For those of you keeping up on our where-abouts you should fully know it’s been 4 months since we made the last leg of our journey to home. During this time I’m sure you also all noticed our blog entries died down to pretty much a sudden stop. Adjusting back to the real world has been some awesome fun, lots more work then we are used to, busy busy busy, and we can’t forget about the gambit of emotions to go along with all that!

Luckily we did not jump back into the work force right away and planned to have 2 months of seeing friends and family, espcially since we did not have a home yet. Our condo still had renters in it until July 1st. So, we stayed mostly with my parents, with sleep-over extended visits to various friends houses here and there.

The start to life back in Canada was a short visit to Calgary. Our great friends Steve and Karen who traveled with us for 2 months through Europe were great hosts for these couple of days and made us one of the best dinners we had in a long ass time. We love steak, especially Triple A Alberta Beef. You’ve never have beef until you have eaten this. Trust us! We tried steak all over the world and nothing came remotely close to Alberta Beef. Our friends showed up Gordon Ramsay in their own backyard. No fancy gourmet kitchen or posh restaurant with a ridiculous priced menu. Take that Gordon!

We then flew home to Vancouver filled with extremely happy family/friends to see our return. Welcome home BBQ’s, parties, simple get togethers, outings and repeat. We truly felt missed and were quite thankful of my parents letting us live with them until we got our condo back.

However, on top of all this hub-bub, we really had a hard time getting out of bed and doing anything during the day. We were still quite used to sleeping in and then relaxing all day on a beach or in a pool. Plus, I’m sure we had a large dose of jet lag in our systems as well.

May long weekend we drove out to Salmo B.C to help PK Sound with the Village stage tear down at Shambhala. Demolish parts of the stage and clean up the forest during the day and drink with friends around the giant bon fire at night.

After May long we drove back to Calgary for a couple weeks to do some much needed renovations on our loft in order to get a new renter for July 1st. New paint, new carpet, replace some light fixtures, replace the bathroom door, hang up curtains, clean it up, list it, and interview possible renters. When I look back at the work we did it doesn’t sound like much. But, like most renovations things never go as planned and ended up being quite the headache. It sure felt good once it was completed! I wanted to move back in after pouring my heart and soul into it. It looks SO good and in result rented quite easily. Unfortunately we were so down to the last minute we completely forgot to take after photos!! =(

Another highlight for us was participating in our first scavenger hunt with Alex and Heather. We named our team Gang Green, wore all green clothing, and decorated my car for some extra bonus point team flair and scavenged the city for items and photos. It was a blast and we won second place!! Can not wait to do it again next year. Much thanks to Mike Awesome for hosting this!!

Suddenly July long weekend approached us and that meant three things. First, Scott would be going back to work at his old job. The second was one more weekend spent at The Village helping now with the beginnings of the new stage construction. Third, we got to move back into our home! It was a busy week of driving, constructing a stage, moving, unpacking, and Scott adjusting back to the work life.

As great as it actually was to live with my parents for the past two months. We truly have an amazing relationship with them. Which was only made stronger when they both traveled all the way out to Thailand for a month with us. It’s now amazingly great to truly and finally be home.

We still have a ton more stories to share from our travels. Vietnam, Cambodia, and one last week in Thailand are still to come, even some tales from on the road in Canada. Also, coming up are more things to share about our adjustment back home and stories about the music events we have attended. I’m sure Furry Friday will also make a big come back appearance soon enough!

Sorry to have been on such a hiatus. But really… we are not sorry! We’ve been really enjoying life and every moment of being home. Hope your summer was as awesome as ours.

I’m already feeling more alive, more in-tuned with myself, happier, and open minded and we haven’t even left yet!

Our final preparations are going well. Just rented out both our Vancouver condo and our Calgary loft all within the same hour. That is really the last major item on our list aside from moving our belongings out of our home. Feels great to have that weight off the shoulders.. and we have plans to move our stuff in 1 week. I already feel liberated just thinking all my possessions will just be in my backpack after that.

