you're happy and you know it pack your bag

Goodness, goodness, goodness. So here I am on the eve of the start of the big trip. I have been back in Felixstowe all weekend and there has certainly been no rest for me. Least of all because I have to keep getting up to answer the phone- thank you all so much for calling to wish me good luck! I hope that my adventure is everything that you dream it will be.

We went back to Felixstowe on Saturday in glorious sunshine and the kind of wind that is usually saved until I am in the air. We bought some sandwiches and fought against the elements to eat them sitting on the prom, trying not to get too many handfuls of hair in between actual bites of sandwich.

It really was a beautiful day and it went on forever. It was finally dark at 10pm. And I know that the sun was in full beam at 4.30am the following morning as that is when the cat woke me up. It was still shining when I woke up again later to actually start the day (must have offended the cat in the meantime as there was no sign of him on my bed).

We packed some more stuff and took it to Auntie Doll's to store in her loft. It is getting a bit crowded up there now but I don't own anything else so she is safe from me at least.

Back to the house to meet one of my oldest friends, Linda, and tried to catch up on two years in two hours, minus the bits where I had to stop to take a call from Korea or two.

Sunday night we had roast dinner and cake. Nuff said. Was too busy eating to get a photo of the dinner but here is the cake

And here is the sunset outside Auntie's house.

Then back home to try and pack my own bag.

Which I just couldn't seem to fill. Really. Had to go out the next day to buy more clothes so that I would look like a decent backpacker. My old rucksack was filed with clothes to go up in the loft and it kept giving me the evil eye whenever I passed it. Sorry, old friend, but it is time for you to rest now.

Today it was the last of the stuff going up in the loft, the final backpack pack and back to Purfleet to try and fill my MP3 player thingy.

Now we are here. I am all packed and ready to get on that plane at 12 noon tomorrow and head off into the wide blue yonder.

In case you have forgotten this is the plan:

London dep. 31st May - Singapore dep. 2nd June - Vietnam dep. 17th July - Perth arr. 17th July overland Sydney dep. 21st August - Christchurch arr. 21st August overland to Auckland dep. 14th Sept - Fiji dep. 30th Sept - Cook Islands dep. 5th Oct - Tahiti dep. 7th Oct- Los Angeles arr. 7th Oct overland to New York dep. 1st Nov - London arr. 2nd Nov

I won't say anything else as I really have nothing else left to say. Thanks everyone for the phonecalls and emails of encouragement. And thanks to everyone for reading this for the months building up to the trip, must have felt like I was stringing you along for a while there. I have really enjoyed England and being able to share my photos and experiences here with you all, some of you face to face and others like this. Ireland was just a dream and just what I needed, thanks, guys.

See you in Singapore!!! :)

Counting time

It is Sunday night here in England and I am just 36 hours and eighteen minutes away from take off. Around thirteen hours after that I should arrive in Singapore. Fourteen hours later I will be back on a plane and on my way to Vietnam.

I am at my mum's house for what will probably be my last night in a house of my mother's. To say that the last seven weeks have been some of the weirdest in my life is to underestimate the meaning of weird.

My bags are packed and down in the living room- one to go with me and the other to take the rest of my things into Auntie Doll's loft for storage. I would show you photos but I have left the cable that connects camera to computer back in my sister's house. So you'll just have to wait.

Today I have been entertaining friends, both over the phone from Korea and in my house, before going over to Auntie Doll's for a roast dinner and birthday cake. Now I am going to get into my bed, made with the duvet cover and pillowcase that I have had since I was about fourteen and which may well get lost in the next move. I am excited about the trip but scared about the future. My permanent base has gone now and all I have to come back to is a series of sofas and spare rooms. I am a very lucky person that I have so many friends to care about me and offer me somewhere to stay. Hopefully, I will decide sometime in the next five months what the next step is.

Hopefully.

But I hate to disappoint those folk who say that they only look at this site for the photos so here are some random shots of mine that I have just found on mum's computer



This is one of my favourite photos from my trip to Hong Kong, with Sam, last year. I took it from The Peak and can't tell you how pleased I am with it (adopts smug look).

This is me, standing like a goon outside the palace in Cambodia last summer. Another trip with Sam and great fun.

