Blogs from Crystal Palace, Greater London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

The last few days, leading up to today, have been taken up mostly by trying to clear my flat and get it ready to hand back to the letting agents - tomorrow I have to go down to South Norwood to hand back the keys before I make my way across the city to Heathrow in the afternoon. Everything I put on eBay went! Sometimes it took a couple of tries if I made the starting price too high the first time, but even though most things were specified as collection only they sold, and I didn't have any problems with being let down after having arranged times for people to come and pick up the items - including, this afternoon, my bed which just about fit in the buyer's van. One of the people who ... read more

So... Just 9 days to go until I leave my one-bedroom flat in Crystal Palace, South London and embark on the journey around South East Asia I've been planning since September last year. About me I first visited Malaysia in June 2006, after a recommendation from a colleague at Imperial College London where I was working on my PhD in computational biology. I stayed in Penang for just under 3 weeks and I loved it. In January '08 I went on holiday once again to Malaysia, returning to Penang before moving on to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and then spending a week and a half in New Zealand. I travelled solo in Malaysia & Singapore and met up with friends from London in NZ. I took a job as a statistician in the civil service after the ... read more

I know it's been absolutely ages since we completed the Three Marathon Challenge, so long in fact that Summer has been and gone (or so it would seem!). This is just a very quick blog to thank each and every one of you that sponsored us. The response was overwhelming. The Just giving website closed last week and everybody was good to their word and paid up, just as well really....I was a bit worried I might have to flex the 22" pythons of steel! We set out to raise £2000 for the British Lung Foundation (BLF), well not only did we raise that, thanks to all of you , we obliterated it!! The grand total we submitted to the BLF was £3,427.20!! This week when you all head back to work, give yourself a big ... read more

I'm leaving London for Prague tomorrow, and will be staying for 3 months if the 13 recently elected UKIP MEPs haven't removed the UK from the European Union by then. Expect to see a lot on here :)... read more

http://www.justgiving.com/3marathonchallenge Hey, It's been a few weeks since my last blog and i'm sure after the revelations of our Watford half marathon, you are literally on the edge of your seats waiting for another exciting instalment.............are you sitting comfortably? Good, then I'll begin. Watford physically took quite alot out of both Ben and Myself. As I mentioned in the last blog we were both carrying injuries and whilst truth be told we should have both eased up, that's not in our nature, so obviously we did the next best thing and pushed ourselves harder. The following morning was 'White Monday', the day where the Southeast of England was brought crashing to its knees by frozen water....not that I'm complaining, the snowmen weren't the only thing frozen stiff, I was having real difficulty getting about on my ... read more

Well I'm off to czech lands tomorrow afternoon. In my current state I haven't slept for 33 hours and i managed to walk and travel loads today (coming back from a mini-rave near colchester) and stay standing, which is a good sign I will be able to make it through my fluctuatingly chaotic itinerary in central europe without ending up in hospital. I'm only posting this because I want to vaguely try and introduce this thing, but I'm far too tired for that really. sleeeeep.... read more

It's been a busy fortnight. From the grim, humourless world of consulates and embassies via the dull but wholly necessary task of buying a new travel pack, to the massive foolishness of vaccinations whilst ill, it's all been educational. Some tips: 1) a) As soon as you have a plan of where you're going, do not delay - sort out the visas! We paid £95 for the Russian visa on same day service (£50 extra) because we were worried about running out of time. This means I have paid £95 for a tourist visa in Russia, £35 transit visa for Mongolia, and a month in China for £30. Plus the £78 Australian working holiday visa. 1) b) Even when the grumpy Russian consulate official asks seemingly witty questions about the size of the printout you just ... read more