And another one on Tuesday morning, or evening, depending on where you are in the world...

It's a bit like being a time-traveller this, isn't it? You're reading this post 10 hours before it's been written. Except that I'm pretty sure the website works on Googletime so who knows what's going on.

Well. It's raining. I travel to the other side of the world to get away from the bleak and dismal weather of the UK and what do I get? I'll give you three guesses.

Apparently last night was very windy. A fact which I failed to pick up on since I was unconscious from the moment my head hit the pillow, at approximately 8pm. Anyway, when I came to get into the pool for my first swim of the month (P.S. Happy December) I noticed something stirring at the bottom. I would like to point out that I wasn't wearing my glasses, and with your head filled with scare stories of the various dangerous creatures located around Australia, it's very easy to mistake a palm leaf dislodged from a nearby tree during a particularly blusterous night, for a big green snake. Thus my first swim was not so much of a swim, but more of an enthusiastic entry, followed by an even more enthusiastic withdrawal. Hopefully, my second swim will involve a bit more, well, swimming.

Missing you all,

Love Em x

A quick one on Tuesday morning...

I seem to have lost 10 hours of my life. I know, how careless I am. It's jolly confusing. I had a plan for avoiding jetlag and I thought it had succeeded, except now I can't stop yawning!

I met my baby cousin, Alice, for the first time yesterday. (Although she's actually two, so probably can't be counted as a baby anymore.) She was very suspicious of me yesterday and she's still slightly wary when I speak. I'm putting this down to the "language barrier", a yorkshire accent can be hard to understand even in Yorkshire, so to an Autralian toddler it must be practically a whole new language. But she let me play with her toy phone this morning, so I'm taking that as a sign of acceptance...

On route...

So, I'm in Abu Dhabi airport at an internet kiosk! It's very very exciting. Mostly, you'll all be asleep, quite reasonably given that it's about 4.50am in England. I have about half an hour before I have to board the next plane and so ample opportunity to give you full details about the first leg of the flight.

Most important things first, the film selection was excellent. For only 750 pound sterling, I hadthe choice of watcing X-men: Wolverine, Harry Potter 1, Terminator, The Incredibles, The Time Travellers Wife.... endless list... Of the selection I watched 500 Days of Summer which I thoroughly enjoyed, and all but the last 10 minutes of the new Star Trek. Yes, I know I swore never ever ever to watch it, butt I'm actually glad I did. Hopefully they will be the same films on the next flight so I can view the finale in all its glory... The only thing is, you really can tell it's science fiction can't you? If it were science non-fiction, the heroes wouldn't be nearly as pretty!

Well seeing as how I spent practically the entire flight coming up with that joke, and it was basically the entire reason for this post, (and it really doesn't seem quite as funny now that I haven't been sitting for 7 hours without the feeling in my legs) I should probably call off. But don't worry, I'm sure to spend the next 18 hours coming up with a line which is equally as bad, if not worse, so you know you've got that to look forward to!

(p.s. I apologise for the excessive use of commas, 1)I'm not very good at using this keyboard, 2)Ihaven't slept for a long long time)

Lots of love, Em x

3 days to go...

Well, this is exciting!

3 days to go and I still haven't packed! I've started to think about packing; all my clothes are arranged in tidy piles on the bed. I say all, but in fact I'm only taking about 5 items with me. (Okay, so a few more than that, but following in the tradition of all the great back-packers I'm travelling light).

Possibly the most important of which, and certainly the most stereotypically necessary for a trip to the Australian Outback, is my authentic cowboy hat. Flashy (of course), but practical; even on a 17th Century Sailing boat.

The Duyfken is hopefully going to be my first port of call (no pun intended) after checking in with my family in Brisbane. The boat is in Cairns and if my application to volunteer aboard is accepted, I will be climbing the rigging and scrubbing the decks no less than every day for two weeks. Of course, my plans very infrequently go to plan and come the time I may well be sunning myself somewhere down the Gold Coast. But hey! That sounds good too.

I feel I ought to add that while I have been writing this, my two dogs have been trying to help me in numerous ways, including dropping tennis balls onto the keyboard and trying to eat my face. I'm pretty sure I'll miss them more than they'll miss me but here's hoping that they remember me when I get back, as unfortunately, they can't read this blog to help to remind themselves.