Monday, 19th September

The end of the Slazenger Cup tournament (Division 2 badminton tournament between provinces in NZ) came quite quickly and suddenly I found myself having to shift into 5th gear in getting ready for the big trip with only 2 days to pack. The entire week leading up to the departure was already a stress level factor 10 not only because of the tournament, but due to the passport almost not making it in time arriving from being sent to Wellington for renewal at the Malaysian embassy.

Packed till 2am on the morning of my flight, constantly filled with that common fear everyone has during this time.. "Have I forgotten something and if I have, what is THAT something?!!" As a result of the stress leading up to this trip, the fact that I've quit my job (2 years as a lawyer in Auckland) to pursue a long lifetime dream of gallivanting all over Europe did not exactly dawn upon me until I finally strapped myself in and took a deep breath thankful for not being the last person on the plane (ok, 3rd last, but who was counting!). It wasn't my fault, it was custom, truly!

The flight to Singapore lasted 11 hours and I was conscious about every minute of it dragging ever so slowly by. I read, watched a few movies, do the things you normally do on a plane and sighed heck of a lot. It was great when we finally got to Singapore...but alas, that was only half the journey. After being in transit for 3 hours, we were off again on a separate flight to Amsterdam. 12 painful hours later and after failing to try and adjust to the European time zone, I finally arrived in Amsterdam, groggy, grumpy but also eternally grateful that the long uneventful part of the travel was at least over and the exciting part of my journey is about to begin... an ending before a beginning...

[Saying goodbyes to family and friends]