Journeys

"A journey of a thousand miles begins

with a simple step" - Lao-tzu

A fitting quote really... in just five weeks now we will be heading off on what i would like to call the journey of a lifetime but will hopefully be the first of many epic journeys of lifetimes...time has moved so quickly these last few weeks and it all seems to have rushed up on us... In just 6 days LP will be back from Aotearoa and we will be putting the finishing touch on our preparations (finally getting the dreaded anti-malarials i constantly harp on about,getting the last few bits of gear, get some travel insurance, train tickets to London etc) LP is bringing my hiking boots back from NZ i need to break them back in... (so expect some pics of me in my boots all over town)

our journey is going to take about 20 weeks the distance between Cape Town and Cairo (as the crow flies) is approx 4467 miles...(that's 7189km for all the normal people who use normal measurements!) bearing in mind we are not doing a straight trip that's a lot more miles on the road... so "a journey of over 4467 miles starts with a simple step" and ours was deciding we wanted to visit this amazing continent i think that's a pretty good starting point but still cant wait till we actual take our first step in Africa....

Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

At the moment LP is far away in kiwiland...i want him back....thank goodness he will be in Africa with me because i cant do any longer then the two weeks he will be away...i think this sums it up nicely...

Rushing rushing always rushing

Ill start off with a little about our recent trip to London town... it was lovely darling lots of seeing friends eating good (tasting slightly bad for you) food and generally relaxing we took in all the sights as we played tour guide and i realised i miss living in London this trip did a pretty good job of convincing us when we get back from Africa London is where we want to be.

(below i have included a picture of me and a squirrel just for the fun of it)

We have become accustomed to the slower pace of life that Cornwall has to offer theres no rushing to get to where you want to be its more relaxed,calmer the world is more at peace with itself...so it seems strange that as soon as we arrived at Paddington station we were back in the swing of things...in London everyone is always rushing everywhere...now Ive touched on this before Patience is a virtue and all that jazz but i don't think many londoners have Patience.... whilst we were there the lovely folks at transport for London decided to have a tube strike (any other week would have been fine with me!) so there was about a quadjillion million bajillion more cars on the road (then the normal million hundred or so) which is fine I'm down with people trying to get where they need to be but does that have to include being in the bus lane when your not a bus?...or indicating to change lanes then sitting blocking the traffic because no one will let you in? we have already established I'm lacking in the Patience department but i was even more fired up due to the fact i needed to catch a train and if i missed it i had zero pounds to my name to buy a new one (this fact made no difference when i did get to the station with moments to spare they were taking any tickets for that day so i could have been late if only i had Patience....) when we get back from Africa next year i think I'll have the Patience thing going for me....one can only hope....

Do these jandals make me look fat?

as you can see my poor wee brown jandals have officially kicked the bucket... for years now (yes literally years) i have been wearing these bad boys and only recently after at least 6 years loyal service a hole has made its way through...these loving jandals long ago lost all ability to grip the footpath making every steep surface and rainy day a challenge but i stuck with them determined to wear them till i no longer could and that day has come...

now i have these new ones, these bright blue ones these £15 at Camden market ones, these perfectly even because they haven't yet grooved to the shape of my feet ones... and yet i cant quite bring myself to chuck out the old ones....sad times for the old dogs....

if anyone out there has some jandals that need a new home (sorry not beat up old bangers like my brown ones I'm talking new or only slightly worn non-toe-jammy jandals) then donate them to a great cause Flip-flops for Africa (www.flipflopsforafrica.org) is a non profit organization aiming to bring flip flops to the masses in poor and underdeveloped nations the idea being that many simple health problems (such as sores,cuts and infections) could be reduced simply by wearing shoes something to think about anyway...

London calling

So today we are off to London town for two glorious reasons... the first being to visit my lovely NZer friends for a few days of general touristyness (I'm the tour guide heck yes!) i cant wait to hear tales from the travels to three lovely cities Edinburgh, Paris and Rome all of which we have explored and loved! ...and the second is to leave LP at Heathrow so he can journey back to the land of the long white cloud for a few weeks of family friends and fun... normally when we go anywhere together for a short stay we go minimal and simplistic sharing a tiny wee roll on suitcase... but as our paths will separate along the way i get the whole suitcase to me lonesome meaning of course it is packed to Maximilian with crap...well i saw crap but actually i mean my belongings clothes, shoes , straighteners,make-up etc etc...(well yeah actually i do mean crap) but at least it gives me options...

