Well it's Sunday night, it's now about 36 hours before the taxi pulls up outside and whisks us off on another holiday of a lifetime. Things are in hand. I've even added fancy bells and whistle to this here blog. Look to the right and there is weather info about where we are going (and where we're coming from), and a hit counter, which has steadily been clocking up the number of times I've viewed the page as no-one really knows it exists yet.
And the excitemenet is building. All my clothes are sorted, all my other stuff. There's only the small matter of a day at work tomorrow. And the fact I need to sort my belongings out as we are moving buildings between my going on holiday and returning. It is swings and roundabouts, at least I'm not there for the worst of the moving. I will be thinking of the hard work and the teething trouble everyone will be going through. Actually, who am I kidding? No I won't. Well the thought might flit across my mind like a wisp of cloud in front of the moon before it disperses and I realise it's been a few seconds since I remembered that I'm in some tropical paradise.
Sunday 27 July 2008
Monday 21 July 2008
Where does it all begin?
Holidays are funny things. I mean when exactly do they start? At what exact time do you class yourself as being "on holiday"? I always thought the moment you put your bags into the boot of the taxi to take you to the airport was it. That's when the anticipation really takes hold, and you are officially travelling. Then there is the airport, once you have offloaded your bags and go through customs, because then you are kind of officially in a different country, or at least no longer in your home country. It's the kind of timeless, locationless feeling, traveller's limbo. I love the fact it is probably the only time you will drink alcohol at 5am that isn't still part of the previous night's session.You are between timezones, and you know that some places in the world it's actually a sensible time to drink, so why not join them? I have to say I'm one of those travellers that loves airports. I love the clean environment, the view of huge great planes out of the window. I also love the stupid shops. Sunglasses I can understand, and some souvenirs are OK as I have bought presents for people at the last moment this way. Duty Free is fun, especially when you are off on a flight outside the Eurozone, but I have never ever once bought one of those ridiculously large Toblerones. I love chocolate, but not in quantities you would normally buy building materials or to the extent where I want to pay excess baggage for it.
On the other hand, today when I went for a coffee break at 4pm I realised that in one week's time I would have just over an hour before I was officially "on holiday", so when I leave work the day before I go. Does that mean the time holiday starts? Probably not. I don't like to define my holiday as being directly related to work, or lack of it, but it is a nice feeling knowing you aren't setting foot in the office until your holiday is over.
On the other hand, today when I went for a coffee break at 4pm I realised that in one week's time I would have just over an hour before I was officially "on holiday", so when I leave work the day before I go. Does that mean the time holiday starts? Probably not. I don't like to define my holiday as being directly related to work, or lack of it, but it is a nice feeling knowing you aren't setting foot in the office until your holiday is over.
Friday 18 July 2008
It's not as much fun this time
One of the reasons that I ran out of steam writing the other blog that I lost the address for is because I don't have much stuff to buy for the holiday. Sure, a few clothes, sandals, mozie spray, suncream, books, but nothing too fun to buy. Backpacks for example. Great fun to mess about with in the shop, laugh at the price and go and buy a cheaper one.
Still we've had a few good trips for shopping, getting into the swing in Leeds which is our nearest big city, or a weekend in Manchester when we saw Radiohead play.
Another thing is that ordering stuff online doesn't have the same feeling. It's not the same as going into a shop, and touching the things you want to buy. Or touching them too much to make them shop soiled so you don't want to buy them, and going somewhere else and buying them cheaper
As it stands we have pretty much everything sorted. Charging camera batteries, and buying them for torches and stuff needs to be done. Mundane things like that.
I had a jab the other week. In fact the sadistic nurse decided she would give me two. Typhoid and polio/diptheria. The cow. Then she was interrogating me on where we were going, wanting to feed me malaria pills which we probably don't need. It wasn't enough to make my sodding arm hurt. No. Poison me as well. OK it's better than getting malaria. She was very thorough to be fair.
Still we've had a few good trips for shopping, getting into the swing in Leeds which is our nearest big city, or a weekend in Manchester when we saw Radiohead play.
Another thing is that ordering stuff online doesn't have the same feeling. It's not the same as going into a shop, and touching the things you want to buy. Or touching them too much to make them shop soiled so you don't want to buy them, and going somewhere else and buying them cheaper
As it stands we have pretty much everything sorted. Charging camera batteries, and buying them for torches and stuff needs to be done. Mundane things like that.
