3 months and counting

The clock is ticking. Moving house is complete but we're still in disarray, the only plus point being we're now in a bigger place so can close the spare bedroom door and pretend it's not piled high with boxes!

Moving was a mission, and one we couldn't have managed without the amazing help of Laura, Craig, Jennie, Lucy and Kev. It looked for a second like it was going to be me and three girls trying to move everything, which given the impressive box-lugging strength displayed might have actually worked out ok - but thankfully it didn't come to that.

We're still internetless (writing this on my phone) and I unfortunately missed the latest conference call for the rally. Starting to get nervous now that we're not further on in our plans. We may have the chance of a vehicle but it's all up in the air at the moment. Visas have not been applied for yet, but that may not be a bad thing as the unrest in Kyrgyzstan means we may have to change our route. It's awful watching the coverage on tv - despite not having been to the country I have read so much about it the names and references actually mean something to me now; it's one of the countries which was inked into our itinerary, such is the warmth of the writing about its landscape & people, and we are planning on a not insignificant detour to allow us to visit en route to Mongolia. The scenes of bloodshed on the streets of Bishkek are distressing and I hope that calm can be restored without further deaths.

We have to monitor the situation and make the call in a few weeks when the visa applications go off. In the meantime, we have a lot of work to do.