Forget 501 things to do before you die, let me fill you in on the best way to spend 13.5 hours of your life. Start with the most wonderful hosts dropping you off at the bus station to find the bus on time, the driver a little cranky about me having two bags rather than the Megabus standard of one, and a departure that left on time at 12noon. Proceed to the US border on time too, get through there unscathed, apart from having my oranges confiscated. Not happy, th...

Monday saw a visit to Joe Fresh, followed by lunch at Mr Baghdad's place in the mall for falafel, a couple of which were complimentary as Margaret and Daniel knew the aforementioned owner whose name isn't actually Mr Baghdad. More shopping in GAP and Old Navy, but no purchases in the overpriced Tall Girl store. Silly prices. We made sure we weren't back too late, as we went to the local cinema to watch a French film called 'Conversations with My Gardener'. A subt...

Is it weird to worry about speaking to your own parents? Margaret said they had a good plan for calling the UK and so I could call Mum and Dad if I wanted, but my initial feeling was fear. Not sure what to say after all these months, particularly as the last time I spoke to the them I broke down crying and Mum thought the phone had broken! After an initial try at 10.30am when they didn't pick up and the answer phone was full to the brim I eventually got through ...

After 124 days living out of my backpack it was heaven to step into a clean, cockroach-free, warm shower at Lorne Park. Absolute heaven. Not only was I clean, but I had fruit and vegetables, on crockery and with real cutlery. Not a paper plate or plastic fork in sight. Did I mention it was a little like heaven? Whilst these experiences were quite enough to keep me happy Margaret and Daniel treated me to a belated birthday dinner at a French Bistro near their hom...

It's fair to say that my second encounter with Megabus was even worse than my first: not only did the bus fail to turn up until forty-five minutes after it was due, but this load was almost full, meaning I had to stand amongst pigeon poop and native New Yorkers with my backpack at capacity and my newly acquired hand luggage digging into my shoulder. Okay so the latter was the fault of Megabus, but they're the ones who positioned their pick-up point in a vast open...