The problem with coming home is that if it was a really great trip (which it absolutely was), all one can think about is where to go next. I'm shocking like that. I have a long track record, stretching back to the 1980s, of wanting to book the next trip the moment I get back from the last.
True to form, I have done this already, conceptually, at least. We arrived home nine and a half days ago, and about two nights ago, I identified our little beachside get-away for Summer - That's six months away, which is actually quite late for me, in terms of just starting to plan it now. I usually book things a year ahead, which is weird, I know, but it's the way I work best. I'm not at all spontaneous with regard to holidays. I like to know I've got something to work towards and look forward to, and having that concept locked in helps me buckle down and work as hard as I can to pull the funds together for whatever it is, whether it's that very occasional big overseas trip, a small interstate trip or even just a few hours drive down the road. This tendency means I almost never have the opportunity to take advantage of those 'seasonal specials' which are far too short notice for me. Because location is important to me, this is another reason I like to book things in early, so as to also secure a style of place suited to my taste and price-range.
Anyway, what I intend to book for Summer is just five nights by the South Australian coast, as that's my home state. The climate there is always several degrees warmer than it is anywhere on the Victorian coast and a whole lot less crowded. The Air BnB place I've found is a simple, stylishly appointed, one bedroom brick unit, half a block from the beach, for half the price it would normally cost to lease a tiny, grimy beachside cabin in a caravan park at that time of year! J can sleep on the couch. If we book it in by August or so, and for some reason we change our mind (which we won't), we get a full refund, bar the booking (service) fee. From my perspective, having that peace of mind makes it worth the punt.
In any case, it will probably be another seven years until we have a big, by which I mean 'long-haul', trip overseas like we just had. When we do it will involve Scotland and certain parts of Europe. It has to. I've lived far too long to have not yet been to the homeland of my ancestors - I need a full two weeks in Scotland, at least!
In the interim, there's quite a list of Australian destinations we'd like to get to over the next bunch of years, for one reason or another. I'm also hoping to go somewhere special (and cheap!) in South East Asia for my milestone birthday at the end of next year. It's good to have goals - It makes you work harder. And of course, there's a whole lot of domestic and mortgage related goals we have as well, like most people do.
The other problem with coming home is that if you don't have any time to actually recover and recuperate properly, and I haven't, you get knocked out by the first contagious affliction that comes your way. And so it is that I have contracted a particularly mean cold & flu, which I want to kick a.s.a.p., so I can get on with all the things I have on my 'to do' list. I've got work to do, and study too.
I may not blog again for a while, as I have a lot to get on with. So thanks for reading! When I next travel somewhere interesting, I'll be sure to return to this li'l blog. Come to think of it, I'm going to the Bendigo Writer's Festival next month, so maybe I'll type more then. Who knows?
Showing posts with label Travel Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel Planning. Show all posts
Sunday, 10 July 2016
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Typing, in advance of a big trip...
I'm Australian, and back in May 2009, I had a very neat travel blog set up on Wordpress for my long awaited 'ten year long service leave' trip around the world. I took this journey with my hub about eighteen months after my ten years with the company had past. It can be hard to tear yourself away from a high pressure career when you're all caught up in the middle of it, and barely able see your way out.
That 29 night trip to Manhattan, Paris, Morocco and Madrid was absolute magic, but when we got back, my life began to slowly and dramatically unravel. Over the subsequent five-year period my life changed completely, and with that, so did I. Thankfully, I've emerged at last, and come out through the other side of what was an abyss. And for the past year or more I've been too busy working multiple jobs to think too much more about it, in any detail. That's probably a good thing.
Now that I've organised this next big overseas trip seven years since the last, I figure I should start a whole new blog for it, so here we are... on blogspot. When we got back, we promised our then five year old daughter that we'd never leave her again. We said we'd take her everywhere we go, when ever and where ever that may be. We've kept our word on that.
In May 2013 we did manage to spend a week together in Hong Kong. We took some wonderful photos, but at the time I didn't feel like writing about it. Now, three years later, I think I'm ready. I'm not sure yet whether I'll integrate photos into this blog, or just leave it as a text-based travel log. Time will tell.
So where are we going this time? And why? Well, it's a very long story, but basically I had this idea that I'd be presenting one or two academic papers at a conference in Montreal, as an independent. With this great ambition in mind, I paid for our flights a full year ago, at entirely inflexible, bargain basement rates. A few months later I found out that the conference organisers had pulled the whole conference forward by five days. So now, instead of my first full day in Montreal being a clear day for jet-lag adjustment prior to the conference starting, my first day is the very last day of the conference, and it's basically all over. Obviously, there's no point paying several hundred to register for half a day of sessions, the morning after I've taken a mammoth long-leg flight across the globe. I've also noticed that half the conference is in French anyway, which I should have known, but somehow neglected to think about. Oh well.
