Wow, katie, this blog just gets better and better, its entertaining and education, its like an adult sesame street :D

Keep enjoying it though Katie and keep us informed, p.s. I was watching the Beach again last night and thought of you, have you been to places that are really like that????

I'm also having some considerable difficulty believing only 7 people die on Delhi's roads each day.Maybe seven people per street is the figure you're getting confused with.

I am very very glad you are enjoying your first taste of India. I think Kochi is a brilliant place to start.It's relatively clean and affluent compared to the rest of India and a lot more chilled out. It was voted the best city to live in India in 2007 so it has to have something going for it.I am also delighted that your taxi driver didn't try to scam you by taking you to a 'tourist information' office to be told you may well be hanged by lawless mobs if you don't hand over your money and transport yourself to another city (http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=203279&go=snowy).That's always a good start.

I am so so so excited you are in India! However, my altruistic excitement levels are only marginally greater than my feelings of pure jealousy, which, I assure you, are ugly and resentful to the core.

On a separate note, I feel I would not be doing my duty as self-pointed arbiter of social justice by allowing Big Andy's attempts to undermine my credibility following the Greater Manchester Earthquake Disaster 2008 to go unpunished.I would therefore like to add an extra word to his weekly spelling list, which I'm sure will baffle and dumbfound him with its infinite complexity: you're.

I would like to thank you for regularly updating you blog and therefore helping to waste my afternoons at work. Glad to hear your enjoying India so far, I hope you have no need for those anitbiotics !!!

I must point out that Mark is being a complete drama queen about the earthquake. I'm not even in england but I sick of people saying how abad it was. Literally someone's shed fell over and that was it, calm down.

I won't be around when your back in England as I will be in Romania for some of it and the remainder, I will have the pleasure of hosting Mr Breeze, Mrs Duhan and Mrs Thompson a la Brussels for a weekend which should be ace.

Have fun x

What makes you think you can come and stay in our 5 star hotel if you have no money??

I was lying in bed in the dark still laughing at that photo last night.

Congratulations on the completion of the second chapter of the world tour, some amazing experiences in NZ and I'm sure there's plenty more to come in India. Keep us all green with envy with the blog and photos, the photos seem to entertain Carly a great amount ( I completely agree with your comments on the bungy photo Carly - quite amusing). Have a great time in India!! Love Matt xxxx

Hi Katie, sorry you won't be going to OZ, it's a lovely country,but plenty of time in the future I guess. In India, on a tour we discovered the only ones who didn't get 'Delhi belly' were those that ate curries all the time (not difficult in that country except I 'm not keen on them) Actually I think now it was Ceylon (ok Sri Lanka, but it was Ceylon then!) but I suppose the principle is the same. I found the extreme poverty and contrasting wealth rather hard to stomach, but it's a fascinating country all the same. Don't forget what I said if you have problems ! Love AJ

Katie, by 'Matt' you obviously mean Me, Carly, Amy, your Mum and Dad and Jenny, right? Thought so. Knew I'd have to read between the lines.

Amy - if you EVER read this you 'working' person with very little time to read t'internet, we could have a two-stage birthday for yourself? One leg near (or even in god forbid) Aylesbury so that the Warl and Katie and Kat can be along - I don't think we've been together all five for long long time!

Katie I think your decision about coming home for a bit is wise. Mainly because being away by yourself is a great time to make strong decisions, and as you know what you want, well done for going ahead and organising it. Plus it is well thought out and makes sense.

Right, on to me. My friend from Canada (Luke) was over so I've been taking him all around; did I tell you I went to Dublin? I think so. I don't think I told you that we stayed with my other friend from Korea (mai) who is also Canadian (who I went to Vietnam with). We only had two nights together, and on the second night she decided she wanted to leave us to go and get laid with some guy (who she'd been dating and we'd had the 'pleasure' of eating dinner with). Not amused. I was also unamused because she'd run around all her friends to find a pair of heels for me because she was distraught that I was goign out into Dublin city centre for dinner and drinks in a pair of flats. So later on after she'd dumped us, and Luke and I were walking to find a taxi I said 'I want to take off my heel and stab it through her eye, my feet hurt so f***ing much in these f***ing heels' (Excuse language, I was in a lot of pain). Luke didn't quite realise I was (semi) joking, and so said to Mai the next day 'Ele is really annoyed with you. She said last night she wants to hit you with her shoe'. Luke was not joking, and didn't think I was joking. He was, indeed, telling tales. What, Luke, are you five years old????

