It's all happening!

Hey there dear readers, I'm feeling a bit manic today.

Things have moved into overdrive on the whole World Tour 2012 thing.

What is the World Tour 2012? Well...

It started off as a little idea I had of doing a house swap. I put out the call to see if anyone wanted to come and stay at my place in Australia and let my family stay in their house.

I was lucky enough to receive two offers of accommodation, one in England and one in the US. Thus the idea for a "World Tour" was born.

So, I've been fluffing about trying to do some planning here and there while waiting for the optimum time to book our tickets. I had a travel consultant put together a proposal for us.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, and suddenly everything's happening!

I've had to fill out forms and get photos taken for the kids' passports. Who doesn't love filling out forms? I also had to find someone to sign the kids' photos to confirm that it really is them. Then I have to take the kids to the post office for a "passport interview". I can't tell you how much fun it is!

At the same time, we discovered that the travel consultant who put together our proposal has left the travel agent. She doesn't work there any more. The fares that she put together for us are no longer available. We have to start from scratch.

So I freaked out a little bit.

And went to three different travel agents and sat down with three different travel consultants in one day.

And now I have some tickets on hold that have to be paid for ASAP and it's all happening so fast!

Breathe.

I've got travel consultants waiting on my call. And I've discovered that I'm actually quite good at diplomatically telling someone that I've decided to go another way. But I'm still finding it stressful.

It will be a lovely relief when we've handed over our thousands of dollars and I know that everything is locked in.

I'll keep you posted.

It's been a busy week.

Last Sunday we visited the travel agent. We sat down with a lovely travel consultant named Katherine and outlined our "World Tour 2012" plans. A couple of days later she got back to us with her initial proposal covering our flights and some accommodation in London, Paris and Orlando, Florida. Exciting! It's wonderful to have moved beyond the wishing and hoping and on to the actual planning!

I've worked a lot of hours this week between my time at the library and my teaching. I've been busy, also doing my bit to keep the house and family afloat, but I've been happy. The library work is going really well and I'm doing my best to make such a good impression that I'll be offered more work once my current block finishes.

Now that I'm at a healthy weight, I've been steadily building up my wardrobe. I'm really enjoying being able to fit into anything I like, and I'm trying to hold myself back from going the "mutton dressed as lamb" route. I see all these cute little dresses and tops - and I can actually fit into them - and sometimes I forget that I'm not 18 years old any more! I need to take a good, hard look at myself in the mirror to be sure that what I'm buying is "age appropriate". 

What do you think? Are there rules for dressing at (almost) 40? No bare midriffs, obviously, besides, no amount of weight loss will ever get my stomach back into midriff-baring shape! What about skirt length? I'm only 5'2" and I find that above-the-knee works best. And what about hosiery? My legs aren't fat, but they're snow white and have a few veins and a bit of cellulite. If I'm going to wear a short skirt, black opaque tights are my best friend. But come summer, I'll need to ditch the leg-wear. Does anyone know of a fake tan product that works miracles?

I've been meaning to take some photos of myself in some of my new clothes, but I just haven't found the time. Soon, I promise.

So, what have you been up to?

Pictures as Promised

I just got home from the hairdresser. Look how prettiful my hair is now!

I tried to take a full length photo so you could see me wearing my new "leather" jacket. Sorry, the picture quality is hopeless.

I ran the picture through one of the filters on Instagram to see if I could improve it a little.

In other news, I'm heading to the shopping mall tomorrow to pick up a few new items of clothing and visit the Travel Agent...

Big Plans

Did you know that the earliest that you can confirm flight bookings is 330 days before travel?

And since my family is planning a five week overseas holiday for June/July 2012 it is not long until I can start booking flights?

Hooray!

I have started working out a couple of tentative itineraries for what I like to call my "World Tour 2012".

Here are some pictures to give you some clues...

All that in just five weeks? Well I didn't say that we were going to get much rest!

Once I go to see my travel agent and talk $$$ I'll know more about what we can and cannot do. Although I have kind offers of accomodation at two of our planned destinations, I still have airfares/train fares/car hire to consider; accomodation at some of the most expensive places on earth (sob!); and of course we'll need to eat! Some of the places we'd like to visit also have attractions with hefty entry fees. I may have to scale back our plans and spend longer with kind friends (!), ultimately having a more relaxing holiday but seeing less. Isn't it horrible to have to be sensible some times!

I'll keep you posted...

Mi Casa es Su Casa = My house is your house

Ever since I started working on my crazy plan to take my family on an overseas adventure next year I've been wondering something.

How does the "typical" house vary from country to country?

You see, I'm cunningly planning for my family to live in real people's houses when we travel rather than stay in hotels. And I'm offering that if anyone that I get to know over the interwebs would like to visit Australia, I will happily allow them to stay at my place and will especially enjoy showing them around a little.