This is Ho Chi Minh taken from the plane as we came in to land. We were only in transfer on our way to Cambodia but if the shopping at the airport is anything to go by, I am going to love Vietnam!

And finally Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Blooming hot day.

Last photos from England will be posted sometime tomorrow.

Sleep tight.

Hot City Days

It was 32 degrees in London yesterday. In May. Thirty two degrees. That is just mental. I went into London for the last time. I had paperwork to sign at the bank- get me! Then I pottled around for a bit before going down to Embankment Gardens near Charing Cross.

Even though it was early in the afternoon, it was the start of a long weekend so the garden was filled with people lounging on the grass, many of them with glasses of chilled white wine. It was the day after my birthday, ten years to the day that I sat in that self same garden with my friend, Martin, nursing the mother of all hangovers after my 21st birthday celebrations the night before. Yesterday I was fine, having drunk nothing the night before. Maybe that's what growing old does to you.

I met Heather and then we went into Soho to find a bar that was rumoured to be the workplace of a girl I know from Naju in Korea. Much spinning round of the A-Z later, Heather got us there and we surprised Victoria just as she was going on a two hour break. We decided that Korean food was definitely in order.

Heather bid us goodbye and off we went to Jin restaurant, which was closed. Onto Nara, which didn't have any dak galbi on the menu outside but did have my second favourite, dol sot bi bim bab. We went in to be told that the kitchens weren't open so we settled back with a couple of OBs to wait.

Victoria opened the menu and something wonderful happened

A couple more beers later and we were tucking into some London dak galbi. It was missing the best bits- no rice cake and no sweet potato- kimchi was extra so we forwent it. But it was not bad.

Unfortunately, Victoria had to go back to work and I went off to Leicester Square with a small OB buzz and took photos of my shoes

Yes, these are the ones that have been mutilated my feet but I do love them. I lay on the grass at Leicester Square for a while, surrounded by people from every nation. It was warm and I was sleepy. Nice.

I got up and went to Trafalgar Square, followed by this strange Spanish guy who wanted to go and have a drink with me. Trafalgar Square has all changed since my day. Well, not all. But instead of it being surrounded by busy roads on four sides, now one side has been pedestrianised from the National Gallery to the Square. It looks great and is much improved. Despite the heat of the day, or maybe because of it, there were signs in the fountains denying entry. I noticed a caravan just in front of Nelson's column whic my sister later told me was an art display and not the bunch of travsllers I thought it was. There is also a clock counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until a decision is made on who gets the 2012 Olympics. Fingers crossed for London.

The maple leaf flag was fluttering on top of Canadia House on one side and the South Africa flag on the other side of the square. It felt like it was never going to get dark. Finally, I bid London goodbye and got on a train back to Essex, for the last time for five months. It was dark by nine.

Now that's what I call a meal

It's got all the major food groups- the pastry group, the jam group, the sugar group.....

A Pintless Birthday

Yesterday was the usual whirl of activity with a bit of birthday thrown in. Woke up, opened cards and presents. Got out of bed. Ran a bath. Got into the bath. Got out again when the postman rang the bell. Got dressed. Took birthday greetings phonecalls. Spent the morning phoning around the World trying to get hold of my National Insurance number. But no-one would give it to me over the phone.

One guy was laughing at me as I said 'you are looking at the number right now, aren't you?'
'Yep'
'But you can't tell me, can you?'
'Nope.'

Very frustrating. I was supposed to get it so that I could open a bank account that day. My original card is now in a box in my Auntie's loft so will have to go up there this weekend. Everytime I rang somewhere they asked my date of birth. I would tell them and wait for them to say Happy Birthday but no-one did, boring old farts.

Another phonecall later and I was officially late to meet my friend for lunch. Dashed into town and over to Moorgate where I met my mate, Chris, who I know from university but haven't seen since I went to Ireland in 2000. We went to a nice little square near his office and ate sandwiches surrounded by city folk. Then had to rush to meet Penny, wiping the bird poo off my bag and shoes, maybe the square wasn't so nice after all.

