Headline: Girl leaves the UK for 1st leg in Nigeria

Yes folks, today is D-day. As I write this my bags are packed, my taxi is booked and I have enough Immodium in my bag to cure a continent's worth of diahorrea! I have 10 million messages to deliver from fellow ex-pat Nigerians and two suitcases for my mother that contain all manner of kitchen utensils and baked beans (go figure!). I have in the last two days had my fair share of drama putting this Nigeria trip in peril, however I have persevered (see my previous blog) and I'm leaving on a midnight plane to Abuja (literally; we arrive at 5am in the morning).

The other very large bit of news is that I paid the final price of my round the world ticket! Woohoo I hear you cry! So did I, after I finished crying as £1800 made its way out of my bank account into the coffers of British Airways. I need to update the map below a little, but don't have time right now, I shall make sure to do it hence forth! So for those of you wanting, thinking, secretly hoping or madly plotting to do as I am doing, I add some ticket information for you.

The ticket I have is the One World (alliance including BA) Round the World ticket. I am covering 4 continents which is a basic price of £1389. My taxes come to £305 (these are calculated depending on where you want to stop) and the wonderful people (specifically Derreck) at Trailfinders get £100 for their troubles. The ticket allows 4 flights per continent, but unfortunately it does count you making your own way between two points as a 'flight segment'. Jammy Buggers. You can go forwards in any direction, but not backwards and if you leave a continent you can only come back for a maximum 24hr stop-over for flight transfers. I can change the dates I've booked any time for free but to change destinations or add extra stops I pay £75. Not bad I hear you say, well I agree!

So complicated bits over, here are my stops in order; Jamaica - own way around the Caribbean - Mexico - Ecuador - Peru - Brazil - Japan - Thailand - own way down through Malaysia - Singapore - Hong Kong and home! I've found a varied number of local carriers for decent prices that will take me around the Caribbean, Peru and Brazil and also some good recommendations for coach companies for Mexico and Thailand. It's going to be one hell of an adventure!

Travel insurance cost me £90 which is a bargain from Insure and Go; a lot of other 'Backpacker' insurance that I found were selling extortionate premiums for insuring the equivalent of a mobile media lab. Since I'm only taking my camera and iPod in the way of technology (mobile phone doesn't count) then I don't need to pay a £250 premium. I must say, anyone who plans on taking anything more will find they probably won't use their laptop, PDA, GPS system, Walkie talkie or any other kind of pointless communication device!

In conclusion, I'm ready!! All things being equal it's all in place, and I shan't be back in the UK for a while! My next blog will be coming to you live and in colour from Nigeria! I'll see if I can throw in some phonetic content to give you a flavour of the pidgeon English!

The countdown begins...

Well actually the countdown began a while back but I'm pretty damn useless at getting myself sorted and updating this blog!

So...firstly...AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!! Ok, so I'm sh*tting bricks about this now. I mean its all very well and good trying to convince myself that this was always a great idea and I should be excited, but lets look at this objectively:

1. I'm Nigerian.
2. I'm my father's daughter
3. Why in the hell am I galavanting round the world when I should be working for an Investment Bank and thinking about getting married to a nice Nigerian boy called Olu?!

On the flipside, I remember I am my mother's daughter, i.e. no-one is going to stop me from getting on that plane; including myself! And so, as the title of this blog states, the countdown begins.

I know I haven't left yet but I have to thank everyone I've spoken to this year for getting me to this point; both those who supported me and the ones who didn't. I'm a real believer in putting the things you want to happen out there. Obviously, it doesn't pay to expose yourself to sabotage and or idea theft(!), but there are some things you need to publicise to make them happen. There are so many reasons for this in my experience; primarily, the world is about kinetic energy (stay with me). Now I haven't really done much reading into exactly how this works or manifests, but its easy to see how we create our environments,we direct our own futures and therefore we must also bring about your own desires. So if you let it be known what you want to do, and it is genuine, then it makes sense you will gravitate towards it (a year later and the Alchemist is still all up in my vocabulary!).

Speaking slightly less spiritually, there is also the whole thing about telling someone you're doing something, not doing it and the next time they see you hanging around the Whitgift Centre* they think...what a plonker! That is the kind of shame I am definitely not interested in feeling!

It may seem odd that those who didn't support me also get a mention in my appreciation, but they do. I am stubborn as hell; a combination of the Nigerian in me, add to that being a Leo, having a Nigerian father who Sadam would be scared of and being just a teeny weeny bit opinionated. The end result is that everytime someone has looked at me like I'm mad, sick, or devoid of my own tradition when my trip comes up, I get a lil bit of fire going in my belly that either makes me want to kick the crap out of them (Ally McBeal stylie) or prove them wrong. So there it is, thanks.

