It was a relatively chill day today, really. I did most of my packing yesterday but had a few things to do today! I did struggle to sleep last night. I think I have pre-travel jitters, but I know I will be fine when we get there, so I only had about five hours of sleep, which isn’t brilliant! First things first, a trip to Lakeside!

As I said yesterday, my parents told me of a surprise birthday and Christmas present: a MacBook Air! They bought it for me, and today I went and got it! So I left home around 0915 and made good time to Lakeside. I got there in about 35 minutes! First things first, it was time for a coffee! As many of you know, I love my coffee, and Starbucks is my favourite, so I sat there and grabbed my first Christmas drink: Toffee Nut Latte. It was awesome! I sat there, took in the atmosphere, and actually really began to relax, which is impressive as I have struggled the last few weeks!

Once I had enjoyed my coffee, I headed to the Apple Store to pick up my MacBook Air! The staff were really friendly and helpful! After that, I headed to M&S as I needed to grab lunch as mum was heading to my sister-in-law’s baby shower, as my sister-in-law is due at the end of December. Here is a picture of the table!

Mum was there the whole time, and it lasted about three hours! I headed home and started to set up my MacBook Air. Let me tell you, it is fantastic! I love it! It will help massively with updating my blog for our trip and doesn’t make a racket! I spent 3 hours setting everything up! During that time, the final bits arrived for my pack: my facewash and a pair of swimming shorts as I will need them this time for Discovery Cove, and I WANT to go to the swimming pool on site as I missed out last time due to self-image issues, I will push myself to go there this time!

When Mum returned, we checked into our hotel room for tomorrow at Hilton Garden Inn; we are on the 4th floor, so, look forward to a room tour tomorrow! With that out of the way, I was finally done! I packed everything and triple-checked that I had everything. I will do a final check tomorrow before we leave for the hotel! We had dinner, and I had a fairly chilled evening!

And with that, we are ready to go! We are flight-ready, packed, have all our documents, and are ready to go! I cannot believe how quickly this has come up! It feels like yesterday I was saying 100 days to go! Tomorrow will be my pre-travel day. I will take you with us as we head to the Hilton Garden Inn at Heathrow, where we will be ready for our flights!

Let’s do this!!

First things first, let’s get my suitcase and open it up! As I said at the beginning, I am very new to long-haul holidays, and what I need to pack, I chose this suitcase as it had good reviews and stated it was big enough for two weeks holiday, plus it’s red, and that is my favourite colour!

I have also activated my Apple AirTag and placed it in the netted part of the suitcase this is so that I can keep an eye on my case in case it goes missing and to make sure it’s in the right place! I chose the AirTag because it connects to iPhones worldwide. In America, they mostly use iPhones due to the iMessage feature to communicate, so it should be easily located should it get lost!

So now that the basics are sorted, it’s time for me to begin packing! I am taking a bigger towel with me, as usually hotel towels are pretty small! I started packing my pants and socks, ensuring I counted as I went. At least at the Aventura hotel, they have washing facilities, so I can wash stuff if I am short! You can see my blue towel at the back there! I need to write a list to ensure I have everything I need! I also have some trainer socks there for my shorts as socks and shorts don’t go!!

Now finally, today, I need to pack my shirts; I found out while I was doing this that I have primarily black shirts!! So will probably warm up like an oven while I am out there, but oh well! While doing this, I ensured I had enough clothes for the next few days, which would be pretty embarrassing!! I folded my shirts so all 14 shirts would fit on the right-hand side of the case. That way, I can leave the top part with other things I need, like chargers, wash bags and so on! I think it looks pretty neat! I have also added my travel adaptors to the netted bit of the suitcase.

This took me most of the morning, with me being inexperienced, but I think it turned out alright; I had some family come around in the afternoon. Hence, I could not do all of it, but tomorrow I need to head out to the supermarket for the last few bits I need, like pyjamas and some wash stuff to take with me. So join me tomorrow for part two!! I am getting excited now! My Auntie and Uncle gave me some solid advice for managing my trip next week which has helped reduce my stress a little! Also, weirdly I had an email from British Airways saying I am booked on their flight which is weird as they cancelled my flight in September. I have checked my Virgin Atlantic ticket, and it shows me on that flight, so god knows what will happen on Tuesday! I don’t feel too stressed, as it will work itself out in the end!

Anyway, thanks for following along – see you tomorrow for part two!