April 27, 2008 - May 3, 2008 Archives

1 week to go. Ahhhhhh! This project makes a big TV shoot look like a walk in the park. I'm finding myself waking up ten times a night with more things to add to the to do list.

I keep forgetting that there's actually a trip at the end of it. And that I am the Nomad. Can't wait to step on the plane. So scary. So random. So exciting. Definitely not what I thought I'd be doing 6 months ago.

Suffering from serious sleep deprivation already.

Over the past three weeks my travel agents (Toni and Helen from Clapham Common Flight Centre) and I have been through more intense highs and devastating lows than an episode of The Days of our Lives.

Three weeks of ensuring that I am traveling through the night, every night.
Three weeks of allowing enough time for check in, but not too much time that I am sitting around.
Three weeks of linking up ferries that leave Chongqing and Yiching twice a week with trains that leave Perth Wednesdays and Saturdays with camels that leave every other day with buses that only leave at 8am with houseboats that need to be picked up between 4.30 and 5pm sharp with revolving restaurants that are only open weekends with hot air balloons that are not available in the mornings with dog sleds that leave twice a month.
Three weeks of reshuffling half of the itinerary because we forgot May 12 existed.
Three weeks of emotional phone calls after one seat became unavailable.
Three weeks of starting all over again.

As a result we created the most complex itinerary known to man. After this, the trip will be a breeze. Definitely our most creative work yet. But if it wasn't for travel agent's commissions... I think I might be dead.

All this perpetual motion is also for a good cause - to create some noise about an awesome charity called Motivation. Basically, they help disabled people in poor countries get mobile. There's over 2 million people in countries like Sri Lanka who desperately need wheelchairs and another half billion who suffer from other disabilities. So check them out, and if you feel the urge give your credit card a work out. You could make a massive difference to someone's life and feel pretty good about yourself, too.

Standing in queues. One of my pet hates. I discovered the worlds longest one on my way to the Chinese Embassy. Stretching several blocks down, this line would make Elton, Paul and even Barbra blush.

An empathetic smile smeared across my face as I breezed past those poor queue-people. Roles suddenly reversed as I did the walk of shame to the end of the queue.

The rain didn't help. Neither did the fact that in 3 hours I moved, oh, about 5 feet. One and a half hours on top of that I finally left looking like a drowned sewer rat. Perfect preparation for the PR photo shoot I was most definitely going to be late for. When the photographer said that my personality wasn't coming through in the shots and that I looked like I wanted to go home, he was most definitely right.

Should have listened to my fortune cookie the night before.

Seriously exhausted. Manically running round town today sorting everything out. Credit card, travel insurance, internet dongle, sleeping tablets, locks, light weight clothes, travel hairdryer (will it make the cut?), first aid kit, malaria tablets, American dollars, self drying underwear... the list is never ending and just as long for tomorrow. The plan was to fit everything into my carry on. Just attempted packing and looks like I will be checking in. Which means changing bags at Blacks again tomorrow. Bygones.

I've been running from that name since my mum filled out the preferred name section of my high school enrolment forms. It's so Degrassi Junior High. Whatever happened to Screech? Wait, wrong quality 90's American teen show.
Ah, the London Lite. It's the only newspaper my friends actually read.
Straight to the pool room for this one...

Check out my first big press article.