The countdown continues...

Had my last ever PRDP (Personal Review and Development Plan) at work this week and long term goals were put as "traveling round the world and thereafter..." which I'm fairly happy with! I now have less than 6 months to go until I leave here. 25 weeks and 1 day to be precise! Unlikely to have another posting this year so it looks like my next one will be in the year that I actually go traveling round the world! How exciting is that! Also, by then it will have been Christmas and so I'll have (hopefully!) had lots of bits and bobs for when I go away! Tell you all about it in the New Year.
Unfortunately it's looking like I might not be going to India when I'd planned as Sarah's plans have fallen through. Still looks like she might be able to go to India but not working with the charity she had originally planned to so hopefully I'll still get a trip there but maybe later in the year.
One of my other friends has just had her visa application to Canada accepted so she'll be moving there in March and so might see if there's any chance I can include that in the trip as well. Will let you know how I get on!
Hope you all have a great Christmas and I'll be back in the New Year!!

Vaccinations

Been looking at vaccinations today. When you realise how many you need it's quite scary really and makes me very thankful that I live somewhere where these kinds of problems are not something I have to face everyday. I can get some of them done free at the Drs and working in research I have my hep B already. I'm going to be going to India in March as my best friend is moving there for 6 months to work for the Wildlife Trust of India on their anti-poaching campaign so I'll need a few for there anyway so I'll be all up to date for my trip anyway. I got my rucksack the other week which was very exciting. Went for a Berghaus C7 60+10 and got a bargain at Cotswold Outdoor where it was reduced to £60 and the people were extremely helpful so I'd highly recommend them. Also got a Regatta jacket with a zip out fleece from Jackson's of Old Arley (near where my parents live) so I'm definitely getting there with the kit! Want to buy my sleeping bag now!!

Travel in New Zealand

Have been wondering what would be the best way for me to travel round New Zealand and had been thinking for a while I might do Kiwi Experience, but having thought about it I think that it's probably not for me - feel too old to do something like that now. Also, want to have a bit more control over the trip and was chatting to someone who did it and they said that if the tour is full and you've stopped off somewhere most people don't stop at then you can have a bit of trouble getting back on a bus. So I think the best thing for me to do is to get a flexi-pass. This allows you to buy travel hours on the intercity buses and I worked out last night that to do the places I want to go to I'll need about 75 hours of travel which would cost about £260 whereas the kiwi experience trip would be closer to £450. Means I get to do more whilst I'm there as well as I'll have more money to spend on activities.
Am down to the 20s now for weeks left at work! OK I know it's still 29 weeks and 5 days but it's still in the 20s! Hurrah!!

Good news for Africa!

The company who I'm planning to do the Africa tour with (www.kumuka.com) has had on their website that the trip that I want to do is changing in 2007 but they don't seem to be putting forward any new details so I contacted them and turns out that instead of doing Zambia, the tour will be going to Serengeti which will be fab. That was one place I was disappointed to not be going and now it looks like I'll be able to! How exciting! Will depend on cost of course as the trip is now going to be increasing to 35 days. However, they have a 35 day tour on their website that does what looks like might be the new trip in reverse and the basic cost is only about £80 more expensive and about another $100 local payment which is fine. Delays getting back and having to find a job as well!!

Wishing my life away...

Couldn't believe it when I saw my last post was over a month ago! What a relief! Must mean time is going fairly quickly so with only 32 weeks and 1 day left (not that I'm counting!) til I leave work must say it's quite nice knowing that it might not be such a long haul as it sometimes feels. I've been replaced at work already so nice to know I'm not at all indispensible! Only wish now I didn't have to work out my contract to get the money together to do this trip. I keep buying my lottery tickets but I'm not winning, think it must be too far down on my to-do list to make it happen. Maybe the 75 million euromillions jackpot has my name on it... Or maybe not! The way it's all going I wish I could stay away for longer but without a major cash injection it's not going to be possible. There are so many more better places to be than in this laboratory.

Have been doing a little time planning and I've decided that instead of starting in New York I'm going to fly into Philadelphia instead. Gives me chance to see another city and also I've been to New York before and though would be nice to spend some time there I think I'd rather see more places and spend slightly less time in NY. There are only really a couple of places I really want to go to in NY such as Greenwich Village that I didn't see the last time I was there and a few sights such as Grand Central Terminal and I think I'll be able to fit all of that into a slightly shorter space of time. Also, I've been recommended to book into a hotel or bed and breakfast for the first couple of nights to get over the jetlag properly to be able to really enjoy the trip from the start and they're far more affordable in Philadelphia than in New York. Have found some fairly reasonable places on the Philadelphia tourist board website and as I've recently acquired a self-inflating mattress from a friend which I was thinking I'd need to buy I can put the money towards the hotel instead. Feeling very excited about it all at the moment although worked out today that I've still got 38 weeks before I finish work. Let's hope that goes quickly - not that I'm wishing my life away mind but I just want to get on with the next stage of my life!!

So, having made the decision to go traveling this is the itinerary that I'm currently working on. The plan is to fly to New York then travel up to Boston maybe via Martha's Vineyard. I'll then head over to Chicago to take in the windy city before going up to Minneapolis (my old stomping ground) for a few days to catch up with friends there (thanks Sue for the offer of a bed!), hopefully coinciding with the Minnesota State Fair where I'll definitely have to have some cheese curds - the state dish! From there it's over to San Francisco before heading down to LA then over to New Zealand. Am hoping to cover most of both of the Islands probably traveling with Kiwi Experience. Then it's over to Australia where I think a lot of my time will be spent on a bus! Planning to take in the usual sights, Uluru, Great Barrier Reef (HAVE to dive it!) Sydney Opera House etc. etc. From Australia I'm going to Singapore (looking forward to that Singapore Sling in Raffles!) then on to Hong Kong, Tokyo and finally over to Africa for the last leg of the tour which will see me travel through SA, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and on up to Kenya where I'll spend the last few days relaxing before heading back to the UK and job hunting!