Hello,

Greetings from London and Chigwell. I've been here for just under a week now and am departing tomorrow for New York to start my trip.

It was going to be a relaxing week at home but I've been into central London to the Bodies exhibition at Earls Court with my sister, done some shopping, met up with friends for lunch and dinners, and had a trip up to Birmingham, so a lot busier than originally planned.

I've spent the afternoon desperately trying to get everything to fit into my bag which at first seemed easy but I've had to leave some stuff out, and I can just about lift the bag let along the sleeping bag and rucksack at the same time so we'll see how I manage.

Having looked at the weather for New York, it is now predicted as 42c next week so I'll be making a lot of stops in shops with air con. Unfortunately though as my bag is already stuffed I can't buy anything!

It seems odd that I should be leaving tomorrow after having planned this trip for so long. I keep going from excited about the whole thing to scared, but everybody who has been tells me that this is normal.

I'm going to add some more photos to the goodbyes photo album now and will hopefully post another postcard from New York, so until then, bye.