Where've I Been?

I kinda dropped off the online map in the last month. No blogs, avoided Facebook, minimal email, etc. That's because the last month went something like this:

Stress. Stress. Stress. Stress. Rain. Stress. Stress. Stress. Stress. Visit Emily. Stress. Stress. Stress. Stress. Stress. Arm pain. More rain. Week-long headache. Stress. Stress. Stress. Sun.

I'm starting to wind back up, getting in contact with people, etc. I'll see if I can raise enough emotional energy to post the Australia tour plans soon. Someone remind me to book a physio appointment tomorrow. :|

P.S. Things aren't all that bad. I'm just tired, stressed, and bits of me hurt. Haven't really felt like communicating much at all.

Dream Interpretation

I have recurring dreams of crashing planes. They're generally big jumbo jets, and I'm standing on the ground, watching it pass overhead. I realise it's too low and too slow, and then I watch it hit the ground in a big fireball a few hundred metres away. I have to dodge the debris that is thrown away from the crash, and I try to look out for the people near me. Kind of disturbing.

One dream interpretation site suggests this:

To dream that a plane crashes suggests that you have set overly high and unrealistic goals for yourself. Your goals may be too high and are impossible to realize. You are in danger of having it come crashing down. Alternatively, your lack of confidence, self-defeating attitude and self-doubt toward the goals you have set for yourself is represented by the crashing airplane; you do not believe in your ability to attain those goals. Loss of power and uncertainty in achieving your goals are also signified.

Fair enough. I guess the part about me dodging and looking out for others is simply my concern for what's going to happen after these goals come crashing down. But now, what does it mean when a pair of blue planes crash simultaneously? That's what I dreamed last night. :|

Australia Travel Plans

So far, travel plans for the upcoming Australia trip go something like this:

• Fly in to Sydney at 10am on Thursday, 20th December
• Spend Christmas with family in Muswellbrook
• Spend New Year's Eve in Sydney, and New Year's Day in Wollongong (tentative)
• Spend a few days in Hobart (tentative)
• Spend a few days to a week in Coffs Harbour
• Be in Sydney by the afternoon of Friday, 11th January
• Fly out of Sydney at 1.30pm on Sunday, 13th January

It's a busy little trip again. We'll see how much we can reasonably squeeze in. The main point is to show Emily around, and to spend a lot time with family, either in Muswellbrook, Tasmania, or Coffs Harbour.

Open Season

I just watched Open Season. It's a decent movie, on par with Ice Age or Madagascar. At one point, one of the animals is asked to sing "The Teddy Bear's Picnic". He knows the tune but doesn't know the words...

Once there was a magical elf who lived in a rainbow tree
He lived downstairs from a flatulent dwarf
Who was constantly having to pee
One day the elf could take no more
So he went and banged on the rude dwarf's door
And what do you know, they suddenly both were ma-rried.

Cheap Flights

I didn't get to tell the story of how Emily and I scored cheap flights to Australia. So here goes.

It wasn't a dark and stormy night. I think. Emily and I had been looking at flight prices, and to fly both of us from Edmonton/Vancouver to Sydney was going to cost $5400. Not cheap. We checked and checked, but there were no cheap flights. Then, all of a sudden, a bunch of "A" class tickets were released. $1750 to fly from Edmonton to Sydney! That was a saving of $1000! Crazy!

But not everything was right. Sure, the flight would take Emily from Edmonton to Vancouver, and then from Vancouver to Sydney. But, for some bizarre reason, booking the same flight from Vancouver to Sydney would cost me $2500!

We quickly booked Emily's flight, and then umm-ed and ahh-ed about how I could get to Australia for the same fare. We hit upon an idea: I would simply purchase an Edmonton to Sydney flight, and then board at Vancouver! I would save $750, and just "miss" my Edmonton connections! So we tried to book the same flight but, alas, they were sold out!

We were minutes too late. We were defeated. We went to play some games. Knocking out guards and stealing national secrets is a good way to vent some frustrations (more on that later).

Later that not-so-stormy night, I decided to check the Air Canada website again. Would the cheap fares be back? Yes! Someone had released their hold (literally) on a cheap fare! I quickly called Air Canada to ask a stupid question: "Can I board this flight at Vancouver?" Much umm-ing and ahh-ing followed, and the call centre operator doubted his computer: "How can it be so cheap?" I don't care! We had been undone before by umm-ing and ahh-ing! I hung up on the call centre operator and we booked my flight from Edmonton to Vancouver online.

And that is the story of how we got two tickets to Sydney from Edmonton via Vancouver for $3500. As it turns out, I now have to fly from Vancouver to Edmonton so that I can start my journey to Sydney via Vancouver...

Coincidentally, the total savings are $1750. We could bring another person for that!

P.S. This story is very badly written. I would claim that I wrote it badly on purpose, but to be honest, I just can't write well. :)