Friday 19th October:

I woke up at 3am partly thinking that I must have missed the alarm to wake me up.Part of me didn't care and in some way I hoped I had so that I wouldn't have to leave everyone behind.I knew that there's no way my Mum & Dad would have been able to stop ringing constantly if I was late so just lay there waiting for the alarm to go off.I jumped out of bed and got ready straight after the first beep so that I would be able to get in the car when Ali & Ros came to pick me up.Plans changed when they were late as Ros had to put her Make-Up on (which is a must for a 5am drop off at an airport?!) so my Mum & Dad came to pick me up from Matty's hoping that Ali & Ros would have arrived by then.I had a big cuddle from Matty and we were all ready for off.We arrived at the airport just on time.Dad dropped me off right near the door (you know how expensive airport parking is!) so it was a quick goodbye with some tears.

Check in was a nightmare, it's all electronic now so (having never used one before) got an attendant to do it for me.

My friend Ted happened to be going to Belgium and we'd arranged to meet for a beer before I boarded the plane.He was a bit later than I expected and it took ages for anyone to serve at the bar so I had to neck half a bottle of Bud before running to my Gate.

Whilst I'd been waiting for Ted my Gate No had changed so I went to the wrong one and then had a mad dash to the right one, just in time.

After getting comfy on the plane a 40 min delay was announced (which turned out to be more like 20), as we approached Heathrow we were given a 20 min delay for landing and once we had landed there was another 5 min delay, aargh! Time was going to be tight.I had to get from Terminal 1 to 4 which requires a bus ride and also collect my currency from a Travelex before I could go to my Gate.I originally had 1h 50m but with all these delays I thought there was a good chance I'd miss my flight.The bus was great and set off straight away, only taking about 15 mins.Travelex were a waste of time and it must have taken me at least half an hour to get my money from them (even though I'd already ordered and paid for it).

I still managed to get to my Gate in plenty of time, which was a huge relief as I was getting quite worked up.My flight to Kenya was fantastic.I was sat in a huge plane that had individual tv screens for everyone, very impressive.I watched Knocked Up (which is pants), Grow Your Own (better but not very funny), Jack Osbourne & my favourite, Grand Designs.I couldn't sleep and didn't do much else other than stare out the window.One of the deserts has some strange man-made circles (almost like crop circles in sand) that I would like to know more about.I also got to watch a thunderstorm from above the cloud, which was a little scary but very fascinating to see the land light up as it was struck.I think for the last half hour I watched the flight path map so I could figure out how long was left.

It was great to land there a little early when for all the rest of the day I'd had setbacks.This gave me plenty of time to fill out my Visa application and collect my suitcase without making my Auntie & Uncle wait too long.I was chuffed to get my first stamp ever in a passport.

My Auntie told me that she'd seen Dr Green from ER collect his luggage too!As I have never watched ER it didn't mean much to me.

We all set off home and I stayed up a little to talk about my journey but pretty much got an early night.