While it is not the most exotic venue, every journey has to have a starting point, and in this case it is sunny Worthing (actually sunny today). The picture will serve as a point of comparison for future beach images we will post up. Will it be rivalled by Indonesia or Australia??

Before dad takes us to the airport tonight (which is likely to be the most stressful experience of all), Hannah plans to enjoy the things she will miss most of all: her ugg boots and her hair straighteners. This is not a mean comment, as the family members were all enjoyed sufficiently at the holiday themed party on Sunday, which got us in the mood, despite a notable chill in the air!

All errands, other than a last minute dash to Morrisons, have now been completed, and despite everyone's skepticism, our bags are both lift-up-able and still roomy!

Today we will also be practising looking in lurve, in hope of the holy grail - an upgrade on our long haul flight due to being 'newlyweds'. Nik will be in charge of winking at the check-in person to achieve this.

Nik is excited about going on the plane, however Hannah is perturbed that she will now not sleep in a bed until Thursday night (bed booked in little hotel in Bali and free airport transfer wangled, a good start).

In preparation for the 12 hour overnight stint in Bangkok before we make tracks to Bali, we watched a programme called Big Trouble in Thailand at the weekend. I learned not to leave my bag on the beach to go dancing as it will get stolen, to not let them take you to jail as once you're in, its hard to get out, and not to break a prostitute's toilet seat, as all hell will break loose. We'll keep you updated on how we get on!