Well, I’m feeling like I should get back to packing our home up…

First and foremost:

We are now showing our condo to potential renters! Yup, that’s right finally we have gotten somewhere with our condo board and being allowed to rent our place out. Well maybe I should rephrase that… due to them doing NOTHING within 3 weeks from our hardship request the Vancouver City Strata act trumps our buildings own strata act and we are legally allowed to rent. Just another example that procrastination gets you no where. No matter who you are. Hopefully we can find a great renter with ease.

Know anyone in Vancouver looking for a swank pad? Check out our rental listing on craigslist!

Second and probably even more exciting:

We have ourselves a departure date!! We get on our first airplane of many for the next year on June 19th. Destination: Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Yah, I know.. not quite over the pond yet… but a friend is getting married and since we are leaving around that time anyways… why not attend? Got ourselves a sale on Westjet and voila! Bonus: we get to see a ton of our friends and Scott’s Dad/Laurie right before we take off. 19 more days to go!!!

#3 in the news list:

This is my last week of work!! Only 5 more days and then I’m off to experience the longest long weekend of my life… (until I retire). Tonight is my last Sunday (for at least a year) thinking about having to wake up and go to work in the morning. I wonder if the week is going to fly by or feel like it’s going in reverse.

And last but not least:

Our trip preparations are moving along quite well. I’m feeling way less stressed about everything. It’s now becoming more tricky planning our final social events with friends and family… the days are filling up quick!

Check out our giant to do list. Feels pretty good to see a bunch of things crossed off!

Here is our new updated list of things we need to do for the next 19 days: (bolded items are most important for this week)

• Continue to save money
• Sell remaining items on Craigslist/Ebay
• Fix Post Author Problem
• Create email signatures
• Fix baseboards in closet
• Detail Scott’s car
• Sell Scott’s car
• Get new glasses for Scott
• Get oil change for K-Rad & Scott’s car
• Clean K-Rad
• Rent out Condo and Loft
• Photocopy all required ID
• Fill prescriptions
• Post Calgary Loft Rental
• Finalize packing list
• Buy any remaining needed travel gear
• Get travel insurance
• Book plane ticket to Europe
• Plan out out trip itinerary better
• Research destinations and make info pages to go with
• Get any Visa’s we need right now -Russian applications sent
• Unlock iphone
• Exchange Scott’s ipod
• Continue to download music and shows
• Transfer files from Dee’s computer to Scotts
• Continue to pack
• Buy some food and litter stock for the cats
• Cancel newspaper, cellphone, internet, hydro, bank accounts, Scott’s car insurance
• Re-Direct Mail
• Eat and drink remaining items in the cupboards/fridge
• Give any thing we don’t sell to Scott’s mom
• Move our stuff to Dee’s parents
• Retouch up any needed paint
• Clean Condo
• Change K-Rad insurance to storage
• Take cats to Carole
• Pack our bags
• get on a plane!

That was my worst case scenario going through my head as I drove to head office in the morning,

I really wasn’t sure how this meeting was going to go. It could go either very good or very bad, and I really hoped it wouldn’t be the crazy story I had just envisioned. I’ve worked for my company for almost 10 years and really needed a break, so as I told my boss Terry my request he seemed a little shocked at first. He then broke out into a huge smile and said “I think it’s a fantastic idea, your going to have a great time!” Terry went on to say he had taken a similar trip before he was married, and it taught him a “university education of the world”. That you’ll learn more about yourself and other cultures than you ever thought possible. We ended up talking about traveling for 30 minutes. We needed to get the business of moving Alex into my position, transferring my residuals to Alex, keeping my medical and having my job when I get back with my residuals and client base. A tall order but in the end everything was agreed on.

I have to say it was far less dramatic than I envisioned, and a fantastic experience. It’s a great relief to break the news to the boss and have him be enthusiastic about your adventures. A couple tips if your going to ask for a long term sabatical or leave of absense:

• Give your company lots of notice. We felt that 45 days was cutting it a bit short.
• Talk to your boss before anyone else, they deserve to hear it from you in person and not over an email or phone call.
• If your going to ask for your job back or some special circumstance, be prepared to sell your self a bit. Put together an elevator pitch – a 60-120 second commercial about yourself. When you first sit down give them the pitch – how long you’ve been with the company, some of your achievements, mention positive reviews, etc. Your goal is to get your manager to remember instantly all the positives of why he’s going to help you out.
• Spill the beans, say your taking a leave and give your asks. Be honest and lay it all out, trying to be as clear and specific as possible. In my case I wanted to have my friend Alex who works with me promoted to a full outbound rep, get my residual payments transferred to him and then returned when I came back and my position will be here for me.
• Because your prepared, your more likely to get it all. Please note this list is my formula and is only guaranteed to work on every third person.

