Four days to go...

Only four days to go till I hit the sunny sands of California! We're flying out of Gatwick early on Saturday morning and I can't wait. Who would have thought going on holiday could be so stressful though? I'm beside myself making sure everything is organised - hotels in four different cities, rental cars, insurance, tickets for various events, etc etc. Lets not even get started on packing. I might need another holiday to get over this one! It's the longest one I would have had in ages though. Since moving to the UK I have been the queen of mini breaks - managing to see countless cities and countries on weekenders and four dayers. My longest holidays have been only a week or 10 days, so I'm relishing two whole weeks of relaxation. I just hope Paul and I don't kill eachother - living together and holidaying for two weeks together are two different things! :)

We're flying out of Gatwick, so will avoid the protests going on at Heathrow against the construction of a new runway and the consequent affects on climate change. While so many people are bagging out the protestors and dismissing them as 'dirty, troublesome hippies' I for one are thankful that there are people out there making a stand when so many of us are too lazy to bother. As a traveller in complete appreciation of the wonders of seeing other places and countries, I still feel guilty about the impact all my air travel in the past year has had on the environment. And I think more measures should be put in place to reduce these impacts - and of course it is major operators like BA, other airlines and major airports need to think more about. Sure, I am feeding the market just as much as other people, but we use these services because they are available to us. If Heathrow needs to build another airport to relieve congestion - fine. If it's going to result in even more opportunities for air travel and more airlines, then no, it's not. Maybe we'll all just have to learn to take the train more instead.