The UK isn’t exactly feeling very festive right now; instead of crisp snow and freezing temperatures we’re being treated to rain, rain and more rain – so much so that there’s severe flooding in some areas and more than the usual dose of seasonal transport chaos. Instead of letting it get us down we headed to the Hyde Park Christmas Winter Wonderland to get in the festive spirit.
Finding backpackers insurance has been the most difficult travel planning task so far. I left Andrew the task of researching and buying our long term travel insurance while he was on autumn school holidays and I was at work.  He found a great deal, a £253 year-long policy! That’s one more task crossed off the list, or so I thought…
There are only 12 weeks left to go before we jet off to travel the world and this week I finally told my boss that I’m leaving. On Friday evening as we sped through the city in a cab to our work Christmas party I watched all the historical buildings in London whiz by through the window and felt everything catching up with me. Soon my job and this city that I love will become nothing but a memory.

It’s a strange feeling to be so close to the very thing I’ve wanted for so long; to be on the verge of doing something that used to feel virtually impossible. I can’t believe that in 15 weeks’ time we’ll be out there travelling the world after years of dreaming, saving up our money and obsessively planning our travel adventure. I should be jumping-for-joy ecstatic, singing-from-the-rooftops excited – and don’t get me wrong, I am – but why do I also feel so incredibly sad?

One of the most complicated and annoying travel planning tasks has been sorting out our travel visas. For each country we hope to visit there are so many questions that need to be answered:

When you’re embarking on long-term travel, you accept that at some point you’re going to get sick on the road. However, while suffering a cold or minor injury is one thing, contracting a serious disease is definitely not on our list of things to do, so we’re making sure we get all the travel vaccination advice we can before we go.  

London has turned golden and crispy, leaves littering all the pavements and parks - autumn is well and truly here. I love this time of year, even though it gets dark at four o'clock in the afternoon and our heating bills go through the roof. One of the things I like best about autumn is firework night, the 5th November, the day we celebrate Guy Fawkes failing to blow up the houses of parliament by well, blowing things up.