It's hot and I'm outta here!!

Greetings, dear readers

I hope you had a wonderful New Year celebration wherever you happened to be. For my part, I stayed at home with my brothers watching Shaun Micallef's New Year Rave Party (which was a bit of disappointment in my opinion) and Lord of the Rings on TV. Strangely, Melbourne's free-to-air TV networks did not show Melbourne's CBD fireworks display, which was quite brilliant according to the various eyewitness accounts I heard. There were "fireworks" even before the real fireworks began; Melbourne welcomed the New Year with a spectacular thunderstorm, the likes of which I hadn't seen for years. It was loud - at times the thunder was so close it shook the house! - and it was long, lasting nearly two hours!

Summer has well and truly arrived in Melbourne. After a reasonably pleasant December, we have already gone through a couple of heat waves, and I dread what February is going to be like! Fortunately I plan to be out of the country for most of the month, hoping to return when it has cooled down. Based on previous experience, I'm not exactly counting on that happening though.

Last week, Mum and I went to our local shopping mall to apply for my new passport at the post office, then inquire from a travel agent about tickets to Hong Kong and Malaysia during February. Although I had intended to be in Hong Kong for the actual Chinese New Year (February 14), Mum suggested - with good reason - that I go and spend it in Malaysia first. It will be only time I can really catch up with the maternal cousins that are around my age, because during the year they will either be working or studying in Singapore or in Kuala Lumpur or some other big city in Malaysia. Chinese New Year is one of the few times where they will all come back to Kluang - my Mum's home town - for a few days of merry feasting and catching up.

With that in mind, this is what the itinerary looks like. On 9 February, I will be flying from Melbourne at 5pm and landing in Singapore at just after 9.30pm the same day. After a couple of days in Singapore, I will head in to Malaysia for Chinese New Year celebrations before heading back to Singapore to catch a flight on the morning of 17 February to Hong Kong, arriving at around 1.30pm the same day. I will be flying back to Melbourne on the afternoon of 5 March, having a brief transit in Singapore, and then arriving back home at 7:15a.m. the following day. The airline of choice? Singapore Airlines all the way! Having flown with them on numerous occasions, I can testify that they are truly world-class. Additionally, I have a KrisFlyer membership, so it makes sense to top up on points if I can. And the cost of the trip? The airfare itself was $1,283.00 (Australian dollars unless stated otherwise), and then with travel insurance purchased from RACV costing $198.00, the total added up to $1,481.00, which is a hard-to-beat price for the period in which I'm travelling.

Yesterday, everything for the above-mentioned trip seemed to come together. Not only did my new passport arrive in the mail, but my boss at Big W also approved Leave of Absence! My only other option would have been to resign from my part-time contract and go back to being a casual associate. I still can't believe how gracious God has been and I am so excited about the upcoming trip! (although, to be honest, who wouldn't be?)

And on that upbeat note, I will bid you farewell. Unless something huge happens beforehand, my next post will not be published until I am overseas.

Cheers and God bless

Jeremy