So, one week to go and as you can expect I am running round like a headless chicken! I have about a months worth of tasks to do and seven days to do them in, I mean I'm no maths genius, but that does not add up! Call centres have become a regular daily task for me and as a consequence I occasionally find myself dancing to the hold music, sad I know, but Halifax international centre have some tunes!

Being the organised person I am (HA!) I have put together a rather extensive packing list that is three pages long. I genuinely think that packing a bag for a year under 20kg should be some sort of Olympic sport, it sorta sends you in to brain meltdown, but I've found enough ice cream counteracts the problem. (Real scientific fact)

A few people have told me that getting shoes over a size 9 is almost impossible in China; they just aren't that big. I have decided that I can live without some things for a while (Shaving foam etc. that I can get there) and have instead decided to allocate a large amount of room just to footwear. So if anyone has seen me running round the shoe section in Primark like some sort of gremlin, I apologise to you, and also to the kids that got in my way, who knew I had the strength to throw a child out a window!? You learn something new everyday I suppose…

My exact leaving date is next Wednesday (the 20th) at 5:00pm from Heathrow, but I will be traveling to London the day before with my parents as it's far easier than doing it all in one day. So if you want to chase my train and sob wildly as I pull off the platform (I'm sure you all want to be doing that) that's the day to be doing it!

As I'm sure you can tell from the numerous exclamation marks I am extremely excited now! This was magnified when I found out we're in Beijing for 9 days at the start of the trip as opposed to the original 4 days, how exciting? We'll spend said 9 days doing a few different things such as language courses, meeting officials, acclimatising etc.

With excitement, obviously come nerves. These nerves seem to change drastically from day to day, one day I'm almost not nervous at all but the next I'm really nervous. Saying that the nerves usually come about when I realise I'm doing something I can't do in china, like eating a chocolate bar that doesn't contain live bugs, or looking at a dog without licking my lips. (I do of course joke, I could never eat a dog)

Until next time, peace out!