For a short while I was shocked and annoyed, wondering why this extravagant trip to all these mind-boggling heritage places on my B list for places to go in my lifetime. Since then, I've decided it was obviously meant to be. It's hard for Australians to make it to these sort of places: up and down the East Coast of the U.S., because to do so assumes you may have already seen absolutely everything on your dream destination A list.
Personally, I am fortunate to have been to almost all the places on my U.S. A list (New York City, San Francisco, New Orleans & Chicago), but there's a long list of places on my European A list that I've not been, as yet. Still, I may as well make the most of it and enjoy it. What else can I do? I've spent a non-refundable small fortune on flights and accom already. It's a great privilege to be going and our little family does need a break afterall. We've had a pretty hard time emotionally these last five or more years.
If I hadn't been planning to attend that Conference, I would love to have organised to be there for the Montreal Jazz Festival, which is also during our daughter's school holidays. Instead we're there in June, which is a bit weird, but at least it's during the Australian Uni swat vac and exam period and break, and straight after my Festival wrap up happens, so it is strangely perfect timing with regard to my work commitments.
This trip does give me something monumentally inspiring to do during June, it must be said. And when I return to resume my PhD studies part-time, I'll do so with fresh recollections of grand heritage cities and spaces clearly in mind. That can only be a good thing, given my PhD is in history... Maybe it was meant to be after-all.
I still haven't explained where we're going, have I? I guess that can be the subject of my next post.
That 29 night trip to Manhattan, Paris, Morocco and Madrid was absolute magic, but when we got back, my life began to slowly and dramatically unravel. Over the subsequent five-year period my life changed completely, and with that, so did I. Thankfully, I've emerged at last, and come out through the other side of what was an abyss. And for the past year or more I've been too busy working multiple jobs to think too much more about it, in any detail. That's probably a good thing.
Now that I've organised this next big overseas trip seven years since the last, I figure I should start a whole new blog for it, so here we are... on blogspot. When we got back, we promised our then five year old daughter that we'd never leave her again. We said we'd take her everywhere we go, when ever and where ever that may be. We've kept our word on that.
In May 2013 we did manage to spend a week together in Hong Kong. We took some wonderful photos, but at the time I didn't feel like writing about it. Now, three years later, I think I'm ready. I'm not sure yet whether I'll integrate photos into this blog, or just leave it as a text-based travel log. Time will tell.
So where are we going this time? And why? Well, it's a very long story, but basically I had this idea that I'd be presenting one or two academic papers at a conference in Montreal, as an independent. With this great ambition in mind, I paid for our flights a full year ago, at entirely inflexible, bargain basement rates. A few months later I found out that the conference organisers had pulled the whole conference forward by five days. So now, instead of my first full day in Montreal being a clear day for jet-lag adjustment prior to the conference starting, my first day is the very last day of the conference, and it's basically all over. Obviously, there's no point paying several hundred to register for half a day of sessions, the morning after I've taken a mammoth long-leg flight across the globe. I've also noticed that half the conference is in French anyway, which I should have known, but somehow neglected to think about. Oh well.
For a short while I was shocked and annoyed, wondering why this extravagant trip to all these mind-boggling heritage places on my B list for places to go in my lifetime. Since then, I've decided it was obviously meant to be. It's hard for Australians to make it to these sort of places: up and down the East Coast of the U.S., because to do so assumes you may have already seen absolutely everything on your dream destination A list.
Personally, I am fortunate to have been to almost all the places on my U.S. A list (New York City, San Francisco, New Orleans & Chicago), but there's a long list of places on my European A list that I've not been, as yet. Still, I may as well make the most of it and enjoy it. What else can I do? I've spent a non-refundable small fortune on flights and accom already. It's a great privilege to be going and our little family does need a break afterall. We've had a pretty hard time emotionally these last five or more years.
If I hadn't been planning to attend that Conference, I would love to have organised to be there for the Montreal Jazz Festival, which is also during our daughter's school holidays. Instead we're there in June, which is a bit weird, but at least it's during the Australian Uni swat vac and exam period and break, and straight after my Festival wrap up happens, so it is strangely perfect timing with regard to my work commitments.
This trip does give me something monumentally inspiring to do during June, it must be said. And when I return to resume my PhD studies part-time, I'll do so with fresh recollections of grand heritage cities and spaces clearly in mind. That can only be a good thing, given my PhD is in history... Maybe it was meant to be after-all.
I still haven't explained where we're going, have I? I guess that can be the subject of my next post.
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