Whenever the idea of house-swapping comes up, or the concept of hosting visitors from overseas, everyone starts to get a little bit nervous. What if my house is too small, too messy, doesn't have a nice enough yard, isn't decorated elegantly enough or is located in an entirely boring area totally bereft of interesting tourist attractions?

What if my guests cut their stay short or move to a hotel because they can't possibly live in the hovel that I call my home? What if they cancel their plans to let me stay at their place because one look at mine has demonstrated that I'm "not their sort of person"?

Every insecurity about our homes seems magnified when faced with the prospect of opening it up to people from another country because we're not always sure what is considered "normal" or "acceptable" in their homeland when it comes to living arrangements.

Firstly I'd like to say that when it comes to being hosted overseas my family will be easily pleased. We are excited about the opportunity to see new things, meet new people and learn about other countries and we're not at all fussed about staying anywhere fancy. As far as we're concerned, our accomodation will simply be somewhere to lay our head at night; a "home base" from which to explore our surroundings. We are extremely grateful to the people who have offered to host us, and it is their company and conversation that we are looking forward to, not a king-size bed and back yard swimming pool!

I'll share with you a little bit about my house so you will know where I'm coming from.

I live in a single story house on a 700 square metre (7500 square foot) block of land in a quiet suburb. My house has four bedrooms, one of which we use as a study, a lounge room, dining room, kitchen, laundry and bathroom. Chris has undertaken a couple of renovations, one of which extended the kitchen to give us a "family room" or "eat in kitchen". The other was to convert our garage to a games room in which lives a couple of lounge chairs, a desk and computer, a big screen TV and the Wii and Playstation.

My house is not nearly as big or fancy as some others in my suburb, but it's enough for us. If I had one thing I'd like to improve it, it would be an ensuite bathroom for Chris and I. Also, I wish all our furniture wasn't second hand and that we had new carpet! Also the garden could do with a bit of a makeover! All in all, however, I'm satisfied with what we've got.

I'd love to hear a little bit about your house and how it compares to others in your area. Are you looking to upgrade, downsize, renovate?

I'm not going to bother with a linky because I'm not anticipating a flood of responses, but if you do post about your house then let me know by leaving me a comment.

You host me and I'll host you!

Plans for my World Tour 2012 are underway. The money for airfares is in the bank, so the biggest obstacle has been removed. Hooray!

(It turns out that we have built up a fair bit of equity in our house over the almost sixteen years that we have been paying it off, so the bank was happy to loan us a bit more!)

As you may know, I've been searching for potential house-swappers so as to eliminate the need to pay for accomodation. With accomodation costs minimised, the family and I will be able to holiday for much longer and really have an authentic experience of living in another country, rather than just playing tourist for a short visit.

The good news is...

...two different families in two different countries have offered to host my family! How kind and hospitable and wonderful!

The first family is an older couple who live in England. They are the parents of a very good friend of mine who have a large house in Exeter and have said that they would be glad to have us stay with them! How exciting! I am beginning to investigate things to see and do in both the immediate vicinity and further afield. Of course we'll have to see the sights of London; and I quite fancy getting "Lost in Austen" and my "Potter On".

We're also quite keen on popping over the channel to France! With a bit of luck and good timing, my sister and her family might be in Paris and able to show us around. They are hoping to houseswap with two different families, one in Paris and one in a small town in the Brittany region of France.

But that's not all! One of my blogging buddies who shall remain anonymous has offered us accomodation somewhere in the US! (I'm keeping it a bit mysterious at the moment until all the details are hammered out. It's still over a year until we'll be there and I want to give her every opportunity to back out if she needs to!) The most exciting part about it is that it's not an actual houseswap. She'll be there to host us during our stay! I cannot tell you how excited I am about meeting her in person and being shown around her town! I think we are going to have so much fun and paint the town red!

I'm really, really hoping that I'll be able to repay the hospitality by hosting her and her family one day when she visits Australia. I'm already planning all the things we'll be able to do and all the places I want to take her and things I want to show her! I think that this "you host me and then I'll host you" is soooo much better than an actual houseswap. So much more fun!

So as you can see, I was not kidding when I called my holiday plans my "world tour". We're definitely doing the UK, some of Europe, and some of the US!

Would you like to jump on board?

Would you consider letting my family stay with you next year? We'd happily sleep on mattresses on your floor or even camp in your yard! (We're planning on coming during the northern summer.) Don't make a quick decision. Just think about it. Obviously we'd have to get to know each other well over the next year to make sure that we trust each other. It's not an offer to make lightly. But if you hosted our family on our adventure, we'd be happy to repay the favour by hosting you on your Australian adventure.

I'm so looking forward to your comments!