Yestermorning we packed LPs bag for NZ and it went well and by that i mean it went too well hes baffled by my upsetness that nothing went wrong... but it all just went too smoothly... everything fit first time, its not too heavy, there's still loads of room..(for all the pineapple lumps hes going to bring back for me) but to me this is a bad sign something of vital importance is missing from that bag and i don't mean to jinx it but its not going to be discovered until too late...oh dear

then LP came out with "it was always going to be easier then when we pack for Africa" now i don't know about him but I'm set... i know the exact layout of my bag I've already mentally packed it over and over (and once last week i did a cheeky half pack when i got the bag out for LP to take to NZ) I'm set but still i expect there to be a tantrum or two (or three) its just the way packing should be....

More on Malaria...medication

So today marked a milestone on our get organised for Africa calendar...we now have all our travel vaccinations woohoo time to celebrate! and we saved the best till last... that's right grand old yellow fever you know its so special you even get a certificate... and I might add that I'm so sad that the fact I get a certificate totally makes up for the fact that its a bloody nasty little bugger of a jab... all on a funny angle close to the skin... made me feel all queasy and yuck...but I got a certificate so its all good in the hood!

Yellow fever- "The only disease specifically designated in the international health regulations (2005) for which proof of vaccination or prophylaxis may be required as a condition of entry to a state party is yellow fever"

so this wee certificate is my passport into many an African nation excellent plus!

but back to my story.... whilst at the travel clinic the nurse told us to go ask at a few different pharmacies for quotes on the dreaded anti-malarial's all she told us was "ask for Doxycycline or Larium should be about 20p per tablet" so off we trudge into the Tesco pharmacy where we ask the young girl at the counter... she the asks the pharmacist.... and the pharmacist is like "what exactly do you want?" we look at each other confused.... then look back at her and sort of shrug our shoulders and say rather sheepishly "the nurse just told us to ask for Doxycycline???" the pharmacist is like "well if you don't know what you want I cant tell you anything" but then looks on the computer types something in and says "Doxycycline 100mg £2.00 per tablet Doxycycline 50mg £2.00 per tablet".... this is the point where we walk away in disgust at this bollocky women and her lack of knowledge and her complete lack of interest in helping... heaven forbid a customer might actually need some help! so we left Tesco with a slightly sinking feeling in the pit of our stomachs for if it is really £2.00 per tablet that would make it about a million bajillion pounds instead of the approx £70 if it were only 20p per tablet! however when we reached home loaded up the computer and google searched we found out.... the average price of doxycycline is 14p per tablet.... shove that up your bum stupid Tesco women who don't know anything!.......

Bob Geldof uses Malarone

At the moment all my reading seems to have an African theme (surprise surprise) I've just read five travel writing books in a row (well four and a half the last one is about half the size of me so theres no way I'm carting that all the way to work for 20 Min's reading on my lunch break! so at the mo i have an at home book and an away book) after non-stop travel reading I'm now into African themed novels starting with (for no particular reason) white mischief by James fox alot more raunchy then i was expecting how scandalous it all was there in happy valley...... i also have heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad on order from the library and a list as long as both my arms to find somewhere...

Anyway onto the actual point of my post....the giant book I'm still reading is entitled Geldof in Africa and I'm sure you can guess what its about...that's right its about Bob Geldof in Africa! its a whole bunch of his stories ramblings and thoughts from over the years whacked together with some really awesome photographs its a great read! any who yesterday i turned the page to a story called Neet Deet basically its a ranting account of him wanting to be in a nice hotel room (hes in a gross sounding hovel where some unknown bugs are eating another bug alive.... nice!) in this rant he rants about how he forgot his bottled water so has to make spit to take his Malarone (anti-malaria meds)which gets me to here.... Bob Geldof uses Malarone lucky him...Malarone is the "best'" anti-malaria medication currently on offer with the least side effects and can be taken whilst on other medication but for a whopping £2.50 per tablet (one tablet per day and you need to take them a few days before you go and a week after you get back) they are way out of our price range the anti-malarial that looks the best to us cost wise is a once a week pill side effects....vivid dreams...not to bad i already have crazy whacked out dreams wouldn't be anything new another possible side effect is.....phychocis.....emmmm.... wonderful....I'm not really sure i want to go loopy and murderous whilst in the African countryside there are more options but like I've pointed out with these two each has lovely pros and cons it would seem we either go crazy due to bankrupting ourselves or crazy due to drugs oh dear.....