Our house was built in 1975. When we bought it in 1992, the kitchen was still the original and already in need of overhaul.
It's now 2017, of course it's still the same kitchen, and it really can't wait any longer. Talk about a horseshoe nail - the plumber can no longer replace the washer in the tap, as there's no metal left to seat it on. To replace the pipe, the wall needs to be knocked out. And to do that, almost all the cabinets in that part of the kitchen have to be removed. There's no way to remove them without destroying them, and once you remove them half the kitchen is gone. And, really, renovating half of a 42 year old kitchen???
So, we'll be renovating the entire kitchen, back to the bare walls and starting from scratch, because we can't replace the washer in the tap :-)
And, it hasn't take us much time to realise that next year's big holiday has now become an extravagance we probably can't afford on top of the big unknown that the kitchen renovation is already becoming.
So, that cruise will be cancelled - no money lost, we had only paid a small deposit and we'll transfer it to another cruise.
We'll still probably have a smaller holiday; in fact I've already paid a deposit on a cruise on a different ship I'm also really keen to see - so, we're already booked on a 14 day re-positioning cruise on the Ovation of the Seas, leaving Singapore on 19 October 2018 and coming back to Sydney via Perth, Adelaide and Hobart.
Sunday 29 October 2017
Saturday 14 October 2017
Wellington and the Great War Exhibition
Back in October 2015 we were on a cruise and found ourselves in Wellington quite unexpectedly.
At the time we promised ourselves that we'd get back to Wellington to see the Great War Exhibition, and now we're going to do that.
I have the first week of January 2018 on leave - the original intention was to extend my enforced Christmas leave and go on a cruise (which would have taken us to Wellington). However, we decided against that in the end; cruises are just too expensive during the school holidays.
So, instead, I'll be doing my first non-cruise-related trip to New Zealand. Singapore Airlines flies direct from Canberra to Wellington which is really convenient; going to Sydney first is an expensive and slow way to get out of the country. We're going to fly there on New Years Day and back on the Friday.
The only serious plan we have is to visit the Great War exhibition, but there are certainly other things to see and do in Wellington, so it should hopefully be a nice (cool!) break before my last few, hectic months at work.
On another note, we're now getting to the point where it's possible to start planning for next year's big holiday and cruise. As is always the case, we're going to have to settle on a date fairly soon - this time the controlling factor is the flight out of Australia.
We're going to avoid the "Canberra-Sydney-huge flight to London in economy" approach this time. Instead, the plan is to fly direct from Canberra to Singapore in economy, then fly business class with Finnair to London. Their business fares are quite reasonable, particularly given that we're only flying one-way. But, we're going to have to book soon to get a seat. So, it looks like we'll leave here on 2 October 2018.
At the time we promised ourselves that we'd get back to Wellington to see the Great War Exhibition, and now we're going to do that.
I have the first week of January 2018 on leave - the original intention was to extend my enforced Christmas leave and go on a cruise (which would have taken us to Wellington). However, we decided against that in the end; cruises are just too expensive during the school holidays.
So, instead, I'll be doing my first non-cruise-related trip to New Zealand. Singapore Airlines flies direct from Canberra to Wellington which is really convenient; going to Sydney first is an expensive and slow way to get out of the country. We're going to fly there on New Years Day and back on the Friday.
The only serious plan we have is to visit the Great War exhibition, but there are certainly other things to see and do in Wellington, so it should hopefully be a nice (cool!) break before my last few, hectic months at work.
On another note, we're now getting to the point where it's possible to start planning for next year's big holiday and cruise. As is always the case, we're going to have to settle on a date fairly soon - this time the controlling factor is the flight out of Australia.
We're going to avoid the "Canberra-Sydney-huge flight to London in economy" approach this time. Instead, the plan is to fly direct from Canberra to Singapore in economy, then fly business class with Finnair to London. Their business fares are quite reasonable, particularly given that we're only flying one-way. But, we're going to have to book soon to get a seat. So, it looks like we'll leave here on 2 October 2018.
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