Met Pen, went to the bank and glazed over as the woman explained the difference between one type of investment account and another, all very similar. She started talking about the FTSE100 which scared me into thinking that I might have to watch that bit at the end of the news which I normally turn off. All I wanted to see was a graph like this

But that is not how it works apparently. Ah well, I left, signing something so I guess that some of it must have made sense at some stage. Enough sense for me to sign my money away. And I was so into the signing that I am going back today to sign something else. And all because the financial adviser wished me Happy Birthday. I am such a simple soul.

Then it was off to the Tower of London for my proper birthday treat. When I was a kid, mum took me to London for my birthday so I thought that it would be fun to have an old-fashioned birthday treat. Me and my sister pass the Tower of London everytime we go into London from her house. But it is pricey- fourteen pound fifty an adult- to get in- yikes! But we had a buy one get one free offer when presented with a train ticket, which did mean that there was no fare dodging for me yesterday.

We got there a couple of hours before the Tower closed and just in time to join the last guided tour of the day. The tour guides are yeoman warders, often called Beefeaters, for reasons unknown to me and the guy showing us around. They wear a uniform dating back to the 1800s and live in the Tower with their families. They are the longest established uniformed body of men in continuous service in the World. Or something like that.

The Tower of London is simply oozing history. It was the home of the British Royal family for over six hundred years. The White Tower is over nine hundred years old

and used to be the Royal chambers. We saw the outside of the room where Guy Fawkes was interrogated fter the Gunpowder Plot and the tower where he was tortured. At some point in history, a gate was put into the wall as, at that time, the Thames used to lap against the side of the Tower, for food and supply deliveries. It gained notoriety as Traitor's Gate as it was a handy place to bring the prisoners into the Tower.

Many famous people have been held in the Tower, tortured there and some were even executed in the grounds, including two of Henry VIII's wives. Others were taken from the Tower for a more public execution, often at Tower Hill. From the outside the Tower looks like a castle but inside it is a mish-mash of different buildings from different periods

There are lots of displays housed in the various buildings. We saw the Crown Jewels (where photography is forbidden, dammit), they are so big and shiny that they just don't look real at all. We saw torture instruments

Some for stretching people, others for folding them into tiny spaces. All of which gave me nightmares when I went to the Tower with the Brownies when I was a little 'un.

The famous ravens were out in force too. The story goes that if the ravens ever leave the Tower, it will crumble and the monarchy will fall. They keep a colony of them there for insurance reasons.

Or they would be in all sorts of trouble

'Hello, I'd like to make a claim, please, you see the Tower has crumbled'
'Well, its your own fault, your insurance policy won't cover you in the event of an absence of ravens'

Speaking of Henry VIII (I was earlier, keep up), I found another suit of his armour at the Tower. All I can say is that man had issues

This one is bigger than the one I saw in Greenwich, in every sense. I saw the armour belonging to Kings of England since William the Conquerer in 1066 and none of the others felt the urge to display themselves in such a way. Some of the kings were surprisingly short too. It is no wonder that William won the Battle of Hastings since he was the size of a child and would hardly stand out on the battlefield.

It was a hot day yesterday too so we didn't really have the Tower to ourselves, there were one or two others out that day

I found the whole tour very interesting. We were only there for a couple of hours which was a shame as there was more to read and explore.

But we just had time for a quick run round before the final walk around the walls with great views over nearby bits of London

And the inevitable self portrait

To see if I had any new lines. Then it was off to the chip shop for dinner. After that there was scarcely room for a pint so I didn't have one. And ended my birthday stone cold sober for the first time in living memory.

I knew that my birthday was officially over when I woke up to the sound of the cat throwing up on the carpet. This is my last day in London. How the last six weeks have flown. It is easy for time to pass when you are surrounded by the kind and loving support that I have got from my friends everywhere during this really confusing time.

Felixstowe tomorrow for the Big Pack- trying to work out how I can fit so much stuff into such a small space. It is when I am packing that I wish I was thin, so my clothes would weigh less and I could take more of them. Alas, I am not.

The real adventure starts when I fly out on Tuesday- yikes!

In Dublin's Fair City

Monday was a big day for me. I was going back to Dublin for the first time in three years. Not only that, I was meeting up with people who I hadn't seen for a while too. Plus, meeting Roisin for the first time. I was very excited. So excited that I got to Stansted airport three hours before my flight. Oops. I had got the train from Liverpool Street station, which is also dripping in memories for me since it is the gateway to Suffolk so I have passed through it many times in my life. And spent a lot of time sitting there waiting for peak time to finish so I could buy a ticket home without having to sell my soul to the devil to finance it.