I had a jab the other week. In fact the sadistic nurse decided she would give me two. Typhoid and polio/diptheria. The cow. Then she was interrogating me on where we were going, wanting to feed me malaria pills which we probably don't need. It wasn't enough to make my sodding arm hurt. No. Poison me as well. OK it's better than getting malaria. She was very thorough to be fair.
Thursday 17 July 2008
T-minus 12 days and counting
thursday 17th July 2008
It's been WAY too long since our last "big" holiday, as documented in another blog on this site. There was Porto the same year which was also briefly documented in a blog. Sine then we have been to Morocco, Italy and Dublin and I've not actually given the world wide web the benefit of my skewed appreciation of other cultures in all that time. Mainly because I very often busy imbiding Guinness. Well that was the case on Dublin one anyway. And Chianti in Italy. It's funny how so much of my holidays seem to be defined by the indiginous booze of the location. Port in Porto, Tiger beer in Singapore, Singha beer in Thailand, Rioja in Spain etc etc. Well, apart from Morocco, where getting a beer was like pulling teeth. We did find a couple of places in the whole city, and the beer was like gnat's piss, as the phrase goes. How anyone knows what gnat's piss tastes like to obtain the comparison, or why gnat's piss and not some other insect I do not know. In fact, I'm not even sure gnats actually can piss. Then again why would I be? I'm not an entomologist.
This trip has been brewing now for a good 6 months or so, ever since we got a date for my cousin Alex's wedding to Frances, a Philipina, in Manila on the 16th August. We booked the flights in February, and we've been busy researching and booking stuff since. It seems like half the fun to do the planning, with that slight worry something could go wrong. We always end up having a good time though. Well we have done up to now, not that I want to be tempting fate.
I did attempt to write a blog way back then which was also documenting my recovery from a broken foot, getting back to being fit and progress towards the holiday. I was enthusiastic to begin with, but ran out of things to mention. Then I left it so long I forgot the url, which wouldn't have been bad, but I'd set up a totally new gmail account so I could start from scratch, which I also forgot. So here we are, back on http://iainandjane-seasia08.blogspot.com/ instead. Needless to say I did get back to fitness after a break (no pun intended) of six weeks, but have had a couple of weeks where circumstances have got in the way of my fitness programme. Never mind. I'm not grossly obese which is something I figure.
Anyway, here's the updated blog. This is the introduction I suppose. I'll hopefully write lots more. You'll be fed up of this crap by the time I'm halfway through the holiday
It's been WAY too long since our last "big" holiday, as documented in another blog on this site. There was Porto the same year which was also briefly documented in a blog. Sine then we have been to Morocco, Italy and Dublin and I've not actually given the world wide web the benefit of my skewed appreciation of other cultures in all that time. Mainly because I very often busy imbiding Guinness. Well that was the case on Dublin one anyway. And Chianti in Italy. It's funny how so much of my holidays seem to be defined by the indiginous booze of the location. Port in Porto, Tiger beer in Singapore, Singha beer in Thailand, Rioja in Spain etc etc. Well, apart from Morocco, where getting a beer was like pulling teeth. We did find a couple of places in the whole city, and the beer was like gnat's piss, as the phrase goes. How anyone knows what gnat's piss tastes like to obtain the comparison, or why gnat's piss and not some other insect I do not know. In fact, I'm not even sure gnats actually can piss. Then again why would I be? I'm not an entomologist.
This trip has been brewing now for a good 6 months or so, ever since we got a date for my cousin Alex's wedding to Frances, a Philipina, in Manila on the 16th August. We booked the flights in February, and we've been busy researching and booking stuff since. It seems like half the fun to do the planning, with that slight worry something could go wrong. We always end up having a good time though. Well we have done up to now, not that I want to be tempting fate.
I did attempt to write a blog way back then which was also documenting my recovery from a broken foot, getting back to being fit and progress towards the holiday. I was enthusiastic to begin with, but ran out of things to mention. Then I left it so long I forgot the url, which wouldn't have been bad, but I'd set up a totally new gmail account so I could start from scratch, which I also forgot. So here we are, back on http://iainandjane-seasia08.blogspot.com/ instead. Needless to say I did get back to fitness after a break (no pun intended) of six weeks, but have had a couple of weeks where circumstances have got in the way of my fitness programme. Never mind. I'm not grossly obese which is something I figure.
Anyway, here's the updated blog. This is the introduction I suppose. I'll hopefully write lots more. You'll be fed up of this crap by the time I'm halfway through the holiday
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