The Gambler

Are you a gambler? It seems for a lot of people - perhaps more blokes - it's a pretty popular pass time. I wouldn't call myself a punter. Yes, I like the Spring Racing Carnival and if I'm at the track, I'll have a flutter, but I confess, if I have three straight looses I totally loose interest and stop betting. 

And it's not like we're talking sheep stations - five or ten bucks either way (win or place) is my modus operandi. And if someone far more informed than me wants to 'chuck on a quaddie', I'm in! 

Oh - and there was the time the girls from the office and I went to the greyhounds - which I cannot believe I didn't blog about so stand by for a post on that outing.

Anyway, having never thought of myself as a gambler, I surprised myself with the bets I've been prepared to make during lockdown; notably travel. 

Back in May, I decided to book a holiday for January 2022 - hiking in New Zealand. I asked the kids - one was keen, one was reluctant so I pretty much bullied the reluctant starter into committing. Now, I'm not sure if you're a hiker but these organised walks aren't inexpensive so I was pretty annoyed when, at the end of lock down, the enthusiastic one had lost interest claiming we'd all spent waaaay too much time together this year. Not wrong, but still.

Then one of the two hikes I booked was cancelled. This left us in a bit of pickle - do we hope the whole thing gets cancelled and get all our money back? Book something else to fill in those extra days? Cut our losses and cop cancellation fees? In the end, I managed to change Geoff and my hikes to a longer one and cancel the girls with no penalty - yay! Elle has a friend with a house at Queenstown so they're using the girls' non-refundable flights and Sass didn't ever want to go anyway - winners. Although let's wait and see what's next with COVID...

In addition to travel, we had dinner at a friend's recently and I offered to bring dessert. Living on the edge, I chose a chocolate tart with orange ice-cream and orange jam from Gourmet Traveller that I'd never made before, and against the odds - thanks to my Aldi ice-cream maker, it worked out pretty well!

So there you go.  As someone who proclaims not to be much of a gambler, I'm taking some pretty big bets!!

The Entrepreneur

Remember the window guy who got me blushing like a teenage girl?

Turned out that looking good was his best asset. We constructed the building according to 'Angelo's' advice, but when he came back and looked he said no, they couldn't work with that. Geoff (my partner and the builder) declared him a 'nuff nuff', assured me he had no idea about building and our search for a new window guy put us back about four months :(

After a couple of quotes and meetings we now have a guy - perhaps not a model - but who certainly knows what he's talking about.

So it was with some surprise last week that I opened an email Geoff had forwarded me from   'Angelo' (yes, I did change his name to protect the guilty!) with an unrequested quote. It was now at least 4 months since he'd said he couldn't help, and now he had great pleasure in submitting plans and a quote for.... drum roll..... $70,000!!! Laugh!! (Only because we're sorted, I confess, otherwise I may have wept.)

This wasn't just out of the ballpark of what he'd originally estimated, it wasn't even in the same galaxy! We'd have to put one of the kids on eBay for that. Ridiculous!

I emailed Geoff back suggesting he'd enjoy declining that one. He did, politely. And we assumed that was the end of it, but hell no! Here's what he got back!!

Thank you for you [sic] time in this matter and look forward to a day we can do business.

On another note, i also market a travel club, our product is called 'x' 

(I've removed it - I can't take on that kind of responsibility!)

We customise amazing holiday packages at a wholesale price

Price Pledge - 100% best price on the market or you go for free!

(Website link also removed - message me if you really, really want it!!)

I would love to know your opinion about our club, once again thank you for your time.

All I can say is I hope his knowledge of travel exceeds his knowledge of building....

Packing

Apologies that I've been AWOL.

We're on holiday and the lead up was gruelling, trying to get work done before we left. Having almost packed and fallen into bed about 1am, the alarm went off at 3am and taxi arrived at 4.15 to take us to the airport. A mere 36 hours later, we arrived at our hotel in Juneau, Alaska.

I was convinced I'd packed well. I even checked average temperature in our post-Alaskian destinations.

So here we are, in Kamloops, Canada having arrived this afternoon on the Rocky Mountaineer train. In my bag I have a down parker, thermals, apres boots, wet weather jacket and pants, a North Face furry vest, two ploar fleeces, two jumpers, two long sleeve Ts, two short sleeve Ts, one pair of shorts, bathers, a possum fur oilskin cap, a beanie, gloves and ski mittens. And the weather? 35C.