No such luck this time. Being too old for that ever valuable Young Person's Railcard (being 'young' stops at 26 apparently though I am sure that I was still quite spritely for the rest of my twenties, things only really went down hill as I hit 30) I bought a return ticket to the airport for half the price of my flight to Dublin. And off I went.

Early. So I sat outside the airport on a strip of grass that was covered with other people with a similar way of thinking. Other people were sitting on the benches in the shade. It seemed that all the people on the grass had backpacks and all those on the benches had suitcases. Class distinctions in travelling are pretty obvious, not social classes but luggage classes. I was with the backpackers and for the first time in a long time felt like a traveller. Hooray!

The time ticked by. I went in and bought a couple of postcards of London, I get so sentimental even if I am just away for a day or two, then checked in. I got there early so was able to actually, for the first time in my life, be among those passengers that get to board once the young and old are on. With Ryanair, you are not allocated seats so it is all in the rush to get the best one. I got a window seat so I could enjoy the views and do a green for green comparison with England and Ireland. I was taking a bit of a risk since they are both a bit known for their cloudiness. Overall, I think that they are on pretty equal green footing though shrouded in rain clouds.

It was a windy day with turbulence to spare. I was a little unnerved but dealt with it the way that I deal with a a lot of scary situations, I fell asleep. I arrived in Dublin airport and, eventually, was met by Nerissa. Last time I saw Ner she was quite heavily pregnant so, while I didn't mean to, I realised that I was looking for someone with a big belly on them and so looked straight through her at first since she has returned to the tiny thing that she ever was. The 'belly' is now a beautiful two year old called Roisin, who I met in the car with her dad, Barry. Both Barry and Nerissa are friends of mine from my first year in Korea when I lived in Mokpo. It has been a while.

We were barely through the door before the Stellas were cracked open and the reminiscing started. To say that Roisin won my heart with the first bat of her long eyelashes is no exaggeration. She was capable of twisting me round her little finger from the word go.

I have to say that we were too busy catching up on the last two years and laughing at Barry hitting his head for there to be any photos from the first night. So, for those of you who haven't seen Barry since Mokpo, he looks the same except now the bumps are on the back of his head. It was a late night and I think that some people tried to blame me for the Monday night drinking. All I will say is that Ner was halfway down her first Stella as I was on the orange juice. I was just playing catch up after that.

The next day was my only full day in Dublin. Spent a very fun morning playing with Roisin and Ner. Being only two, Roisin still managed to remind me of my little Koreans. Probably because she is still speaking in code with just some words that I understand. And I swear that I heard her say both 'yogi-yo' and 'juseyo' at some point. Ner can understand the code though and translate. Roisin spent a very happy few hours going through my stuff, appearing in the living room with my digital camera in her hand and my sunglasses in the other one. She has special words for things, a mobile phone is a 'hi' for instance, but it would appear that everything that came out of my bag was called 's'mine' accompanied with hands reaching up to take it off me.

She was entranced with the camera, even if she did have to be wearing my sunglasses whenever she used it. It wasn't long before she was taking photos and watching videos of herself with a satisfied smile on her face.

Ner and Barry's friend came over to babysit while we went into the city later that day. I saw the Luas trams running for the first time, weird since I worked on that project for nine months. When I say 'worked' I use it in its loosest form. In fact, I was paid, and paid well, to do a whole lot of nothing and when they gave me more nothing to do I negotiated a pay rise. The people there were great though and totally taken by the fact that when I started there I was living in a tent by the DART (train- Dublin Area Rapid Transport or transit or something) right in the heart of the city. I think that this gave them the impression that I was skint. I wasn't, just tight. So I was never able to put my hand in my pocket to get a round in for the whole nine months.

I saw the spire on O'Connell Street too for the first time. They were just starting work on it when I was last there. And trying to decide on the new nickname for the tour guides on the open top buses to use. Back in my day it was The Stiffy on the Liffey (Liffey being the name of the river that runs through Dublin) but now it is the more family friendly Stilletto in the Ghetto. It is tall. Awesome. I loved it. I think that is one of the best things about not being a tax payer in the country, you can enjoy it safe in the knowledge that you have contributed nothing towards it.

