Day -11

Well, I am no closer to leaving, as I have just spent a lot of the last two days drunk in Hemyock, and swimming in 16° water. Preparations in earnest shall begin tomorrow, somewhere in between the chiropractor and doctor's appointments.

The weekend has not been entirely useless though, as I did achieve this --->

Soaking wet, in a cowboy shirt, drinking wine and wearing a Koala head. Ben Bruce.

Day -13

As I should have predicted, I have just spent the last few hours dicking about with interactive route maps and the HTML layout of this page (making it a bit wider, changing the background, putting pictures in and so on), while achieving none of the goals I set for myself earlier. Not even getting rid of the flowers. Fail.

Day -14

Right, first post... I have decided, after discussion with my Mum, to settle on the entirely arbitrary date of the 11th of October for my departure. This has upset my little sister, as it is 4 days before her 17th birthday, but I'm sure she'll get over it.

Things to do before departure include...

1. Finalise ticket booking
   
2. Sort out travel insurance
   
3. Go to the doctors for jabs and the like
   
4. Go to the chiropractor again, in preparation for hours on planes in tiny seats (regardless of the airline, the seats always seem to be designed for people 5'8" and under)
   
5. Choose what to take with me, narrowing down my pile of 68 decent T-shirts
   
6. Think about productive things to do in each country
   
7. Pack, and go to London for a week to say goodbye to everyone necessary
   

...and a few other bits and bobs, as well as hundreds of things I'm sure I've forgotten.

Wish me luck. If you want.

1. -edit- Figure out how to change these gay little flowers into numbers. Although this comes pretty far down the list.