Having awakened yesterday to a big dose of lurgy, I took advice from friends & got a bottle of echinacea. Happily, although I still only have one functioning nostril, I don't feel any worse this morning so am hoping for a full cure by tomorrow!

Last night I finalised my packing with the help of intrepid traveller Hannah who has just returned from a tour of Singapore, New Zealand & the US with the do's don'ts & handy tips still fresh in her mind. On a practical note, she got hold of my neatly packed hand bag, tipped the contents of the bed & questionioned the importance of each item one by one! Those deemed worthy of accompanying me on the trip were returned to said bag and the unnecessaries were outed as I agreed that actually, they weren't really necessary.

My main issue is the weight of my cabin bag, as once filled with cameras, lenses, chargers, batteries & other photography paraphernalia I'm pretty certain it exceeds the allowed 7kg limit! However, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, as these items are all definites & not even Hannah could persuade me to leave any of them behind! Also, I refuse to put anything of major importance to the trip in to the hold, having once arrived in Turkey to discover that my suitcase had mysteriously taken a diffferent flight & only turned up the day before I left the country, so I figure as long as I have my camera gear, everything else can be replaced & anyway, wearing your boyfriends clothes is apparently quite trendy (though not so sure about his shirts!).

Today will involve a final bit of editing, a few last minute buys & a trip to the hairdressers which will hopefully relax me as I'm pretty sure the stress of getting everything done has probably lowered my immune system allowing the lurgy to get in. Hopefully then, Lee & I can sit down this evening, finally take a breath & contemplate the next 5 weeks :)