Nottingham City Centre (Goldsmith St) Premier Travel Inn

... dinner last Saturday - it was fantastic! And to say to my mum - can't wait for our second christmas dinner this Sunday - woohoo!

Very excited at the moment about going on our adventure - but going to miss all our fantastic friends and family!

Ash

Ps won't miss the cold mind. brrr.

... raining still!

It has been a bit of a blur today, as well as the Royal Marsden we have been to Addenbrookes in Cambridge, THe Queen Elizabeth in Birmingham and now I am sitting in a cosy front room in Sheffield with a real fire!
I am excited about tomorrow as we will be going back to my home town of Newcastle. Yippee!!
I have taken a few pictures of the day.

Finally worked out my route.

Fly to Armenia, travel through Georgia to Turkey and fly from Istanbul to Mumbai. Work my way across to Calcutta and fly to Bangkok. Through Thailand and Cambodia to Vietnam, then onto China.

I am setting off early September 2010 and aim to be in China early December, maybe.

And then I have to get back...

Tow truck 3, turns up at 20:30, we get loaded up and set off at 20:45 only to find out that the AA have sent me a driver that needs to take his 45 minute break in under an hour. So I waited an extra 1.5 hours for him to arrive and then I have to wait ...

... We take off into clear skies and head up the coast, looking down on the miles and miles of Atlantic beaches. As we near the north of Portugal it becomes misty, over Spain it is cloudy and by the time we reach southern Ireland it is dense cloud, as if a veil has been drawn over the time we have spent away. We treat ourselves to a small bottle of champagne to celebrate our final flight, accompanied by a bacon butty – oh I’m ...

... just confusing. Admired the huge cooling towers of the power stations, all burning coal. Looked like clean emissions but imagine how much CO2 whistles up into the atmosphere from that lot. I think the British have got very used to having an energy surplus from North Sea oil and gas. Before long there will come a hell of a shock as they try to maintain their energy consumption on a world market paying for an ...

... and funny thing. So Travis and I were talking about accents, and then he tells me there was something I said that sounded like a Canadian accent. He couldn't remember what it was, but I thought it was funny. Considering I don't even know what a Canadian accent is... except for EH? haha. But it seems as though growing up a half hour from the ...

... wedding. My best man's speech is finally taking shape, and, to be blunt, it's gold. I had initially wanted to start with a reference to the last time I was best man - only two people stormed off in a huff during my speech, and although the groom is still talking to me he isn't, unfortunately, talking to his now ex-wife... But then I remembered they did that gag in Four Weddings and a Funeral, and I couldn't run the risk of wedding guests having the same anal ...

... to Watford to stay with some uni mates (Andy & Hayley) and then on Thursday I head to Heathrow. With any luck I will avoid any problems caused by the BA strike (if it goes ahead). I am due to fly out of Heathrow at 6.30pm, from there I will head to Hongkong to get a connect flight to Bangkok, I shall arrive in Thailand from ...

... inflating mattresses, maps, mobile phones, chargers, iPod, walking boots, waterproofs, cooking stuff, super noodles and Pasta in Sauce, bandages, kendell mint cake, little penknives, torches, gas canisters, the worlds largest camping stove, paper and pens, books (chosen not for content but for weight), water bottles, nicotine patches (great opportunity to give up smoking), sun tan lotion (optimistic), hats and cigarettes (realist). We were ready.