7 Nov – Holiday Avoidance

Where is the one place you would never want to go on vacation that other people seem to love?

 

Bali.

4 Nov – Holiday Memory

What is your favorite holiday memory? (And yes, you can pick any holiday, including your birthday.)

 

I don’t really have a favorite memory, probably because we never went on holidays.

Daily Prompt – New Wrinkles

You wake up one day and realize you’re ten years older than you were the previous night. Beyond the initial shock, how does this development change your life plans?

You mean after I become hysterical and can’t even think about living because the depression of losing ten years is far too great??

Daily Prompt – Gone With The Windfall

You just inherited $1,000,000 from an aunt you didn’t even know existed. What’s the first thing you buy (or otherwise use the money for)?

Twenty years ago, a million dollars would have bought you so much, nowadays, it really doesn’t buy you much. Most people are probably going to say the same generic things like, buy a house, buy a car, go on a holiday, go shopping etc… but the money wouldn’t really stretch that far if they wanted to do all of that.

Daily Prompt – Pick Me Up

What is the one word or phrase that immediately cheers you up when you hear it?

Hmmm, that’s a tough one. Majority of what goes around in my head is gibberish and pop-culture references, and most of the time I’m the only one who gets it all, so if anything, I just make myself laugh. However, to anybody else, all they see is me randomly start giggling to myself for no reason whatsoever. It must look quite odd.

Words such as cake, sleep, sleep in, no work, day off, holiday, travel, flight, pack, new or a combination of all of those words are sure-fire ways to get me excited 😀

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/pick-me-up/

Apr 25 – Selective Comments

Do you think people should have the right to prune their comment section, only keeping positive comments and deleting the critical ones?

I know that I’ve seen certain people on Facebook edit their comments when they post something, and somebody says something that they don’t like.

Yes, on one side I believe that in terms of a public forum like Facebook, everybody should have the right to express their own opinions and say what they want – naturally, providing that it’s not racist or a hate-speech etc etc. However, there are people out there who are quite opinionated – and I’ll happily raise my hand and say that I’m one of them, but even I know when I am crossing a line and being too offensive, and when I do that, I edit myself and simmer down the tone somewhat.

Mar 27: Solo Traveller

Have you ever taken a trip by yourself? Do you prefer to travel with people or alone?

I have taken trips by myself, but they’ve only ever been interstate, so I guess it doesn’t really count. Most of the time I’ve always stayed with relatives, or when I was in my last couple of years of high school, I’d travel to Sydney and stay at my uncle’s hotel – I guess that’s really only been the closest I’ve ever gotten to a trip by myself.

I’ve always travelled with others – primarily, Hulk. There’s something enjoyable about travelling with other people, even if it’s just your partner. Unfortunately, we’ve never actually taken a holiday together, but I do wish we could find a small chunk of time to get away together and actually have a proper HOLIDAY, rather than just travelling for work. I’m sick of travelling overseas for work. I want so badly to travel overseas for recreation. I want us to have a holiday somewhere… ANYWHERE!!

It can even be great travelling with a few people… but I think that it’s also very testing on your limits and your friendship. Being confined to small spaces with a few people 24/7 can (and has) pushed me to breaking point, and I’ve needed to just breakaway and have some solo-time, just to be by myself, and not have to deal with who wants to do what, and waiting for other people to get back to the hotel because there’s only one or two keys between 4 people. Nope. Sorry. Not doing that again.

I do often think about the possibility of travelling by myself somewhere. I don’t actually know where or when, but I know that I’d like to do so at some point in my life. All I know is that I’d most definitely prefer it to involve a tropical island somewhere… bring on the clear blue tropical water and sparkling white sand!!

Daily Prompt: Young At Heart

What are your thoughts on aging? How will you stay young at heart as you get older?

The thought of getting older is actually something that secretly terrifies me. I find that when I start thinking about it, I get a bit obsessed about it.

I feel as though I’ve been robbed of a life of enjoyment. Life has robbed me of the opportunities to do the sort of things that you’re supposed to do in certain age groups.

For example, when I was in my late teens, all I wanted was to study dance and pursue that as a career. That didn’t happen because of a spinal injury.