And to think, I once had the cheek to pass out a few travel tips!!!

The Trip - Part V

Luang Prebang - is it just me or does that seriously sound like a name of a place made up by a 5 year old? Never the less, this is where we spend the next leg our journey.

On arrival in Laos, Geoff and George get waved through (probably because of George's wheelchair) and the girls and I are left to fill in 5 long forms before queueing behind the multitude of tourists, all holding their forms plus passport photos. Hmmm. We have no such photos. I think I missed that detail which I later find in the small print of our itinerary. As it transpires, should you ever happen to be in that part of the world, it's not essential to have a passport photo, you can (thank god!) pay an addition US buck per person and they copy the one in your passport. Phew! So after a long wait fuelling some unnecessary anxiety, we're finally issued with visas and admitted into Laos.

The first evening is magic as we meet up with close friends from Sydney for dinner. Just not enough time, but loved every minute at a fancy-pants restaurant (well, fancy-pants by Laos standards anyway).

The next day, yes, more wats...ahhhh! And that's where the picture of that toilet comes in. E had the worst runny bottom (and we've had lots over our years of travel). She's complaining of feeling sick and of course as you know, my sympathy runs deep so I say for god's sake pull yourself together and get in that van. So she does.

We arrive at the first wat - and she needs to go. Like, right now. We're directed to that toilet. Armed as I traditionally am with a roll of toilet paper and a packet of wet wipes wrapped in a hotel shower cap (yes, that too can be handy in moments like these - happy to explain if necessary -drop me a line) we survive. We get back to the wat...and George needs to go. OMG. Eighteen years old, taller than me by a long shot, unable to even stand on his own - and a filthy squat toilet our only option.

Geoff and I make our way through the building rubble back to that toilet, strip poor G from the waist down, support him from either side, position him over the drop and in that split second, he lets a huge one go. Geoff and I are practically high-fiving each other we're so proud. I don't think I could have felt more satisfied if I'd dropped that myself!!!

Back to the tour....E's feeling like crap (pardon the pun) and George has had enough so Geoff and I and Sass walk to the top of the giggle-inducing Mt Phou Si (pronounced Pussy). I buy Sass three small finches in a bamboo cage to release for good luck. Those birds ain't silly and I suspect they've been caged and released more times that I've had hot dinners!!

Next time.... the strange courting rituals of the Laos hill tribes....

Africa - here we come!

We’re off to Africa on Friday – the day school winds up for the term and as usual, we’ve cut it extremely close. I do like to maximise the time we get when we go away. The kids finish at 2.30 and we’re on a 11.50pm flight. It should be fun. We’re going with some friends and their two boys, so we’ll have 5 kids with end-of-term exhaustion and a flight that goes via Perth to Johannesburg and then straight on to Manzini in Zululand. It seemed like such a good idea to “just get there!”  when we were booking.

As a consequence, it’s been a very busy week. We’ve been to the doctors for immunisations, I’ve been to a workshop on school-leavers, a dinner out with clients, I’m on Cub duty again tomorrow so have shopped, cut, glued, knotted and set up the hall in preparation for that, I’ve had a PSG (Parent Support Group) meeting for my son and I did PMP (I don’t even know what that stands for… Physical Movement Program??) for the youngest (I only injured one kid!), I had a waxing appointment, booked the car into the airport car-parking and managed to get the invitations designed, printed and posted for the pending 18^th birthday party. And, lord forbid, I’ve even squeezed some work in!! (My work mate Mandy does on occasion accuse me of being Mother Who’s Supposed To Be Working….)

Amongst it all, I even managed to look at a map, so I have some vague idea of where we’re headed, despite having had the comprehensive itinerary for some weeks. I walked with a friend last night who asked many embarrassing questions, like how long’s the flight, what game parks are we going to and what’s the accommodation is like –to which I answered “I don’t know”, “I can’t remember” and “I have no idea”. So, business as usual for our style of travel – a surprise when we get there!

But, what I did manage to do at work this week was catch up with the Digital Guru as some people have said they’re having trouble commenting. (I hope that is the case, as I get precious few…) Anyway, the easiest thing is to start with your selection from the 'Select a profile' drop down box of “Comment as”; Anonymous is fine and add your name to the comment if you want to – or not! There is one of those crazy words you have to copy like 'Zolic' to avoid spam, but please persist!!!

Hopefully I’ll manage to get a quick post in before we head off…. MWWxx