Saying our goodbyes

Wow what a full on couple of weeks this has been. We've visited with lots of family and friends and we've had phone calls from friends wishing us safe travels. It puts into perspective that we're very fortunate to be surrounded by such wonderful people.

I haven't been well at all this week. I've come down with a horrible headcold which has knocked me for six mere days before our flight out. My hope is that Graeme doesn't catch it. He's a tough cookie and very rarely gets sick, so my fingers and toes are crossed he'll dodge this one too! I had to cut my last day of work short yesterday because of this cold which was a bit annoying, but I'm finally starting to feel a little bit better. It was weird saying goodbyes at work yesterday. It just felt like I was saying goodbye before going on a weeks holiday or something.

I can't get my head around the length of time we're going to be away. My trick has been not thinking too far ahead. I'm focusing on just getting to Vladivostok and how we're going to spend time there while we're going through the customs process. We have a list of things we want to source before we get the car so it'll be fun traipsing around trying to find these things there.

I received an email from our shipping agent today advising that the connecting ship from Busan to Vladivostok has been delayed by two days and it's new arrival date will be Sunday 24th June. We will now be arriving the same day our car arrives! So we're still on track to start customs on Monday morning. He also told us that Vladimir in the Vladivostok office is very interested in Australia and would be keen to talk to us. We've already had an email from Vladimir to say he'll definitely be in the office on Monday and is "happy to meet our guests from Australia". Awesome.

I'm also looking forward to meeting Bolot in Yakustk. It's lovely to have made these connections before we've even left our shores. How amazing is technology in connecting us the world over. Speaking of these connections, I hope Jon and Amanda from Three In a Truck enjoy reliving their adventure during the first part of our journey.

I started cleaning our house and packing our bag today. There's still a little bit to do around here and some errands to run before we leave tomorrow, but other than that everything's sweet to go. We have dinner with family again tonight which will be lovely. Mum and Steven will be dropping us off at the airport tomorrow evening for our flight to Sydney and will be taking our plants to look after them while we're away. Thanks you two for doing this for us. I'm going to try really really hard not to cry when we wave them goodbye! There's really nothing else to say at the moment. I have no doubt we'll have more to say during our stop over in South Korea. Exciting times are ahead.

Till then, до свидания! (Da svidanya - Russian for 'Goodbye')