First World Travel Pains

Shortly after my London work trip, comes the New Zealand "do nothing" holiday. As with all other trips, it ended in the blink of an eye. I was ambitious. Almost to the point of naivety. Other than the trip down to Hamilton, I was going to be stuck in Auckland City, which in my opinion, was quite a boring city.

With no specific place to visit for over a week, I had great plans of re-organising my photos from my past trips, planning of the upcoming Sweden trip, complete a couple of projects from work (?!), blogging while reading a couple of books.

Instead, I spent half the time shopping. -__-" A great deal of time was spent in buying winter wear to survive the harsh bitter winters in Kiruna, Sweden. And going from shop to shop, New World and Countdown, buying souvenirs and groceries.

Nah, I didn't shop at Lim Chhour.

And just when I thought I was through with shopping in London. Hmm..

 And I thought that my T2 splurge was over in Australia.

Obviously, the short daylight hours and erratic weather didn't help. Not only did I fail to finish the only physical book I brought there, work had piled up considerably. It was horrifying trying to keep up with the numerous work emails. It didn't help that I had to attend a teleconference on my last night in Auckland.

To make matters worse, I missed out on weekend markets and found out about the "newly opened" islands: Tiritiri Matangi, Rotoroa, and Kawau Island. But it was too late due to limited ferry times on specofic days. Heck, I didn't even manage to stroll down Hobson Street! (I had lived there during my short student exchange stint)

My temporary "office"

Well, this will probably be my last "do nothing" trip in a long time. The writings were already on the wall when I went there with such a long to-do list. Clearly, that violates the very definition of "doing nothing".

Despite not being well-rested, this trip has opened my eyes to prospects on working overseas. $$$$$ There ain't any free lunch in this world, and some things gotta give, be it career opportunities, work-life balance, taxes and rent.

A piece of prime estate in the city is still rather affordable here!

As they say, 船到桥头自然直. I guess in the end, I will have to go where the Lord would take me to.

For now, if my boss asked me about my holiday, I would just let him know I truly need a sabbatical. :p