life in brighton

so only a few days to go before i leave town, only to return for a couple of weekends before i disappear out of the country. beginning to realise i will really miss life in brighton. obviously mostly because of the people rather than the place.. but also:
the good food - no more trips to terre a terre or la fourchette for a year, even worse no more meringues or welsh rarebit at the mock turtle as they are apparently closing?! nightmare
the fantastic trapeze classes that Mandi kindly got me into - see amusing picture of me trying to do the 'gazelle' move - whatever that is

the going out options - just last night saw an amazing show by dv8 dance company, really loved it
cycling - that pretty much anywhere is only a bicycle ride away
the scenery - walks a plenty by the sea or around the downs
the May festival - even more arty options for the diary than usual
clubbing - thank you Steve in particular for many a top night out

here's hoping i find lots of similar joys on my travels to help fill the gap

intro

ok all you keenies who are already checking this out - you might have to wait a while for this to get interesting as i haven't left the country yet! but thanks for being on the ball. have booked my flights and leave on 1st march. so just need to save my pennies and buy a few essentials, get a few jabs, a couple of visas and pack.. could also do with finding some more common sense from somewhere, and gaining some additional practical skills but hey, can't be that hard to travel the world can it?!

so the plan - in case you didn't know - is roughly (no doubt subject to much change):
fly to johannesburg, spend up to 6 weeks in mozambique visiting friends
get back to pretoria, south africa to visit friends for a week
fly to windhoek, namibia for 4 week desert trek
fly to sydney (late May) to spend time with brother Matt and family for a few months, also earning money on working visa
fly to christchurch, new zealand for october visiting friends and seeing the beauties of NZ
fly back to sydney for nov/dec travelling around oz and enjoying family christmas
fly to bangkok for month in thailand or cambodia or laos or all 3!
fly to calcutta for month in india travelling with the lovely becky crow
come home by end feb 07

it would be lovely to catch up with you before 1st march if its possible so get in touch if you haven't already. for those of you who are wondering yes i am very excited but also fairly concerned that i could end up in big trouble at some point, that i will definitely end up lonely and missing all you lovely people at some point and that christmas on the beach in hot weather is just wrong!! but still seems like the best plan for my next steps in life. i'm looking forward to my journey.