So I leave on Boxing Day, first stop Nigeria....now that is gonna make for an interesting blog post! I've got a draft title in mind..."Anglo-Nigerian dreams of elaborate homecoming and gets a rude awakening Lagos style!"

*Whitgift Centre - super chav shopping centre in Croydon. Nuff said.

My potential route...

I've had many queries about where I'm going and for how long and so forth. Usually, I can answer the questions about where I'm going, how long is a totally different matter which I doubt I'll be able to answer till I get to where I'm going. Anyway, regarding the where I'm going, I've done some digging around potential ticket prices (which in fairness are really not as expensive as you think) and made some decisions on where I might go.

To give you an idea of what I'm looking at; STA travel do a round the world ticket for about £1400 (inc tax) for the period I am leaving (end January 2008). This ticket includes 7 stops with no penalties if you land in one place and take off for the next somewhere totally different. So you can still extend the 7 stops if you can get some cheap air fares or trains between locations. British Airways and other OneWorld alliance partners can provide a 4 continent ticket, which allows you four stops within each continent for about £1800 (inc tax). This isn't too bad, but so far the less than capable people I've spoken to at BA can't tell me if there are penalties for leaving from a different location to the one you landed in. Guess we know what that means!

So what is a girl to do? Well, this girl is going to go for the most flexible and cheapest option! STA travel wins the day! All going well, I will be finalising my itenary shortly and I can't wait! Its another step forward which means this little niggle of anticipation mixed with fear will probably step up a notch, but will also have to accept that there is no going back!

So, to give you guys a little taster, here is a map of where I think I'm going. Please, no applause for the more than excellent graphic design skills, its fabulous I know, that I can produce such magnificence at 1am on a Saturday morning. Its ok....my brilliance defeats even me....

A blog about blogs

An interesting discussion came up at work yesterday (oh by the way, this is a slight diversion from my travelling topic) about blogging. What makes people want to blog? Or more appropriately what makes some people hesitant to blog. I know I set up this blog as a means of communicating my jaunt across the globe, but if I'm being honest, that simply gave me a good reason to do something I've secretly wanted to do for a while.

Is it like keeping a diary? I don't know. I have tried and failed several times in my life to keep a diary, so there may be some question as to how long my commitment to this will last (it has been 2 weeks since my last post). This is a really public platform for personal thoughts, its on the www, anybody can see it. So why am I so comfortable with it?

Maybe there is some strange shift out there in the world of moral privacy that is allowing people like myself to think we can do this and remain private individuals (I'm pretty sure I will always think of myself as a private person). Or maybe I'm slightly deluded. Would I be offended if someone took an extract from my blog and sent it around the globe on an email forward? In all honesty I probably would...but do I have the right to be offended? I put myself here, there is no restriction on who can access this and I knew that when I signed up.

Some say, us designers and tech-folk all across the globe should be thinking about these types of quasi-ethical implications of the things we design. Maybe, but then again, if I'm not thinking about where my boundries are now that I am a blogger, can I be outraged or offended if someone takes it upon themselves to extend my reach? I don't have an answer. All I can truly say, is that people are dichotomous, we want to be out there and accessible, but just as long as you don't come too close or I don't embarass myself or my family, or I don't get sued for offending someone else or I'm not heckled for being boring, or I'm not forgotten in the dungeons of the www, or a million other 'or' statements that I think caveat my prescence here.

Deluded may just be the right word after all.

Planning is underway

I bought a map! Many thanks to whoever it was at WHSmiths who decided to price a very large insight atlas at £5!

So I've been checking out where I'm going and how I'm getting, there, it isn't easy though. Seems like the logistical input required for things like this is absolutely crazy! I keep making notes after notes after notes!

I did have some amusement however when I went on the FCO website. You'd think that they never want you to leave the country. Well, I'm not easily scared, if I was I wouldn't be living in Thornton Heath! Watch this space for useful links and information that I come across.

May the Bloggin Begin..

I've joined the masses, my very first blog post, I am no longer a blog virgin. I've wanted to do this for some time, but didn't have any idea what I would blog about. Fate, was on my side however, and now I can blog to my heart's content about my travels around the globe.

If you haven't read The Alchemist or anything else by Paulo Coelho, then I suggest you go forth now to a bookshop or a library or give your old friend Amazon a tip tap, sit down and get ready to be inspired as I was January 2007. Paulo can take full responsibility for providing the swift kick up the arse that I needed to commit.

I have always thought about travelling; being brought up in a nomadic family will do that to you. So now, October 2007, we have 3 months to kick off. I haven't booked a single thing yet, but I know I'm going!

People be warned, this blog may be confirmation of what you have always suspected about me, that I'm a bit of a geek, possibly also a bit weird. But I hope it also give you a little bit of inspiration to go and find your own treasure and start the journey towards it.