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Published: July 10th 2005
Just a quick one to say............ yes, its back!!!
I know you've all been counting the days. hours and minutes to see the return of the blog, well you need wait no longer for here it is.......
I am setting off again for further travels, as my trip got cut short on December 26th in Thailand I am now going to head round the other way and visit a lot of the countries I never managed to reach last time. So first off I go to America, me and my Jen land in San Franciscio on Tuesday 12th July and then spend 3 weeks seeing as much of Calafornia as we can. Next up is New Zealand and then on to Australia and if they give me a new working VISA to match my new passport I shall hopefully save up enough money to get to Vietnam before heading home for Christmas. So it will be a slightly shorter trip than I had planned last time, but I definitley want to be home to spend Christmas with my famliy and friends after the events of last Christmas.
But typicaly, nothing goes without the odd hitch or two, of course.......... I suppose I have been rather lazy in sorting myself out this time, leaving all my shopping until the last minute and being terribly vague about where or how I might be getting the money together to fund all of this travelling. But, having done it all last year I couldn't sum up the energy to worry too much and also I have been living in London for the past 3 months in various (very, very kind) friends lounges and spare rooms and living out of a suitcase and a large number of plastic bags. I think I've got travellers fatigue already to be honest, a decent wardrobe and bed side table of my very own is all I seem to be craving right now!
However the main hitch came in the form of something rather more serious. In typical Anna style my new passport only arrived at my house, via special delivery, at 10am on Friday morning, that's Friday 8th July, just 4 days before I fly, and it wasn't until the Thursday afternoon thjat I new for sure that all the paperwork was in order and that it had actually been issued. (This was all due to the fact that I was given a replacement passport at Christmas to get back home with , but I wasn't told at the time that it wasn't actually a real passport and they didn't tell me until 29th June that it had to be registered 'lost' even though I had a replacment, so it wasn't just me being slack.........honest......!!) Up until last week I had been very relaxed and making jokes about the my lack of passport, but by Wednesday last week I was starting to get seriously worried. I hadn't told Jen and feared for my life if anything were to have gone seriously wrong with it all, my brother and I were planning a mad dash across the country to the passport offices to demand instant issue, but thankfully it turned up and all turned out OK in the end, as I find most things do, fingers crosseed!!
So now I am ready, well almost, I haven't quite packed and I am about to go back outside to the sunshine with my Ma and Pa to drink some more lovely wine, my family have been over for a barbie and I can't quite seem to tear myself away from the sunshine and the vino and strawberries. I will either, pack when drunk later on - which I find often works best because you just shove it all in and discover what you've packed when you get there, by which time its too late to worry, or, I shall get up early tomorrow morning, before my brother and I zip off down the motorway to London, and spend far too long deliberating over how many pairs of knickers to take with me............
So cheers to you all, thank you to all my friends and family who have, yet again, seen me off in style. I shall see you all again soon for a Christmas drink and hopefully, definitley, much happier tales of travelling. I can't say I am not scared about hitting the road again, but I am glad I have made the decesion to do it, otherwise I would have felt like I had been beaten. I don't want to be put off travelling anywhere for the rest of my life and I had only managed 7 weeks of a year long trip that I had worked very hard to save up for, so it just seems like the right thing to do. Although, I may well go for 4 weeks and decide to come straight back home at the first hurdle, either way, it'll be a challenge, and lots of fun to find out which way I decide to go.
In the mean time, everyone have fun and take lots of care, lots of love to one and all
axxxxxx
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mia
non-member comment
go girl!!!
proud of you, girlie. i am going to do everything i can to meet you in california! love you, be brave, enjoy, and i'll see you very soon. love mia xxx