# Complain post# #Travel journal#

* taking a break from ...* 

Goash! This is taking me longer than usual! Which is why I had to spend sleepless nights years ago when doing planning for holidays. Ahh...... long long time ago when I had to plan to coincide with mom's dialysis. I had the help from my sister who faxed them. Hahaha! So ancient time! It's so much easier now with emails but .... still I wouldn't be able to get some work done without her help.  

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There are a few types of travellers.

1) Shopaholic. Sleep & Shop : Be it they're in the nearby countries or some distant galaxy far away. I mean.... what's the big fuss over shopping right? (You'll be surprise to know that I don't really like shopping overseas. Firstly, I need to shop without people around me. I have impatient children and hubby, I won't even have the mood. Secondly, unless it's some kind of to-die-for one in a million dress, I won't cast a second look. Most times, the other 3 are the shoppers! I spend my time squatting in changing room and fuss over them like princesses helping them with their corsets etc... Okay, but luckily my family are not the 200% shopaholics. I bet this trip hubby will buy more jeans. I will secretly throw his old clothings away when he does that. Serious! He has more clothes than me!!) .....  what more most items are .. MADE in CHINA

2) Just walk around the place they are going to be for the next one week. Relaxing type. Gasp! Seriously? I would have train-ed out to goodness know where to venture more places. Unless they're been to the place donkey times so they just want a good hangout. I think my hangout place would be Hong Kong, I'll go there just for the food. 3 days is good enough. 

3) Sightseeing freak : This is so me. As if there's no tomorrow, so must take opportunity to sightsee as much as possible. I scared the shit out of then-boyfriend who realised that I had the guts to take a domestic plane to Ephesus from Istanbul myself. I'd train-ed to various small towns in Europe when I was flying. Brought che-che (then very young) alone to Augusta Raurica from Basel. And when he had to work much later, I brought her to Freiburg (Germany). All for the sake of seeing new places. 

No matter how daring I am towards sightseeing, I still do play caution in some cities where crime rates are high and will forgo the idea. No matter how daring I am towards learning new places, I will not dare to ski. 

4) Sporty types : I know of a family who would go skiing every December. So much so that they are pros. To them, skiing in the Alps is more important than immersing into the Swiss city lifestyle. 

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Planning for holidays was more difficult then. Had to flip through books in the library, get the map and plan the routes. There was no such thing called GPS when we did road trips then, so I was like some engineering freak who would scruntinise the small cities, routes, running my fingers through the routes (also ensuring the roads are not closed at that time) and getting the estimated time of travel by using the metric table. It's a good thing I'm good in Math. The man totally relied on me. “How long more?” And I had to use my cutesy calculator cum world alarm clock to help me with quick calculation. Plus I had to help him see which lane to go. ????? He literally just step on accelerator and drive. 

My itineries was then bounded in a book with all the information including hotel bookings. It meant that I had everything all carefully thought of. And everything will ‘fall in place’.

This time round, I'm shocked that hubby merely booked the accomodations (he booked the same ones as I did for two national parks) and air tickets without plan anything at all after that. For the past few F&E travels (no road trips) I left it to him coz' I was so busy with the children and household. He did print some sights off the website and we went, train-ed to the destinations. 

But he didn't do anything this time, is he waiting for me to do so? But anyway..... it's our second trip to the almost same destinations so maybe he's laxed? But it's winter!! Ok, we're just so different! He's the "relax...... things will fall into places when time comes...." whereas I'm the worried freak, worried if it's going to be snowing and then maybe cannot go here/there etc.. 

Without his planning, it is difficult for me to do a travel journal for lil' one. End up, I will have to do some planning with a "maybe we're going there. Maybe we're not going there." mindset. For eg. I have no idea if he is going on Route 66. End up I decided to do up a journal section on this, give that girl some activity to do. Well..... if we're there - good for her. If we didn't go, too bad that I had wasted my time for nothing.    

So why am I wasting my time on this journal you might think. Over the years, I have always tasked the girls to write travel journals whenever we travel. Their journals lack the oomph, reading them is so boring. Che-che would be the smarter one and asked to borrow the itinery I had typed out and copy word for word. Once when she was crazy over Geronimo Stilton, she had her journal written in that same way. Lil' one would be so lazy and write it halfway, then all her journals include her personal feelings. Too personal. Haha! Out of 10 entries, 9 would be on "I saw .... , I begged daddy to buy for me but he didn't so I got so angry with him blah blah blah.." It's really hilarious whenever I read their journals. 

Lil' one don't observe much too. She'll just hold daddy's hands and walk through quickly from one point to the next. Honestly, I have no idea why they are rushing when we're not in any tour group tours. Whereas I'd like to point out and tell che-che's things that we saw.. most time we can't stay longer coz' they would have walked so fast and disappear from sight and we have to start chasing them or shouting at them to stop. Damn irritating! (which is also why I really dare not ask any of my family members to go on holiday with us. It happens all the time in Singapore when we're out for lunch and then he starts walking off without waiting. And my family ..... they're slow.... most times I end up getting caught in between coz I had to be the lookout for the front and the back. I don't have the energy to do this overseas. Sigh..) With the journal, she'll have to start doing some observations and writing for me. Really pitiful, she's been to a few countries but still so ignorant. 

Che-che 
As she's growing older, I realised that it seems so much easier to travel with her. She's curious and will observe things around her. (lil' one is the bimbo)  She is excited over the ability of seeing the beautiful sky in national parks (even before I told her).During her school camp in Sec 1 or 2? She sat outside the hut observing the moon and sky and even told my friend about it.Now, she's old and strong (stronger than me) enough to help me. She asked to bring my DSLR (for the first time I had to pack tripod) to "take nice pics". Ahh..... this is the girl that is at loggerheads with me, the girl who had to deal with so much of my scoldings and beatings.  

Lil' one
I really gotta do something with this lil' bimbo. So ignorant over every thing. And she has no patience to listen (just like her dad) 

Okay, bye! Back to planning.  

Some post I was checking :    http://photographyroundtable.com/the-best-time-of-the-year-to-photograph-the-milky-way/