Arghhhh! Less than 24 hours till departure and I’m so disorganised. Having not yet packed or arranged all the little things that need to be done, I decided to spend the morning taking my niece to feed the ducks and play on the swings (Otherwise known as the ostrich approach!). Ill probably throw a few things in the backpack just before I go to bed tonight, my typical leave it till the last minute philosophy seems to be holding out!

Anyway the Leaving Party was a big success in as much that three French Hyper-markets full of wine and fourteen tankers full of beer were consumed and everyone has blurred memories of what they actually did between 10pm and 5am the following morning. It was great though that so many people came and everyone had a 'proper piss-up' it was like no-one actually expects me to make it back in one piece!

I would strongly recommend anyone contemplating a trip to have a leaving party though. I wasn’t expecting gifts and yet come the following morning I was able to tick off almost my entire list of things I needed to purchase before going (RESULT!!)

Ennis and I have yet to make any firm arrangements of exactly how or when we are going to meet up with each other. I think we're both pretty much thinking along the lines that we will ‘wing it’ and everything will fall in to place and we will just happen to bump in to each other in Delhi.

I tried to phone ahead to book my first couple of nights accommodation but the phone call turned out to be my first re-introduction to the confusion that simple conversations in India lead to. I came off the phone not sure whether I have a room or not, not sure how much it costs, and not entirely sure if they understood when I’m turning up, but they said they are open 24hours so I think ill just show up at about 4.30am and see.. Hey what’s the worst that could happen? No seriously??

Cheers to everyone who came to the ‘Send Off’ and hope you all keep in touch on this site or by email. Once I’ve had a couple of nights sleeping rough outside the guest house in Delhi I will enter my first proper post...

Keep Well, Keep Safe, and Keep your finger crossed!