One week and one day. Not that i'm counting or anything. It's been a stressy past couple of weeks. Work has been busy, the magnitude of what i'm doing has hit home and i've had an awful flu that I can't quite kick. Fun!

I am pretty sure that i'm organised (operative word being 'pretty'). I have my passport (yay!), I have a bag, I have new clothes, I have my e-tickets and I have money. Hmmm still need to get that travel insurance though - that's high on the priorities.

I have just told my work colleagues and friends that I'll be keeping this blog updated whilst i'm away, so best not speak too personally about people now! Haha! It's my last day at work tomorrow and I have a temp in doing my job for the next two months. It's weird training someone to do my job, knowing that i'm coming back to take it over again. That's the other thing i'm not looking forward to...I'm basically taking a 2 month holiday from my 0845 - 1730 (haha, not 9-5) job and then i'm going to have to come back in May and work again. How depressing is that! I can't think of it too much though, I'm too excited right now!

On Sunday Father Jack did some recordings so that a demo CD could be passed round potential venues for us to play. I've not heard the final article yet, but through the headphones we sounded like a proper band (shock horror!) I can't wait to hear it properly! See my links for the FJ blog.

On a separate note, i'm sure you all know that I have a spiritual twinny, who lives down in Essex...sorry, Leigh-on-Sea to be exact. We met quite randomly through a RPG-style game online called Second Life around a year ago. We clicked straight away and I can quite honestly say she is one of my best friends, even though we've only met twice and she lives hunners of miles away! Its weird sometimes, I can know how she's feeling without her saying anything to me, and always know what she's talking about, even if it makes no sense to anyone else (and vice-versa!) She's helped me through some real tough times, especially when it came to my relationship with God and my many "what ifs" and "can I really do this" questions and fears I had. I'd like to say I've been there for her too, but you'd have to ask her on that one! We have a shared passion for singing (you can see previous posts about this - or the link on the right) and she has her own blog (again, link on right). I don't know what i'm going to do for the next two months if I don't speak to her every day, like I do right now!

So the point to all this twin-love i've been sharing....she's (oh, her name is Jules) not been very well the past few months. It's been very difficult for her, her husband, her family, her friends and her work colleagues as no one knew what the diagnosis was. She was passed from doctor to doctor all with the same answer (a shrug and "I don't know what's wrong - deal with it"). Finally she managed to get an appointment with a top specialist in a private clinic in London. Eventually, she found out the diagnosis (just on Monday) that it's not as serious as she feared and that there's a cure!! YAY!! I'm so happy for her that finally she will be able to find some finality to it all. She'll be able to understand why she's hurting and that there are ways to make her better. She's shown some real strength the past few months and I'm sooo proud of her. She's had bad days, really bad days and even worse days where the frustration has proved to be too much, but she's a trooper and has finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel. Good on you Jules, there's definately someone watching over you - may you open your eyes to see, your ears to hear and clarity when you breath in to understand the lesson you have been taught.

Hmm ok, I've just re-read this blog and it seems i'm talking alot about Jules...I sound a little special! I'm not deleting it though, as I think it needs to be said! Haha, it's just a little "girl-love, between two girls"! (any Scrub fans will know what i'm talking about!)

It hit me last night that I have 2 weeks until I go to Australia. I'm sooo excited about it now! The temp started at my work yesterday to do a hand over with me for going away. I just can't believe how quickly the days have passed. It seems just like yesterday that I was booking my flights and being made redundant!

I am completely not organised at all. Slightly panicking...I don't even have my passport yet! I had to send it away to get it renewed and i've not got it back. At what point do you really start panicking about that kind of thing? Now? A week before? I'm kinda running out of time! I have decided that i'm going to keep this blog up to date whilst i'm away so that everyone can keep informed as to how i'm doing (I'm sure ya'll are happy about that!)

I'm aware that I haven't posted a picture of the week yet. I do this now.

This, folks, is the Cake of Awesomeness II. Ok, didn't quite work out how we planned, and we put the wrong month on it(!), but there's heaps of chocolate on it...in fact too much (is that even possible!?). It went down well in Essex, so that's all that matters!

It's Tuesday morning. I'm knackered. I've had one heck of a weekend (in a good way) and one hellish Sunday night/Monday morning. You wanna know why...ok, i'll tell you all.

So weekend was spent with my twinny in Essex. Was fabby! My flight on Sunday night was due to get into Edinburgh at 2210. I was in Edinburgh at that time, but circling overhead as the stupid airport decided to close because of the bad weather. This unfortunately meant that we would be diverted to another airport. We couldn't go to Glasgow (the nearest) as they had already received too many diverts so we were told it would either be Newcastle or Belfast! In the end, it was decided on Newcastle, so a swift U-turn later and we were on our way back down south. By the time we landed in Newcastle it was closer to midnight than 2210. We then couldn't disembark the plane as the terminal was too busy - so an HOUR later we had shuttle buses take us to the terminal...where we stood waiting for another 20 minutes for them to let us into the arrivals where there were 6 coaches waiting to take us the 2 hour journey north to Edinburgh.

So, on we piled to the waiting coaches and 2 hours later we arrived at Edinburgh Airport - at 0345!! I then I had to wait 15 minutes for a taxi to show up to take me home. Soo....got home just after 0430. Fun, I hear you say.....really NOT. I then had to try to explain to my work why I wasn't going to be in in the morning, which they were none too pleased at (which is sort of understandable after having a week off sick prior to the weekend - I had the flu - see previous blog!)

Anyway, back at work now, photo's of weekend are uploaded on FB and it's now just 3 weeks til I go to Australia (and more importantly, 2 weeks til I finish up at work!)

Whilst I was in Essex, we took a day trip to Colchester Zoo. Although my English buddies were complaining of the cold (they just can't hack the weather, which was warm by my standards!), it was an ace day! I have posted the following picture as it was an amazing moment, and one I'll probably not see again in my lifetime. This Tiger was just sitting looking at the path ahead of him (probably eyeing up his next dinner) and didn't mind that the 3 of us were taking photo's of it. We happened upon him when no-one else was around so we got him all to ourselves! Just simply stunning. His friend came over when we were there, so i've put his picture here too (credit to Jules for the latter).