After that I took him to London and we had a few days there; all good. Last weekend I went to Manchester to play the old girl's rugby match; was up til five a.m. the night before with an old uni friend so played the worst game of rugby EVER and thought I was going to DIE, only to finish playing, shower, and head to the pub. Next weekend I'm off to see Andy Hughes for his birthday in Nottingham, but inbetween times it is STUDY STUDY STUDY from now until... forever, as I have three assessed essays then exams then begin dissertation. Whoop!

See you in the bury, Mancock.

Just looked and burst out laughing again. That is going to be my screensaver!!!!!!!

Once again I find myself crying with laughter- this time at the facial expression you are pulling just before the bungee jump.

Your thought process appears to be "smile- I think to do that you have to press your teeth together- I can't remember. I think I am paralysed. If I just give a thumbs up, they will be convinced of my... erm, how am I supposed to be feeling? I have forgotten how to feel. I am numb. Oh crap."

Still laughing!!!!!!!! Best face ever!!!!!! Oh yeah, the estate agent today wrote "dubble bed" on my inventory. I had to sit on my hands and bite my tongue.

Over and out! xxx

Hello F-a-L. I hope you understand this reference. Yout message made me laugh until I almost cried today, I hope you finished the entire book, and the blurb, and the publishing details, and gave the spine a good read too.

There was a man with a queenstown bungy jump hoodie on today (at the same time as the underground fire) and I was so busy texting to tell you, I missed the fact that the train was on fire and looked up to see everyone all running for their lives, and smoke pluming out behind me. People were literally nearly climbing all over each other , and the transport staff were running and dallying about like excited animated puppets, everyone was so loving the drama. I remained calm and sent the text, then ran for my life and joined in the farce too.

Went to Berlin last week and it was a bit of a whirlwind. Had a look in the thailand book too and there are lots of suggestions this end- but I think the scuba diving sounds amazing so if we can fit this in in our joint week I would love you forever. Also, I want to see the girl who is too scared to put her face in the water in a sink jump like a million feet into the sea, it will be quite a transformation! Also, there is a bit in the south you can go to and cross the border to Burma, we should do it just for the stamp in the passport and the thrill of the chase with the Junta through the forests.

Only joking Katie's family.

On a separate note, having survived such a life-threatening fire only hours ago, you lot and your earthquake. I felt a better one in Japan. That was REAL fear, you will never understand it, so don't even try. So take your lincoln earthquake and get some balls you lot.

He he, it was only a matter of time before the niceties ended and the banter began.

Love you so much! Safe crossing to India. I am so SO jealous!! C xxx

Hello Katie,

In repsonse to your Facebook enquiry, the phone signal in most parts of India is very good indeed, given the general Indian obsession with telecoms. A lot of the time, the region you are in will appear underneath your operator logo and in some places in Delhi, it will even tell you which street you are in!

You will be pleased to know that your worries about internet pricing are about to come to a very abrupt end as very few places will charge you any more than 40p per hour and there is plenty of internet availability. For more information on all things India, I would heartily recommend you revisit the award-winning www.getjealous.com/snowy, which I have heard through the internet grapevine was written by a master of our age.

I am extremely proud of you for doing the bungy jump thing. However, I'm not sure it was quite as scary as our earthquake. At first, I thought a nuclear bomb had gone off, but then when it dawned on me that I hadn't been instantly vapourised, I momentarily moved on to the theory that a Boeing 747 had just crashed into the house. I literally thought my walls were going to collapse on my bed and I was going to die in the rubble. Thankfully, I haved survived to live another day.

(By the way, I now have a webcam so you shall be able to see my youthful visage when we are next both online! However, I have been having paranoid thoughts that the CIA have hacked in to my computer and are spying on me through it, 1984 style.)

xxx