Chris's Blog

Many words have been used to describe me over the years, some good most bad. Here you will just find my words and mostly I'm pretty nice.

Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

First Steps…

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Well the real estate agent has been notified and I’m moving house. Off to share a house which is something I haven’t done for over 5 years when I was studying in Melbourne. It’s going to be interesting but to over halve my rent and split my bills 3 ways the savings are going to be overwhelming worth it if I intend to leave for Europe in April next year.

This does mean I have been left trying to find a home for a unit full of furniture and the like. Most will be stored back home in the parents shed, which means boxing everything up to save it from possible water leaks and mice along with a rogue cow that may find its way in there. Some items like my old hand-me-down couch will being retired to the great couch god in the sky, while my table and chairs will be flogged off in the local rag for a fraction of what they cost me.

Compacting back down into one room when for the last 9 years I’ve been doing the exact opposite is going to be difficult but if it gets me to my goal its well worth it. In a way its forcing me to rid the excess baggage I’ve collected over time which is rather refreshing, a way to start anew so to speak, the beginning of a great adventure…

Moved from dreaming to planning phase

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009



A long time coming but I have now moved from dreaming about heading over to the UK, to planning it all and working out what I’m going to need in terms of funds and supplies. That and I have until I’m 30 before the working visa no longer applies to me and I’m way closer to that than I would like to be :) . As for money well how long is a piece of string? do I travel about a bit first then go for work or should I just get straight into work? Then there is the job of obtaining the required gear to serve me well overseas such as backpack, footwear, security measures etc.

At this stage my main goal is money and lots of it. Having not really taken holidays at work for the last 2 years I have some reserve built up to take when I leave but plenty more is needed. The more I have to go with the more options that will give me. I’m looking at heading away around March but given that’s coming into the busy season may go a little earlier if funds can be saved in time. I should be able to put enough away by then… I hope.

With money being the order of the day I’ve started to evaluate my living costs and working out what I can do without. Right now the can do without list is rather short so that leaves me with two options. Find a replacement job that will fund it, or move into a share house or in with sister and her bf.

Finding another job isn’t likely in Ballarat and moving to melb to work for 6 months seems like a wasted idea. So that has left me looking for some weekend/weeknight work and with that horrible memories of my supermarket days come flooding back. I don’t mind that idea so much actually as I’m wasting my spare time at the moment. If I’m working its getting me towards my goal quicker anyway so that’s a good thing.

The idea of getting my RSA etc to work in either a bar or pokie venue is an option and also possibly come in useful should work in the UK turn out to be as difficult to find as I think (not that I want to do that kind of work) . There is also a possibility of moving in with sister and her bf as they just bought a house but talks of rent for that works out to just about as much as I pay now so see no point sharing when I can have my own space, perhaps more talking can resolve it.

I think I have finally grown enough to know its a good idea and what I want. Funny how just 3 years ago I would have only ever given the idea a faint glimpse and never thought I would have had the confidence to do it. Now in the last 6 months I’ve weighted up pros and cons, looked at costs of required items and haven’t once felt scared of the fact I’ll be alone in a completely different part of the world. Funny how time changes things…

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