Touring Tasmania - Not Quite There Yet
November 21, 2006MELBOURNE – Saturday 11th Nov. So, it’s the start of our holiday. Well technically it’s just the weekend, but the anticipation is building and we’re spending the day getting everything packed and ready in preparation of the trip we’re taking to Tasmania on Monday. The kids are really excited and looking forward to an adventure. Donna is looking forward to the trip as well. She’s never been to Tassie and she’s been hounding me to take her there ever since I took a trip to Hobart for work a couple of years back. It was only for a couple of days and I mostly saw the four walls of the hotel, but that’s the thing about business travel—it all seems very glamorous, but the reality is it’s a lonely and tedious existence. You never really get a chance to experience all of these ‘exotic’ places you get to visit. So, I’m looking forward to the trip too—it’s a great opportunity to see more of Hobart and South-East Tasmania than the Grand Chancellor hotel and the immediate surroundings!
We’re travelling with another family—Donna’s sister, her hubby and their three boys aged fourteen, twelve and ten. So, amidst the chaos of our own family vacation, an additional five people is going to make for an interesting time. Hardly what I’d call a relaxing week away, but sometimes a crazy trip is a bit of fun anyway, just like the Griswolds! A couple of quiet days we’re planning over the Christmas break ought to take care of the quiet time requirement.
Later in the day…
I’ve been at home less than a day and I’m already yelling at the kids for getting under my feet, for being loud, for arguing with each other, and for etc. I really need to be more patient with them. Note to self: chill out dude and enjoy it while it lasts!!
I always find that the first few days of holidays that I’m still wound up and much less patient with the kids than I am later in the holidays. It takes a little while to adjust being around each other for more hours in a day than is usual. During the week, I normally only get to spend a couple of hours a day with the kids and Donna, so we all have to get used to each other all over again when holidays swing around again. Once we get through this period of adjustment, we have a great time as a family on holidays. A lot of people are surprised when we tell them we are going on holidays, or on a break WITH the kids. But it’s certainly not a chore. We have great fun.
links for 2006-11-21
November 21, 2006-
Love and money. That’s the best business mix ever made. Love is why most businesses start. Lack of it is why most businesses end.
Doc says … Love makes money. Hard-bottom-liners don’t like to talk about that, but it’s true. Few go into business saying -
Ben’s on to something here!
Touring Tasmania - Prelude
November 20, 2006I decided to write a journal about our recent trip to Tasmania. I thought that It’d be nice to keep a record of the journey and hopefully it might provide me with some much-needed motivation to start writing again. I’m hoping that it will help me gain some of my momentum back, and what better way to do that than with a daily travel journal?
I’m not really sure that this is the direction I want to take with this blog and I’ve been agonising over this for quite some time now and whether I should keep going with it at all. I’ll make a decision in this regard in the New Year. But for now I’m pressing on. I hope the material is of some interest.
I had planned to blog the trip as it happened, but unfortunately I was off the grid for a week as I did not have access to a landline and the mobile coverage was extremely poor. But all is not lost. Instead, I’ve decided that I’ll still post daily (starting tomorrow), but retrospectively. The posts will still be ‘blogesque’ – minimal editing, and casual style. In fact, most items were written at the end of each day on my laptop, and I’ll cut and paste each day as new post until I reach the end of the trip. I’ve also posted a few pics (as many as my account allows for now) from the trip on flickr. Enjoy.
Never again
November 9, 2006You wear a pink shirt to work ONCE, and look what happens …
Bitten
November 9, 2006I’ve been bitten by the bike bug! Since I rode to work the other week for “ride to work” day, I’ve hardly been off a bike. I even went out and bought a new bike … an as new ‘07 CRX4. Cost me less than a months worth of petrol!
Like most other kids, I was always on my bike when I was a youngster–it was my transport, my freedom, my life–and getting back on the bike brings back some of those feelings. An added bonus is that it’s also a great way to keep fit and active.
Where will this end? I’m even making loose plans to ride in the Great Vic!
