Blogs from Woking, Surrey, England, United Kingdom, Europe

It's true you can take the boy out of Africa, but you can't take the Africa of the boy. It's calling, one day I hope to answer it and return to explore and feel it again. Once I feel strong and prepared well enough in mind and body to handle exploring and enjoying where I wish to go. Mainly Namibia from all I've heard is appears to be such an extraordinary unqiue place on earth. If you can watch wildest Africa series, The sands of time an excellent doco on the country of Namibia please do I just did. I understand more why I'm so drawn to exploring and experiencing some of it. I remember watching the film Dune (film ...envoronmemt and some cutlural aspects inspired from Namibia) were a at age five fresh from moving ... read more

So here we are, in The Hockering, Woking. A humble, quaint, peaceful little environment situated just South of London. 20 days till we arrive in Bangkok, todays headline is not particularly inviting us to Thailand (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8693122.stm) 40 deaths so far, and we aren't so keen to join them. Tomorrow with fresh spirits we plan to go to Kingston STA in order to sort out our extremely important insurance, but we are slightly disapointed in the Blue Standard insurance which does not cover hostage insurance... we may need to upgrade to Premier which would bag us £3000 if this occurs! Still a bit unprepared, Will is still needing to pick up his Malaria tablets, and Tom still needs to pull his finger out and order his! Anyway we plan on using this blog to keep you all ... read more

Here I am at home with 12 days to go until I leave for Peu - I'm excited and a little bit scared! I had my vaccinations back in September, Hepatitis A, Typhoid and Tetanus, with my choice as to whether to have rabies and a course of anti-malarials. I had 2 injections, a combined Hepatitis A and Typhoid jab and a Diptheria/Tetatnus/Polio jab. As for rabies and anti-malarials, I decided not to bother. The rabies jabs cost £45 a shot and you need three of them, and I'm not going to any high-risk areas for Malaria anyway. The same goes for Yellow Fever as I'm not going to the Jungle. More info from the NHS. I've also had my feet looked at and new orthotic insoles made and adjusted to fit comfortably inside the Sal ... read more

Arrrrrr! Woke up at 5am. Feeling nervous and excited. Bag packed (thanks Claire) Had a cup of tea in bed with mum. Off to beauticians for final prep! Leaving for Heathrow to fly to Thailand this afternoon. Look out world here I come!!!... read more

Just over a week to go! The past nine months have been a long journey, taking in America, the U.K, Dubai and back to the U.K. again. Finally, it’s nearly time! I’ve been reading books entitled ‘I’m a Big Brother’ and ‘The New Baby’ to the Big Boy in earnest - and I think he actually may have a vague notion that something is afoot. He knows there’s a baby boy in my tummy (and thinks there’s a baby girl up top!) Having ‘a date’ (Oct 7th) has made me somewhat complacent about packing my hospital bag. That’ll get done on the 6th - in fact, I’m far more laid-back about the whole thing this time. I’m just hoping that this time it isn’t a junior doctor performing the c-section. A vivid memory from my first ... read more