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A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to be able to go on a Western Australia famil. I tossed it up over an hour or so while my brain went to and fro. Do I go or do I stay at work. The famil was scheduled to be about a week after the Stars trip. What was I to do? Do I take the famil and have another couple of days out of sales or do I stay at work and try and make those extra few dollars count.

I was leaning towards staying at work. I was so close to being the #1 consultant at work (a bucket list goal) and thankfully the person who I am battling the top spot with was on Stars with me. So that made me feel all the less guilty. What I was hoping for was the opportunity to just make a decision for me. Then it did. I remembered my bucket list. One of those items was “visit every state and territory is Australia”. With this trip I could do this. But what about the sales, but part of me felt that I also needed to think about my sanity. I need to take a break, and I just needed to relax for a few days in the midst of all the craziness.

This famil was sure to give me all of what I wanted. I could fulfill that part of my bucket list, I could get that break I needed. The avgeek part of me could have that new airports in my log book. So I said yes.

It has been a great last few days. Tripping around the Margaret River region, experiencing amazing food and wine (although for me the more memorable meals were at the less memorable spots). I went running next to the indian ocean (and almost froze to death in the process). I had a great time with some great people I work with and through it all, I relaxed. I had time to chill out, to experience life like a normal person. i think this trip has meant the last few days has helped me in the process of being the normal person I want to be.

One thing I have realised. Through all this hard work I have done over the last 18 months, I am not quite there yet, but I am working on it

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Well, it seems all I’ve been doing lately is posting about movies, books or food. Hah! Well I thought I would post a little about life for the last month or so. Things have been busy busy busy. I feel like I am on the go non stop day in day out. It feels like I haven’t taken a breath and rested for more than 20 seconds for the whole month and it doesn’t look to change much at all for the next week or so.

I’ve had the bike for just on a month now, (been riding for 10 weeks now and I think I can cross it off my bucket list as I know how to ride now). I am getting more and more confident each time I get on the bike and don’t in any way regret any decision to buy it. It was well worth the investment, even though I have fallen off it about a billion times already.

It feels good sometimes to get out and ride but I am still not at the point where I am able to switch off and do things instinctively like I can with my running. When I run at the moment, my brain switches off. I am able to just run and run without thinking, my brain goes off and I can relax I guess you could say. With riding I have to constantly think about what I’m doing, concentration is always at a peak. But I guess with that it means that my heart rate stays up there and it means I can burn a hell of a lot more calories (11k ride on Sunday morning burnt like 1200 calories which is roughly 2/3 of a daily intake).

In life outside of the bike, work has been pretty good, but I have been having to focus pretty damn hard, make sure I am getting every single booking and every single dollar so that I can make my goal of top consultant. As of this morning I was sitting in first place but I am holding onto that position by the skin of my teeth ($60.. yes that’s right $60). I have to work my butt off to stay in first place and the thing is, It is going to take major effort to stay there.

The trip planning is pretty much done now. I have like 2 things left to organise but they both can’t be done till very last minute (JR Pass and rail in France both don’t allow bookings till like 2 months prior) so you could say I am pretty much done. I have to organise some insurance thanks to lovely difficulties I am having with my current policy (won’t cover me due to a clause on the length of trip) so after the Travel Expo on Sunday I am hoping to have this all worked out. With the Trip pretty much done all that’s left in my check list is really to organise the spending money, insurance and those train bookings and its all done, and with less than 3 months to go, I would have to say its all going to go swimmingly.

What more can I say. It has been a pretty full on last month or so, and with more full on times coming I don’t see things quieting down any time soon. I travelled to Canberra for a weekend last month to catch up with Stuart, Michelle and see Daniella again which was an awesome weekend. Qantas stuffed me around on the way home and still haven’t given me the credit that I wanted for the flights (giving up on that I guess). Next weekend (easter) is going to be some fun travelling. I might post about it just before I go but will be doing some travelling for the hell of it and acting like a Plane nut for the first time in a while (essentially flying to Sydney for Anzac Day via New Zealand).

Guess I should probably get back to work now… slacked off enough

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Wow… thats all i can say… what a weekend! I had the most amazing time in Sydney. After not being able to go last year (was out of sales for 6 months so didnt qualify) it was so good to get the chance to go this year.

I will give you a bit of a run down of what happened over the last few days.

Friday
Really early wake up. Off to the airport to meet up with the guys at 6am. Man i hate early starts but this was going to be worth it. Once everyone was there we checked in and made our way through security with about 5-6 mins to spare till boarding and then it was all onboard. Pretty empty flight so it was nice and spacious on the flight. Watched some NCIS LA on my ipod (god that function is awesome, gonna have to use it more). The flight was pretty uneventful really. Remembered to Twitter to @virginblue as i got off to thank them for the flight and it was onto the Bus and on our way to the hotel once all the Melbourne guys joined us. We did a bit of a walk through Circular Quay as it was nice and sunny and not to hot (it was getting hotter though) and we had lunch at the Shangri La Hotel. After lunch it was off to Bridgeclimb. Things were looking good at this point. I was having an awesome time, meeting new people, catching up with old friends and just enjoying myself (apart from getting Chewing gum on my new Patriots jersey… dammit!). We got to Bridgeclimb and this is where the biggest dissapointment happened. After going through all the set ups and stuff, i couldnt get in. Because the suit was to small and they couldnt get the next size up in time i wasn’t allowed to climb. I was pretty dissapointed but i will manage to get over it… eventually. I ended up walking up to the bridge pylon (god those stairs almost killed me!) and decided to then walk back to the hotel. By the time i got back a few of the people who didnt climb were at the bar so i joined them.

