Shake and Shake the Ketchup Bottle... None'll Come and then the Lot'le!

Well. Talk about a baptism by fire!

Plane landed in Heathrow 40 minutes early... which I made up for by waiting for Vicky and Craig who were stuck in traffic (four lanes of it! In both directions!)

... Vicky and Craig live in a proper English semi-detached cottage! :) I have a basin in my bedroom, it's awesome!

The first night we went out for tea to a local Turkish Grill - t'was nommy! And then blissful bedtime!

Saturday was spent preparing for the Big Kennedy BBQ (16 people!)... I had a good time wandering around Sainsbury's looking at all the different things... And some familiar ones... Sacred Hill wine cheaper than at home, for example...

I always thought that the British Pound spent like the New Zealand Dollar in that if you pay 3.50NZD for a cup of coffee in NZ you'd pay 3.50GBP in the UK for the same cup of coffee (thus, everything's kind of twice the price for me) but in reality you'd pay 2.00GBP for that cup off coffee (not that I've actually had any coffee since I left home (!) )... So things are slightly cheaper than I expected... Which is nice!

At the BBQ there were 11 Kenedy/Saunders/Morgans plus 4 family friends + me! It was really lovely to see everybody for the first time in 8 years! Boy, was I exhausted afterwards, though!

A proper, English BBQ with table cloths and all!

Then, yesterday I spent with Bethan in London... first she met me off the tube at Turnpike Station and I met the lovely Marion. Bethan and I chatted easily for about an hour while Marion made roast beef for lunch... Yum! :)

After lunch Marion dropped us back at the station and Bethan guided me to Embankment where we walked, and talked all the way over the Thames and to the Tower Bridge.

Bethan opposite the London Eye

There were so many people! I could really tell that more people live in London than the whole of New Zealand... and next time I go in I'd definitely like a smaller bag!

The Tower Bridge taken from the London Bridge

I have today off, as it were, and I'm sitting in Vicky and Craig's garden, working on my sun-tan! This evening Vicky's shouting me a pedicure! :)

Travel Tip for the post: Big bags in big cities are a bad idea... they're heavy and you're constantly worrying about the shady-looking person next to you... take a smaller bag that you can easily swing into a protected position!

Until next time!
xx Kat

Hong Kong

I am now, briefly in Hong Kong... Hong Kong International Airport has free wifi (*glares malevolently at Auckland International Airport*) - I mean, seriously?! The hell kind of airport doesn't provide free wifi in this day and age?!

That said, a rather large part of me wishes that I didn't have to have my laptop with me at all... Samwise is a HEAVY beast!

The flight over from Auckland was fairly uneventful... I slept for most of it (yay!) and woke up only for the meals (dinner and breakfast) because... well, I'm me, and meals are important!

Beef stew with mash and peas. A warm (!) bread roll... pasta salad and weird cake thing.  Cheese and crackers... and a glass of lumpy OJ - om nom nom!

For dinner I had a beef (and red wine?) stew with (cheesy?) mashed potatoes and peas... there was also a pasta salad (I ate the lettuce out of it) and a weird cake thing with whipped cream... but I didn't finish either of them... I've saved the cheese and crackers to snack on now while I wait for my next boarding call...

Breakfast was fun... I could chose either scrambled eggs with baked beans or hotcakes with white chocolate, fruit compote and vanilla syrup... no prizes for guess my choice there! Mummy and Daddy, you'll be pleased to know that I ate the accompanying fruit salad first... I didn't have room for all my breakfast either!

Hotcakes with white chocolate, berry compote and vanilla syrup... Served with fruit salad and berry yoghurt. Washed down with OJ, Chinese Tea and cold water - yum!

As I said before, the flight was uneventful - but it was the most turbulent long-haul flight I've ever flown!

Now, for a little light facebooking and a little wander to find a drinking fountain...

See you next from London!

xx Kat

Square One - We Meet Again!

And so, it has come to this... I am weighing my knickers on the kitchen scales...

Because knicker-weighing is how all normal people pack!

(My Mother would like me to assure y'all that these are clean knickers that I'm weighing with her kitchen scales)

It all started out when... having packed my clothes (which I'd already paired down from want to would-really-quite-like-to-take to what I thought was "essential") I'd filled only half my suitcase... I decided to weigh the case (we have a special suitcase-weigher) to see where I was at... Well, let me tell you where I was at: 22kg. And what is my total weight limit? 23kg.

Cause for mass panic and no small amount of tantruming...

Now... 36 hours and a different (slightly smaller/lighter/more rickety) suitcase later I am at 23.3kg and hoping that AirNZ will let me get away with it... Pleeease!!!

It's amazing what is/isn't truly necessary when you're truly desperate for space!

And before you tell me - as almost everyone has... get rid of a pair of shoes or two... I'm only taking 3 pairs! And I'll be wearing one pair of 'em on the plane! I've got me Chuck's (plane shoes), a pair of running shoes for when I go to Frisky and Sweaty and one (just one!) pair of silly, but beautiful high heels... because a girl's gotta allow herself to feel pretty from time-to-time!

But my Travel Tip for this post... would have to be "seriously, weigh your knickers (and everything else)" you may feel silly at the time but I've probably cut a total of 15kg out of my suitcase by making weight-based decisions!

Until next time... Kat xx

13 sleeps to go...

So! I'm two weeks out from leaving for London and the start of my Biggest Adventure to date...

There are so many things in my life (in everybody's lives) where I've said "I'd love to do..." and I've not done it... and here I am a little over 18 months after waking up and thinking "Sweden. Sweden would be an awesome place to go..." and I'm actually going!

There were a few rigmaroles which had to be lived through to get to this point but I am Here and I'm actually going to Sweden! How cool is that?!

I'm fairly sure I'm up-to-date on most of my e-mailing/paperwork requirements... I think.

But my List of Things to Do Before I Go is still pretty huge...

• pack
• have a tea party
• e-mail family members to work out what I'll be up to in London
• panic a little
• get a family photo
• see my Grandma
• panic a bit more
• double check all my paper work and pick up my ticket from London to Stockholm
• work out how to get from Stockholm to Uppsala/Flogsta (in practice - I understand the theory!)
• panic a lot
• tidy my room
• clean my room
• clean my bathroom
• actually pack
• PANIC
• etc... etc... etc...

Today I'm starting to prepare for my 25+ hours of flying (plus 5 ish hours in transit) I'm taking immunofort to help prepare my immune system for the germ-y aeroplanes... and I'm starting to really concentrate on my hydration... both internal and external... Water, moisturiser and I are taking our relationship from BFF to SBFF4E (super BFFs 4 evah!!!) I dun wanna dry out!

But what am I actually doing? Well I'm blogging this... and I've just discovered Janet Evanovich (I know, I know - took me long enough!)

But I'll get there eventually! And my sanity will surely follow...

Xx Kat