It was only later that I realised I had only taken photos of things that I had many photos of before. Hum. Starting with the various hostels that I lived in on Lower Gardiner Street- the Chelsea (I looked through the window and they still haven't painted the living room), The Manor (where I didn't live but I did clean one day for a bit of cash, it was minging, so bad that it took me about a dozen showers to feel clean again. Why do male backpackers think that it is OK to wet the bed?) and Abraham House where I was for my last few months in Dublin. A large sprawling maze of a building where I spent most evenings sitting by the reception desk in my yellow teddy bears jammies with my mates, reading kids' books to each other. Happy days.

Then we went over the Ha-penny (Hay not Ha) Bridge which was away when I was there before, being restored. Probably repairing the bars which are quite irresistible to drunks who want to swing on something.

And into Temple Bar.

Out the other side to see the Dublin School of English which is where this whole Korean adventure started for me. It was there that I studied for my TEFL certificate and met a South African, Alan, who had a Korean girlfriend he had met in Israel.

I don't think that he even meant to but sometime over the next six weeks he had changed my dream destination from Thailand to Korea. And we were both stunned when I ended up being offered a job in Eun-Kyung's hometown. And even more stunned to find out, on my first day, that my new co-worker was the girl that she had gone to Israel with. T'is a small world.

After class everyday we went to The Bridge bar downstairs and it was here that me and Ner had arranged to meet up with Barbs and Trish, two more people that we had known in Mokpo.

We had a great couple of hours chatting and catching up before the girls had to go off for various appointments and me and Nerissa ventured down Grafton Street, being just sozzled enough to get a photo with the Molly Malone statue (my first time!).

At the end of Grafton Street is an Australian bar, The Down Under or Major Tom's depending on what sign you read. When I was managing a hostel up on Thomas Street I spent many hours down there with my antipodean guests- getting there around 9am one Saturday morning to watch The Lions VS Australia. The Lions being a rugby team made of both British and Irish people, I was able to support my team in public for the first time since arriving in Ireland. Though it was not advisable to do so in this bar as we kicked Oz's arse.

It would have been rude not to pop in since we were passing so we had a VB for old time's sake.

Back to the house then for more chatting and playing with Roisin. Baz came home from work late so had been unable to join us for the night out which was a shame but couldn't be helped. All too soon it was time to crawl into my (incredibly comfortable, fantastic, not made of sofa cushions, double) bed.

Ner and Roisin took me back to the airport, with Roisin leaning out of the buggy and insisting I hold her hand all the way. It is fair to say that I didn't want to leave and they waved to me as I went through the security gates and each time the automatic doors opened until I got all the way through. I was biting back the tears.

I love Ireland, always have done. And I love my friends, they make a hard team to say goodbye to. I comfort myself with the fact that I will go back there again and stay longer. Much longer. That thought, and the chocolate vending machine, made me feel better.

Today is my birthday so I want those of you that can to go to the bar and drink a tequila for me- send me a photo of you doing so. And I hope to get none of these for my birthday

Thanks for the cards and presents that I got today, and the days running up to this day. My uncle has sent me a toy squirrel to keep me company when I travelling so I am sure that some photos of that will turn up on here from time to time.

Packing

Sometimes it seems that all I have done for the past two months or more is pack. I started packing up my house in Korea a few weeks before I was due home. Then I came home and we spent a lot of time sorting out my mother's things and packing them away for storage. At the weekends we have been travelling backwards and forwards between my mother's house and my sister's flat- two lots of packing per weekend. Trips to Bristol and Dublin see more quality time with the inside of a bag. And next weekend it is time for the big pack.

It is not easy to see what I need with half of my stuff here and half of it in Felixstowe- arguably the important half since my (new) backpack is there. I have never had the chance to buy a backpack before- my mum bought me my first one when I went to university and as that wore out I started looking for another one. I spent so much time at the Lowe Alpine store that I swear the shop assistants thought I was stalking them. In fact, I was stalking a beautiful red backpack. It was lovely and I even took people to visit it. But a friend from work donated me her old backpack and it would have been a waste of much needed holiday money to buy a new one. So I didn't.

