And so to Oz...(via Dubai)

And so, the end is near and as I face the final curtain that is the 7 hour flight to Dubai, I really bloody don't want to go.

Mainly, however, because I can't be fagged to pack my backpack and head for the hills.

I've had an awesome, awesome time back in Blighty though.

Last weekend I saw some of my best friends in London for Lizzie's birthday. An awesome theme (Superheroes and stars) got us all dressing up and in the mood for a bit of wine-fuelled catching up.

You know you have fantastic friends when you just fall back into conversation with them as easily as if you'd been speaking to them the previous day.

And catching up with Leah and Polly, two school friends who I haven't seen for yonks, was also like that. A picnic on a scorching hot day in a gated park in west London soon got us up-to-speed as we ever were on the comings and goings.

I met my brother Jonathan in town on Sunday and we watched a bit of the London marathon, wandered over the Thames and along south bank watching the budgie man (really, really weird) and having a drink at the Tate Modern.

After checking out his bachelor pad in Islington, we met Sally Seex for a flipping great curry at Rooburoo's on Chapel Market.

Then it was back to Gloucestershire.

The weather has been stunning during nearly all of my stay - warm, sunny, sometimes a bit fresh and sometimes as hot as a summer's day. It has meant drinks in pub gardens, tea in mum's courtyard and lazing around on the banks of the Thames in Oxford.

Craig and I popped to Oxford for the day on Wednesday and spent a perfect day just wandering and drinking coffee, having lunch at Europe's oldest coffee house, and sitting in Christchurch meadow in the sun.

We went to see Beth in her house in Jerico for a glass of vino and then headed to my brother Kieran's beautiful Cotswold stone cottage in Charlbury, a village north of the town.

After a spot of top nosh and a beer, we headed to a local pub with his friend Kate to watch a very, very serious musician do his all-American country, bluesy, I-don't-know-what guitar playing. Managing to get quite a few stares and a shush from the audience for my loud talking, we created a bit of a scene by not really being that interested in him.

Last night, I went to my friend Claire's for some wine and dinner with our friend Kate and then we went out for (a lot of) drinks and a dance in Cheltenham - missed most of the people I was supposed to catch up with but did see Craig and his mate Dan and had a great night.

The rest of the week has been filled by drinking tea with my sisters, thinking about packing and not doing it, thinking about renewing my travel insurance and not doing it, researching and booking hotels in Dubai (I now know more about the bloody hotels than the city) and generally having fun.

I can't wait for Perth, I really can't and to experience the weirdness that is Dubai for three days. But I'm really very, very sad to go. And I still haven't found my camera memory card. grrr.