Does this always happen?

Mummy Crouch has promised a performance to beat this upon my return.

Fact of the Day

Drinking gin prevents malaria.

If Father Christmas is feeling generous.

After 3 years of uni, i think I have managed to get through easily that many cameras, if not more, after many snap happy, drunken nights out ending in the solemn disappointment of an empty, cameraless bag the morning after.

So having managed to break a couple and lose a couple, the time has come for another new camera. But this time I don't want a cheap fix, safe in the knowledge that it will be lost or broken soon anyway. I want something that will be able to handle my trip and document everything that we see.

I have been introduced to the Olypus Tough range, a seemingly indestructible range of cameras that have it covered.... waterproof, freezeproof, shockproof, Lauraproof.

http://shop.olympus.co.uk/e_commerce/digital-cameras/olympus/tough-3000-p-603-c-90.htm

I have been given a few recommendations for this one, but would be great to know what people think?

I think it will be finding its way onto my Christmas list before long.

The Scrapbook is finally born

So after a lot of talking, I've finally started making the scrapbook I'm taking with us of all our useful bits of info. So I'm sat here with a beer in one hand and pritt stick in the other. What better way to spend an evening after work...

So I introduce you to my home-made, Blue Peter style travelling bible....

I particularly liked the garish pink and white pokadot cover, I'll definitely not have any worries about losing this beast.

So anyway, I'm using this to keep track of everything that we're booking and to start recording all the amazing places to go and see that I'm reading about. I thought as we are going to SO many places it will be impossible to carry a trusty Lonely Planet for everywhere, and I'm not sure I trust myself with my BB in all these places so I'm thinking the Lonely Planet app may also have to be ditched in favor of good old pen and paper for a change.

From Visa forms to hostel bookings to safety tips to interesting article... you name it its going in.

I ended up spending several hours (when I should have been sleeping ready for another boring day of phone calls at work) ripping up my favourite copy of Lonely Planet just to populate my new book.

LOVE THIS... it basically tells me that we're going to all the best places. Just look at the front cover... snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, celebrate the carnival in Rio and cast away on a Thai island. I reckon covering 50% of the cover features in our trip isn't bad going!

I'm also going to be adding a few great articles that Hannah's sent me that may be worth a look at....

The Iguassu Falls

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/southamerica/brazil/7325718/Iguassu-falls-A-natural-wonder-of-spray-and-thunder.html

Because it appears that the Iguassu Falls are bigger and better than Niagra and Victoria, stretching longer than Niagra and being taller than Victoria.

Buenos Aires

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/southamerica/argentina/739026/Buenos-Aires-travel-guide.html

Which looks set to be one sexy city... we even get free tango lessons at our hostel!

Things are starting to get exciting now as all the boring hostel booking and visa researching is done and its just time to have a look at all the amazing things we will be getting up to!

This time in two months we'll hopefully be staring at an amazing Mayan temple or learning to scuba dive on the reef off the coast of Cancun.

The Human Pin Cushion.

So since the last installment Hannah and I have become human pin cushions since being informed that we need WAY more jabs than we were originally informed! (Hannah has very bravely taken on 3 jabs in 1 day today, I'm definitely very impressed, I wussed out and complained of feeling sick after just one last week!)

So now we have to have a grand total of... wait for it... 8 JABS before Christmas which means becoming bezzies with the nurse as we're in their every week, and parting with the best part of £250 which I for one had definitely not factored into the budgetting! But anyway, better to be safe than worrying!

So to add to the previous list is Hep B (x3) and Rabies (x3) which nicely bump up the cost and the pain ratio of these lovely little sessions.

Luckily we've managed to get LOTS of malaria tablets for free so thankfully we're covered for all of South East Asia which will save us lots of pennies, we just have to go on one beginning with c while we're in Mexico and thats our lot.

Phew my bodies going to be a machine once its pumped full of all this disease! YUM.