Last night at home

Gosh,

It's been a really hectic week sorting things out. First scare was
Oscar's australian visa. Basically it's going to take a week or so to
have it clear as an e-visa, but hopefully it will be ready before we
set off from Fiji. Cheers Grant for sprting that one out!

Also started packing on Wednesday. Well I say packing, what I
actually mean is getting a box and throwing random gadgets in it.
Hehe, I don't think i can't survive without this stuff! First thing
my laptop is still borken, so going to have to make do without it. My
phone is a must, plus it is kinda like a pda with wifi so I will use
it to scout for internet so I can update this thing. I'm also taking
my camera of course to take lots of snappy snaps, ooh and I bought one
of those aqua packs so i can take photos of sharks underwater.
Without a laptop I've decided I needed to buy a portable harddrive to
backup photos up. Also I didn't think I could live without my music
collection. So i ended up buying a second hand iPod video 30Gig in
black. Very good nick for £165. Got a camera adapter thing too so I
can upload photos, so dead chuffed with that. Also taking my DS along
to keep us entertained on those oh-so-long flights. Okay, actually
thats it, travelling light there. Taking CD's along too so we can
play in the car in the US. Soundtrack's of the trip will be Sergio
Mendes, Timeless; and Orson, Bright Idea. Both superb albums.

On Thursday it was Isabel's leaving party at bar salsa. Evening
started off a bit quiet but after a few mojito's we were all on the
dance floor for som bum wiggling. Yeah, it turned out to be a fun
night, but sad never the less. CAn't wait to check out those super
cool salsa clubs, New York-style!

Packing ground to a halt on Friday since World Cup season starts :D
Hopefully we will find sports bars a plenty in the US, though games
will probably be really early in the morning! I also got my haricut,
and realised it was amazing how much information you can get from
people you know. He gave some great tips on avoiding speed traps,
places to visit, places to stay, and when to visit etc. Like in Las
Vegas, visiting in the weekend is like triple the price to stay :S
Hehe, hopefully we won't end up gambling our tickets and not being
able to come home. Johnny who I worked with from Deutsche Bank is out
in California at the moment, so been getting some tips off him and
highways, looking forward to hooking up dude! Also, Rob from deutsche
went there last Summer so got some great ideas for places to see.

So, tonight is my last night at home sweet home. Last home cooked
dinner. *Sob sob* Ahem, we had better keep up a regular diet on the
trip tbh. Hehe, i can imagine getting really fat in America, then
probably by the time we get to Tokyop we will be poor and can't afford
to eat. Then we will lose all the fat from America. By the power of
logic, we will hopefully come back home normal. But slightly tanned.

Anyways, hopefully by tomorrow I will have finished packing, and can
head off down to Oscars place before jetting off the next morning.
Also tomorrow going to see the Tango Show at Saddlers Wells organised
by LJ. Last chance to see to see you, and then more goodbyes. Man,
gonna miss this place, but still looking forward our big adventure.

Still a more planning to do, but gonna approach it abit ad hoc. No
doubt we are going to get lost along the way. Maybe GPS added to
gadgets will be handy. For the moment highlighting routes on the US
road atlas will have to do. hehe, we only bought it yesterday. yeah,
we really are gonna get lost. Also taking along some travel guides.
I am finding these things really boring to read though. Yeah, they
are extensive, but the problem is that they need executuve summaries!
We did however find really neat pocket sized city guides. Planned
routes, all usual tourist sights and map. Superb.

It definetely aint gonna be a teddy bears picnic, but gonna be a heck
of a lot of fun.

Right, back to packing, before England mattch starts :)

Speak soon,
John.