Then last weekend I cracked and did. The old one was OK but had a few pockets and compartments which I didn't use, kinda like having a spare room, that just seemed like deadweight to me. Plus I wanted to downsize from a 75 litre to a 65 litre since I would be carrying it so much this time. This is also in the hope that I will buy less stuff since I will have nowhere to put it all. I'll let you know how that one works out for me!

But I had some free time the other day so stocked up on some essential items.

moisturiser, deoderant, antiseptic cream, shower gel, shampoo, shower mitten things to scrub all the dead skin off once the inevitable sunburn starts to peel, sunscreen lotion to delay that moment, mossie repellant, stuff to put on mossie bites since the repellant is never that good really, hand santiser, hand cream, tampons, contact lens solution, toothpaste, headache tablets, wet wipes etc.

Should be enough to see me through the first few weeks anyway. Then it was time for a glass of South African wine and the new episode of Doctor Who.

Tomorrow I am going to Dublin with Ryanair, the flight cost around forty-five pounds. No matter what offer they have on I always end up paying the same to travel with Ryanair. But I have to be careful when I am booking a flight because it is so tempting to book other ones too- especially now they have started flying to Bratilava, I have never been there. But no time!

Dublin it is and I am very excited to be honest. I know that I used to live there and all but it has been over three years since I was last there. Plus I am meeting up with some really good friends I met in my first year in Korea. And, hopefully, we will be able to squeeze in a pint and a packet of tatos at some point too.

Slainthe!

The Broadband has landed

I guess that it doesn't really matter at all to you guys what kind of connection I am using to write this thing but it matters a whole bunch to me. Mainly because I spend less time swearing at the computer when the connection is faster and have more time to devote to my increasingly worrying addiction to daytime TV. After a lot of cursing and wrestling with cables yesterday, we got the broadband connected at my sister's house. Which is just in time for me to get really used to a fast connection before heading off into the realm of internet cafes.

When I first went travelling internet cafes were a pretty new thing. It might even take a moment or two to find one even in a backpacker area and when you did locate one of these places hotmail was usually down. Again. Or if it was working, after a five minute wait to get into the inbox, I would find that I didn't even have any emails. But given that there is usually a minimum charge, would have to try and think of other things to look at. The internet was an emptier place back then.

When in Sydney, I would also regularly receive emails saying 'Thanks for the mail, Helen, but couldn't make out a word of it' due to my habit of sneaking out of the nightclub in the wee small hours to post home before bursting back onto the dancefloor. And several of the bars actually had PCs in them, with reduced keyboards which were really tricky to use, covered in some sort of keyboard condom to delay the corrosive effects of the alcohol and I always had to type one handed since the other hand was involved in that most important of tasks, holding the beer.

Things have got better since then. I can touch type now and fast which should save me money in internet cafes in the future. It was something that I had been meaning to do for a while but finally had to learn through necessity when I got a data entry temping a few years ago. There was a sticker on the side of the computer saying something about being careful when moving the computer during the office change. It was dated 1983. The keys were worn down shiny and clean after years of hapless temps dribbling over them. Time to learn to touch type, methinks.

It is Saturday and the week was pretty quiet so I have nothing to report really. Check out these stereotypical backpackers and see if they fit with your experience

Don't worry, there is a British one there too.

I have spent some time on the Hostel World site too, planning some accommodation on the way. I had found a great place to stay in Singapore before realising that I would only be there for fourteen hours before taking off again. I have booked my first three nights accommodation in Ho Chi Minh though. I am sure that I have paid well over the odds but at least I know where I am staying. Plus the hotel will pick me up from the airport for a small fee. Bonus. Peace Hotel, here I come. I have treated myself to a double room en-suite after a month of sleeping on my generous sister's sofa. And won't even have a cat to leap on me in the middle of the night. Nice work.

Here is a picture of a pie shop in Greenwich. I have gone a bit mental on pies, sausage rolls and various other dubious bits of meat covered in pastry. This place even does jellied eels. And we think that the Koreans eat funny.

And here is the view over the edge of England and into Wales. Just a short bridge away