Have you taken a long leave of absence from your work? How did you and your boss handle it? We’d love to hear, just write a comment below!

Just like that we decided we were going to tell our bosses. For some reason I thought I would know months ahead of time on the day I was going to break the news. But nope, reality was we decided the day before I broke the news.

I had that odd nervous feeling running through my body monday morning. Just anticipating what was going to happen. It took me a good 5 mins before I could press send on my email to the boss to arrange a meeting. I couldn’t understand why I was so nervous… all I was going to be doing is telling them I have plans to go see the world.

Now that I think about it… that odd feeling was the exact same feeling I had when I got into that beautiful hot red classic car on the day of my wedding. It was the car that was taking me to marry the love of my life which I was really excited for.  It was an amazing ceremony on a gorgeous sunny day followed by one heck of a reception! I don’t believe I was nervous that day… so it must of been excitement I was feeling.

Words that come out of my mouth are never practiced or pre-thought out. They just happen. Only once have I ever written down what I was going to say before I said it. My wedding vows. Which were created very last minute. It was 3 am the day before my wedding (or I guess that would morning of!) and I wrote them in bed. I always left my homework to the last minute as well. So of course that means I entered into that meeting with my boss not prepared at all.

As I was about to tell him I could feel butterflies in my tummy. The exact same ones you get when you line up for a roller coaster you have never been on. Which must mean I was feeling nervous and excited! Somehow the words came out but how they did I have no idea.

None the less, the meeting went good. My co-workers are all happy for me and it sure feels good to finally let the cat out of the bag. A weight is off my shoulders that I didn’t even know I had!

Now to find out how Scott’s meeting went….

So much of our preparations we have to do get left for the weekend. However these last few weekends have been filled up with other important things like going to go see my family and my grandpa that is in the hospital. Helping Scott’s mom. Friends visiting that we haven’t seen in ages. Celebrating birthdays and so on… And I continue to see this trend in our upcoming weekends. We have more people we need to visit, birthdays to celebrate and so forth.

We really want to leave in May. That is in 2 months!! Time really is flying by….

So what is our plan to accomplish all the preparations? I’m going to start posting a weekly to do list on here and hope that by sharing it with the world we will get more motivated to actually complete it. That whole making a deal with someone. I said to so and so I will do this.

This means however we really need to get on top of keeping our place tidy so we are not wasting our time doing big cleans all the time.

Anyways… here is this weeks To Do List. Wish us luck!

1) Fully clean apartment
2) Call Visa about Balance Transfer
3) Pull stuff to sell out of Storage room and bring into Command Center
4) Start listing items on ebay / Craigslist
5) Book appointment with Travel Doctor
6) Write some content for “The Trip”

After the initial shock and awe wore off, my dutch started kicking in though. Sure it was sexy, sure it was tiny, but would it last the duration? After scouring the internet and talking to my trusted advisor (read:Alex), I came to the realization that it may be more sparkle than substance. The Macbook Air only has 1 USB port, has problems charging on a table, it’s processor speed is a bit slow, and it feels delicate. It’s definatly priced on it’s sex appeal, not it’s performance or toughness. What’s the point of having a Porsche if your stuck driving in school zones?

It might have been my dutch kicking in, but I tossed the glam for substance. I traded in the Air and iPhone and  was able to get a new Aluminum Macbook 13″ that’s just a hell of a better machine. 50% faster, twice as large of a hard drive to store all our photos, movies and images, extra battery option, double the ram. It’s only 1.5lbs heavier  and 0.95″ thick all the way around. It will last much longer and be able to do more, and I’m all about getting the best of both worlds. Plus the new aluminum’s are machined out of one piece of metal, so it should be extremely durable. It’s a better machine in every way, and it’s shiny. 