In my Twenties, those are the years that you’re supposed to be travelling the world; working overseas; finding yourself etc etc etc. Well, I guess I managed to find myself. The other two – that didn’t happen. Whilst other friends of mine were off getting dance contracts on Cruise Ships, I was stuck in an office cubicle, feeling miserable and being bullied by my employer to the point of having a small nervous breakdown.

In my mid-twenties, other people were working hard and saving for house deposits – I on the other hand was too busy struggling to be able to pay my rent, buy groceries and pay my bills. I was caught up in being Miss Independent, and dealing with an absolutely clusterfuck of a relationship that pretty much destroyed me mentally and emotionally.

By the time I had reached my late twenties, I still hadn’t come to terms with the fact that I was already in my late-twenties. Thirty was rapidly approaching, and it was approaching at a speed that I just wasn’t prepared for. People were getting married and having kids, and buying cars and houses, and here I was renting a shitty apartment with Hulk, trying to determine what our future had in store for us. Everybody around us was travelling overseas – but it was constant. Somebody was just coming back from overseas, and planning their next trip. As they were coming back, other people were getting ready to leave. Sometimes it was a week here or there, or going for two / three / four weeks at a time. I couldn’t wrap my head around how these people were able to afford to do so.

Then it clicked. Money. Management. The one thing that I simply cannot do.

Now that I’m in my early thirties, I still feel lost and confused. Part of me is telling me that I should be doing responsible things like saving for a house deposit. Or saving for a trip overseas. One of my friends is over in Europe for a few weeks. Other friends of ours are in the U.S. for a few weeks. One of my co-workers has just left to go to New York for three weeks. Another co-worker is going overseas for two or three months later in the year. I just find it so depressing.

I still don’t even know what I want to be when I grow up. There’s certainly a lot that I dream about achieving, but getting it to actually happen is a completely different story. I don’t want to be one of those people who is stuck in the same job for twenty years, but I realised that I’ve already been in my job for (I think) ten years already.

If that’s the case… where was my fucking celebration cake? Probably because it’s not the sort of achievement that should be celebrated. Oh congratulations. You’ve failed at life so epically, you’ve achieved absolutely nothing, and are basically more than happy to just settle with a shitty job that doesn’t fulfill you for ten years. *slow claps* well done, loser. What a role model!!

So even though I may get older in age, I still feel young at heart. I still love my video games, in particular, LEGO ones. I love going to the movies. I love going to concerts. I’ve pretty much lost all interest in going out, simply because the ‘scene’ nowadays has totally changed.

…Oh god, I just used the terms ‘nowadays’. Just call me grandpa.

I still buy cool clothes and shoes, but at the end of the day, it’s just stuff. It’s not a house. It’s not a car. It’s not a trip overseas. I really should focus on achieving those.

…but maybe I’ll think about that after the LEGO Movie Game comes out on PS3 next week. hehehe.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/prompt-young/

Daily Prompt: The Happy Wanderer

What’s your travel style? Are you itinerary and schedule driven, needing to have every step mapped out in advance or are you content to arrive without a plan and let happenstance be your guide?

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. I need to have a plan. There’s no way I’m going to be travelling anywhere, well, anywhere I’ve never been, and not having some idea of what I’m doing or where I’m going. If I’m going there for a reason, I need to know where the airport is, how far it is to the hotel, the best way to get there. Then from the hotel, where’s the closest supermarket? Can I walk there? What time does it close? etc etc.

If I’m going somewhere for a specific purpose, then I don’t really need to do much planning, because I already know what I’m going to be doing when I arrive. If I’m going on a holiday then I…

…hang on… I’ve never actually HAD a holiday, so I can’t really finish that sentence. I guess when I actually manage to have a holiday, I’d much prefer for it to be unplanned. I’ll still do my background research, but there won’t necessarily be a daily itinerary (take note, Hulk!!) of what to do each day – it will all depends on what’s available, and what the weather is like. Why plan to go snorkelling one day, only to wake up and discover that the weather is miserable. Suddenly you can’t reschedule your snorkelling adventure because you’ve got all this other stuff planned every other day, and, what’s that? You can’t get a refund on the tickets? Oh, what a shame!!