After a few drinks and getting ready we all headed off to the Novotel for dinner and then a quick walk down to Star City. When we got down there we headed to the Lyric Theatre, where we were gonna go see Mamma Mia. Now don’t get me wrong. I enjoy the occasional musical. I like getting dressed up and going to the theatre. what i dont like is Abba. That being said, it wasn’t to bad. After the show we headed up to the roof top bar for a night cap… awesome!

Saturday.
Woops set the alarm wrong, forgot to change to Sydney time, so rushed wake up and breakfast before meeting the group and walking to Circular Quay. We hopped on the Taronga Zoo ferry and with a good view of the harbour we crossed over and got ready for our walk. We were to walk from Taronga Zoo to Balmoral Beach. A distance of 8km. Now it has been years since ive walked a distance like that. I remember hiking when i was a scout. PRetty sure we did distances like that, but it was with a 20kg pack on your back. I didn’t even walk that far in the USA. But i was determined to do it. The views were lovely, got to chat heaps with the girls from melbourne and also the owner. It was a good morning. There was one killer hill that almost broke me but i made sure i did it. After the walk we headed back to the city for a Harbour lunch cruise. What i didnt realise till we got there was that the boat was just for us. A private harbour lunch cruise onboard the “Sydney Showboat”. How cool. Nice and relaxing. We were meant to go out to Bondi after that, but everyone was kinda wanting a relax and a good drink by the pool. So hung out in the room, had a drink, watched some TV, had a good chat. It was a good relaxing arvo.

We met up around 7pm to head off to dinner. Off to Circular Quay to have dinner by the waterfront (near the cruise terminal). We had an amazing dinner and awards ceremony. Everyone was dressed up, looking hot and having a good time. We had plenty of awards to present (as everyone that went was the best of the best) and we had an enjoyable evening. After dinner it was back to the hotel to hit up the Club Lounge Bar on the 31st floor overlooking darling harbour. Wow… what an awesome view. It is gonna be so easy to sell that club now that i know how good it is up there. We had a number of drinks and got booted out some time around 1am ish and tried to hit up the Ice Bar in Circular Quay but it was closed.

Sunday (today!)
Alarm set correctly, slow wake up with time to pack, eat and pay my bill (room charging is a bad bad concept for a drunk man). Things were looking good. We headed off to the Sydney Fish Markets for the morning, grabbed a coffee, checked out some awesome looking knives (gotta love japanese knife makers) and checked out the crazy seafood offerings. We then headed to QVB (Queen Victoria Building) to where we were planning on doing some secret santa shopping. Everyone was given $100… im serious $100! to do secret santa shopping for someone else in the group. We had to use the full $100 and couldnt give cash or vouchers. So things were tough for some people. Sneakyness abounded and it was awesome! I was a bit confused. I had taken notes on what to get my person (had a melbourne staff person so it was a bit difficult as i didnt really know the person… hence good way to meet other staff).

We headed up to the top of Sydney Tower for lunch (wasnt hungry so didn’t eat) and we all had a good time handing out presents. We then had to rush to get out of the tower and to the airport in time for our flights. We barely made the flight and not to long later we were heading home… flying our way back through the sky to brisbane!

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Its that time of the year again. Every year about this time i have to spend 2 days doing stuff for work that thankfully I only have to do once a year. The tourism industry doesnt work on financial years. We work April>March. So all the new brochures are finally out (well all but WA but thats a different story). However as the 1st of April comes closer it means one thing for me. Brochure rack changing. A few years ago when I first started i never had a brochure rack. I got one about half way into my job, after some people from Melbourne brought theirs up. They ROCK. The brochure racks are the ultimate thing in making my life easier at work. I dont destroy brochures from constant usage.

HOWEVER for 2 days a year I have to spend my time, stripping brochure pages out of display pockets, then cutting up the old brochures and eventually putting new pages into the same display pockets. The best way to do this is to sit in front of the tv and do it (i watched the last season of Macgyver but thats another day). It’s a tedious boring task but it has to be done!!

Here is what they look like originally and then the finished product:

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Well it seems it is time again to go away for work. Bit longer this time (almost a week). I am off to NZ for a famil with work.

Should be a good famil, fly out in about 4 hours to Auckland. Staying overnight out near the airport tonight and then tommorrow the 400km trek to Rotorua. Then to taupo, Tongariro and back home. Getting to do both the Riverjet and the Hukajet in the same day and it should be good.

I am driving which should be a touch different so thats all ok. I hope to god that there is going to be some GPS or maps cause i have no idea where im going!!

Anyway i will update more as i go if i can otherwise when i get back 😀

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So well a lot of stuff has changed in my life since my last update. I have been majorly slack and yeah lazy. So lets look at the Good Stuff that has been happening.

I got a promotion at work. I am now a Future Team Leader, something I have been looking forward to for ages and hoping to god that It will all work out, and it has. I found out last Wednesday with this morning being my first day. I also managed to score a Famil to NZ (leaving next tuesday). It should be good and I will keep the usual travel diary up to date. Dunno how my net access will go while I am in NZ so I will probably write a lot of it and transcribe. So life has been treating me pretty well…

But as with anything in my life, once something good happens, my bad luck takes over and makes me feel like shit. So firstly, another Team I am in dissolves on me, that makes team #4. I am pretty much used to it now so it doesn’t hit me as hard as it hit the others. But then after all of this I chip my tooth AGAIN! Thats the 4th time for the same tooth! Its really god damn annoying. Back to the dentist for me! Wish i could just get it plated with metal or something. Perhaps some Gold bling right at the front!

Really sick of it actually. I will now be paranoid about it for weeks to come. Its crap… really crap. Anyway its my first day today as FTL so I should make a good impression. Will talk to you guys later 😀

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