So does size matter?

If we were talking about a 7lb laptop that was a slower speed, sure it would. If you just wanted to just throw the Air into a bag and carry it around to look sexy, sure that would work.

But me, I think it’s more important to have a machine that will stand the test of time. Something that has raw processing power, huge ram and a durable case. Something that will go the distance and still come out swinging. And I’m happy with my new laptop!

.

The Prize Package choices are:

Macbook Air & Iphone
46″ Flat Panel LCD plus Blue Ray Disc Player
32″ Flat Panel LCD, Play Station 3, Surround Sound System
Custom fit Calloway Golf Clubs
Burton Snowboard Package

All really great prizes! We narrowed it down to the Macbook Air as we already have a 46″, 36″ would be nice for the bedroom but we won’t need that until we get back, Scott already has golf clubs and again won’t be using them this year, and snowboard package is sweet since we want to start but again, not till we get back….. where the Macbook Air we can use on the trip as it’s super small and light weight!

However, when Scott told them his prize choice he was made aware there was a typo that it was supposed to be just a regular Macbook and iphone. They said they can still buy the Macbook Air with no iphone and you would have to pay the difference as it retails over $2000 once taxes and such get added on.

Sigh… So now we have a dilemma… We were just originally going to travel with my current Macbook…. but then the option of bringing something lighter came along and that sounded like a great idea. My current Macbook is over 2 years old and has 2 small “cracks” which can easily get dust exposed into the inside hardware if it was exposed to a really dusty area. I’ve often wondered if it would actually last on our trip.

So, does size and weight really matter and we still take the Macbook Air and just pay the difference?

Or do we take a brand new regular Macbook plus iphone? (which we would sell the iphone for some cash to pocket) 

Or do we take something else?

Decisions, Decisions…

Best part… we have to decide TODAY! yikes.

VS

We were quite surprised at how easy it was to get to from downtown Vancouver. Just a 15 drive and then hop on their “Skyride”. Which is a very large and impressive gondola that takes you to the top. There is no public access road to drive up there… which really is a blessing as mountain roads do not always have the best driving conditions. 

Grouse Mountain is supposed to have one of the best views of the lower mainland but it was snowing when we were up there so there was no visibility. Scott and I will defiantly go back in the future sometime when it’s a clear night to see this view. 

The party was really good and the food was excellent. Actually one of the best work functions I have ever attended in my life! My co-worker did an excellent job planning it and Grouse Mountain treated us all really well. 

We spent most of the evening talking with my co-workers husband. They both grew up in South Africaand move to Canada about 13 years ago. He shared a ton of their travel stories from Europe and information about Africa as well. We told him about our tentative travel plans and he then said to us: 

I have only two words for you… Do it. 

He then repeated those 2 words to us randomly through-out the rest of the night. So much that I can still envision his mouth forming those 2 words and even hear the phrase repeat in my thoughts like a broken record!

The flyer I’m working on already has it’s look and identity and thus I just have to copy and paste this feature promo’s products into the already created little square boxes and change the price. Sometimes I think my job title should be “Cut and Paste Professional” instead of Graphic Designer. I’m surprised my command, C and V buttons are not worn out.

Still feeling sleepy, I decided to go for a walk and get myself a chai tea latte.

The air was cool and crisp and I felt more alive instantly. The world was doing it’s thing… People tightening their scarfs to keep the unfriendly wind off their necks, students rushing to catch their bus, big semi’s making wide turns, autumn leaves adding color to a concrete color scheme, testosterone engaged teenage driver peeling out at the stop sign, the not so good sushi place has new window signage, and I realized that I have work at my current job long enough that the new large office building has finally completed it’s 2 year construction.

I have begun to realize I really love seeing the outside world during a work day. I feel the most intrigued and inspired with myself and my surroundings. I love to be an observer, taking everything in. I work in a purplish grey walled office with fluorescent lighting and no windows. The atmosphere doesn’t really help to inspire creativity.

However, all at the same time I am thankful for the experience I have gained from my current job. Aside from bringing in the sugar and teaching me some skills I didn’t have beofre,  it has helped me to realize what I don’t want in my future career and will make exploring this planet even more fulfilling.