Travel Planning

Well, I waffled all over the place this year. To those who don’t realize, I have my own small tradition going. For the past seven New Years I’ve been in another country when the proverbial ball dropped to usher in a new year. The first year, in Edinburgh, Scotland, there was no long ranging plan….

This may be old news for some but after a ton of to and fro, I finally selected a destination for my annual New Years wander!  And I think I’ve pretty much given up any secret on that one in the title of this post!  Yes, a partial re-tread as I’ve been to Mexico twice,…

Since I’ve been in my own little world lately, I figured I should get in at least one blog update before rushing off for my 6th New Years abroad.  In this order, the past five were Edinburgh’s Hogmanay street party, Rome’s Piazza della Repubblica, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay (rained out, drying off in a tiny hotel room…

Okay, for weeks, I’ve been hating how dark it was in the morning.  The late sunrise made it seem even harder to rise and shine.  Okay, I never shine, but I do rise.  Now the sun is going down too early.  There is no winning is there? Where to begin on updates?  Hmmm…  I don’t…

All in all, when I travel, I like to stay in a given place a few days.  Much of my selection of the Intrepid trip I chose to Egypt earlier this year was that every night was not a different city.  If I had longer than two weeks, I would have waited to languish even…

Well, first to follow up on my post about the old laptop, yes, I bought a mac.  I splashed out on a macbook pro, but I bought a refurb.  They carry the mac warranty (and I used the savings to get the three year Apple Care, so I’m well covered).  The refurb looked completely new. …

It’s been a few weeks now, but British Airways posted a pretty good deal to 20+ European cities.  I was feeling the need (note NEED not desire) to get away for a bit.  I pondered all the different routes I could take, but scheduling the places I wanted was hellacious because of the timing of…

Coolness! This evening I discovered that I came in first in a Lonely Planet photo challenge on flickr. It’s a weekly thing where they give out a theme and you can submit photos to the theme. This past week’s was “Most High” and my travel photos of the hot air balloons from Egypt seemed to…

Fàilte! Time is just flying by day by day, here. Thanksgiving came and went. I felt like I spent a chunk of it back and forth between here and home. The photo show was Friday night. I would have loved to have been there, but it was fun to meet some new people and catch…

Well, I’ve been debating this one for quite awhile. I kept waffling.  I discovered that I had built up a pile of points with my American Express card over the past few years.  It helps that up until this month, I could charge work travel to my own card. Once I figured out I could…

It’s me here, still with the hobbling. On flat terrain I’m fine. Going up the stairs I’m fine. Going down the stairs, I may as well be 80 years old. I sort of started analyzing what is giving me problems this morning and determined that if I reach my foot down to the next step,…

After Friday’s physical therapy, I was quite sore. Lasted through Saturday, but I woke up Sunday feeling bright eyed. I still have a little catch spot in the side of my leg that hurts, but it’s night and day. I bound up and down the stairs with nary a thought! Perfect timing I’d say as…

So, a few days ago, I was thinking about Mexico. And I do desire to go back there some day, although the fall just calls to me more than Spring. I don’t know why. I’m not a logical person. Logical people don’t search the web for travel possibilities every time the work day gets rough….

Day one of physical therapy is behind me and I’m encouraged.  My knee felt much better today.  Physical therapy was interesting.  After he evaluated it (and came up with the same thing doc #2 and the orthopedist said), he put a hot pack on it awhile.  Then there was some ultrasound thing, followed by, I…

Busyish Saturday once I finally started moving.  I wasn’t really up and about until close to noon.  I had this grand plan to get up early and go get my emissions done and also get an oil change and the transmission fluid changed.  Maintenance to do and it’s time for that annual emissions test so…

Okay, I waffled a million ways from Sunday about going to Egypt around New Years. But of course, after I thought about it two days, the airfare was up over $300 more than it was when I first looked. And maybe alone not enough of a reason, but I found a good deal somewhere else,…

As always, work week has been rough and I’m looking forward to some comparable weekend downtime. I recently finished working through all of my pictures of Italy. It’s not that I don’t have tons more from both local travel and just around town. It’s just that gets me back to the old where to go…

I held off on mentioning this partially because I’ve been slam-busy and partially waiting for things to firm up, but I’m no longer going to Italy completely solo. I’ll still have some me time, but part of the trip, Brandy, a friend for more years than either of us probably care to admit, is joining…

Well, if you’ve talked to me or e-mailed with me in the past month or so, you’ve probably suffered through a good deal of trip talk, i.e. “Should I stay or should I go now.” More than a month ago, I started contemplating Rome for the New Year. It’s the off-season yes, but it cannot…