That’s not how I roll. When I go on holidays, I’ll be going somewhere to relax and maybe play tourist. Maybe.

Hulk, on the other hand, is the person who will want a complete itinerary for every hour of every day, because that’s how he rolls. But let’s just say that whatever decisions are made… I make the final say. hehehe.

I’ve always wondered how everybody around me is always managing to afford to regularly go overseas. Even people who work part time… and they somehow manage to head on over to Bali or Thailand etc three or four times a year. How?? Sometimes I can’t even afford grocery shopping and I make a decent wage. Granted, I know that I am so completely hopeless with managing my money, whereas these other people clearly aren’t.

…or they have wealthy parents.. ??!!

I’d love to be able to come back from one trip, and then start planning my next trip a couple of months later. I couldn’t think of anything more exciting – at least that would always give you something to be looking forward to – especially if you happen to have a very unfulfilling and mundane job. I’d love nothing more than to go home tonight, and say ‘fuck it. Let’s book a holiday. We’re going to for 10 days in June…’ but unfortunately, for us, life doesn’t work like that. There’s waaaay too many variables to consider… not to mention my work more than likely turning around and telling me ‘NO’.

…granted, the same work that also get on my back about not taking my leave. *sigh* oh it’s a never-ending contradiction.

You know what I need… a holiday!!

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/daily-prompt-the-happy-wanderer/

NaBloPoMo Pressure – January

So I’m sitting here (at work, mind you), looking at my list of posts marked DRAFT. There’s 8 of them sitting there. Taunting me. Pressuring me. And I’m feeling quite agitated.

Is that even the right description?!

Either way, tomorrow I’m heading off overseas, and I’ve already started to create the draft posts that I will need to write as part of my NaBloPoMo challenge. Plus there’s the Daily Prompt ones as well, and by my calculations, by the time I get back from my trip next Monday, I will need to have completed 16 posts over the next 5 days.

See, you’re sitting there thinking ‘um, that’s actually really easy, stop complaining!’.

Well, I’ve got news for you. It’s actually not that easy. I started this entire daily writing challenge thinking this was so incredibly simple and easy to do, and that was with the NaBloPoMo challenge in November 2013. I immediately realised that I could almost write an entire month’s worth of posts over the course of a weekend (which I didn’t actually do), but I then thought I’d really challenge myself and take on the Daily Prompt challenge as well.

So, it’s been a bit of a struggle sometimes to get a two posts done per day, because of something called life. Life happens. Work, family, work, social, work, gym, gym, family, gym, family, work, social, gym, work etc etc etc etc. And then after a couple of days I’ve suddenly found myself with a backlog of 8 posts just to bring myself up to date, and then there’s the upcoming 8 posts that need to be written. And all this is somehow supposed to happen miraculously whilst I’m overseas on a work trip.

Jan’s NaBloPoMo theme is pressure, and sweet baby cheeses am I feeling the pressure now.

I wanted to try and smash at least two out yesterday between job number 1 and job number 2, but ended up with family commitments in between. PLUS on top of that I’ve been having very little sleep the last few nights because it’s been ridiculously hot here. It was 42C yesterday (that’s 107.6F for everybody else) and it’s been pretty hot like that for a few days now. So I’ve been having very little sleep, but in saying that, going to bed at 1:30 – 2:00am the last couple of nights doesn’t help either.

So here I am, sitting at my desk feeling like a bit of a zombie.

I am really struggling to focus and do my work, and I find that I’m just making so many mistakes. I was just in the process of writing a message to somebody overseas, and without realising I had picked up the phone with the intention of calling them, despite the fact that I don’t actually know their number overseas. I’m just doing really stupid things.

I just want to go to bed.

Tonight, when I finish my other job, I’ll get home about 9:30 – 10pm, then at some point have dinner and pack my suitcase before going to bed. I’ll then have a 4:00am wake up call so I can haul ass to the airport at 5:30 to check in before my flight @ 8am.

*groan*

I’m already exhausted, and thinking about that, just makes it worse. I need a holiday just so I can recover!!