Gimme A Break

The long school holidays are coming up… fast, and every year, it gets here before I even have a chance to plan any vacations. We usually only take short trips because the kids aren’t that keen to travel, they’d much rather stay home on the computer .

Well, here we are again, almost that time of year again to start planning a vacation if we are to really go away for a while. Trouble is I’ve been too busy to think about where to go.

Unlike a girl friend of mine who always has everything all planned out every time. I wonder how she does it. This year, she’s biting the bullet and taking the kids to New York to see her brother who is studying there.

She’s got it planned down to taking the JFK Airport Shuttle to her brother’s apartment where they’re going to be staying. Can you believe this woman?

I always tell her she should moonlight as a travel agent when her kids are a little older. I’m sure it’ll be a cinch for her to organize these daily airport shuttles for holiday travelers.

Talking about her was the much-needed diversion I needed. But it still doesn’t solve the problem of me having to organize something for my kids.

• wedding down under, to go or not to go
• every daughter’s dream mom
• it’s stress-free whether you’re traveling or not
• of swinging singles and the travel bug
• when the travel bug bites

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My nephew’s getting married early next year. We just received the invitation card last week but are still undecided if we should all travel to Australia for the wedding.

Of course, it’s going to cost a fortune for our family of five. Dh and I have been to visit them before years ago but the kids have never been to that part of the country.

SIL and family live way out in the country. I remember taking a ten hour drive from the city/airport where we landed and the scenery was nothing but brown shrub the whole time. Duh!

I haven’t checked out the weather there either at that time of year. Who knows it may be cold and wet and we may need to buy some UGG Australia boots and outer wear as well.

I guess we still have time to check things out and make a decision as to whether to go or not. We’d love to go but by the looks of the economy, we’re probably best staying home. We’ll see.

• something unusual to boot
• brown
• the annual pilgrimage
• shopping and eating
• a-choo…

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A girl friend of mine will be visiting from the States this month. That was what she told me a few months ago. I’ve written to her and gotten no reply so I’m not sure if her trip is still on.

Maybe she’s too busy to reply. I’m guessing she has a lot of last-minute errands to run before she hops on that plane. I remember her mentioning that she’s promised to help her son check up on NC health insurance for him and his family.

And if I know her, she’ll be rushing around trying to buy souvenirs for the folks she plans to visit here too. I’m going to wait patiently for her reply. I’m sure she’ll get around to it. This is a big trip for her so I’m sure she’s got tons on her mind right now.

• one lucky girl
• preparing for winter
• dealing with the business jitters
• inspired
• a life I can only dream about

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My kids are all having their exams (with the exception of my youngest who’s just finished hers last week) and all I can think of is running away to some place like Branson Missouri. Bad mommy .

Well, you can’t blame me, when the stress levels are this high in the house, I’m justified to think of escape to some place that I’ve only heard my friends rave about.

Those of you who know me know I can’t sit still even on vacation. I love to get up early and go shopping. Guess what?

There’s a new outdoor shopping mall called Branson Landing with more than 100 shops.

If this doesn’t make me dance, I don’t know what will .

Can you imagine the amount of shopping I could do there?

There’s also the great outdoors and nature parks to explore, and miniature golf courses (yes, I love mini golf).

My dad’s visiting with us right now so I don’t have a lot of time to spend online.

But I had a brief look at Branson Getaways’ site last night and they’ve got several very attractive holiday packages for couples. Let’s see if I can convince DH to run away with me for the weekend.

• what’s a holiday without shopping?
• where to next?
• used golf balls, anyone?
• oh, to see Shamu again
• meet mr golf

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When my two oldest kids were younger, we took them to California for a holiday. Besides doing the mandatory tourist routes in Anaheim, LA and San Diego, we also took one of the San Francisco tours.

There was no way we were going to miss San Francisco because that’s one of my favorite cities. There’s a clam chowder place down by the wharf that I absolutely could not leave without eating! It’s that good.

We checked up the online travel guides and found out that we can rent a tricycle at Newport Beach (I think it was) and peddle it down the beach area. So we got the kids plonked in while DH and I played trishaw riders for the afternoon.

We actually laughed more than we peddled because it was so difficult to coordinate our efforts on keeping the tricycle from veering to the side. The kids were sliding from side to side as we fought to keep the tricycle straight. It was so much fun.

I heard Trusted Tours and Attractions offers fantastic discounts on sightseeing tours like Metropolitan museum of art and others in 20+ cities in the US. I must make a note of that for future reference.

Meantime, if you’re planning a holiday there, you can get ideas and schedules by subscribing for the Trusted Travels eNewsletter. Do it before August 31st, 2008 to be entered to win a $150 Magellan’s Gift Certificate.

• New York, New York
• nothing but fun in orlando
• the fun never ends
• a VP’s job made easy
• hitting the beach

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I was at the temple this morning and was just driving my car out the driveway of an adjacent parking lot when a lady turned into the driveway. So I stopped and let her in first.

All the spots to the left of the driveway were empty. Naturally I thought she’d turn left. But no, she swung her car to the right of the driveway straight at me.

I backed up a little thinking she wanted to pass. But no, she reversed and came alongside me, then reverse all the way to the back of the empty spots.

All this time, she had a killer look on her face, like the whole world had wronged her and she was out to get the first person she saw. It was unbelievable how angry this woman was!!

I just sat there and looked at her, waiting patiently for her to finish throwing her car left and right. I didn’t dare move in case any sudden movements might make her decide to crash her car into mine!!

Yikes, clearly she’s someone that no car insurance company would want to take her up on. Who knows what someone with her bitterness would do next!!

• before her trip
• square steering wheel
• selfish new neighbor
• neighbors, friends and moving
• a distant acquaintance

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After last week’s near miss with a school van, I almost collided with a car that was turning out of a gas station when I went to pick up my son from college Friday.

The lady driver never even so much as turned her head in my direction as I was turning the corner on the same road she was trying to get on.

Gosh, I tell you, I’ve really almost had enough of these drivers with bad attitudes. I’m careful to a T as a driver since I always have kids in my car with me. Safety is a big thing for me.

From young, my kids have been in Britax car seats and later in booster seats. So they’ve been trained from birth that the first thing they do is put on their seat belts even though the law here does not require back passengers to be strapped in.

That’s Mom’s law they have to obey!

Through the years, driving has gotten more stressful for me because of the increasingly bad attitude of drivers. People turn without looking out for oncoming traffic. They run red lights.

They cut into your lanes without signaling. Gosh, I could write a book half a foot thick about the lousy drivers I encounter on the roads every day!!

• sheer stupidity, bad attitude
• my top 5 driving peeves
• three kids and completely clueless
• stupid, in a word
• the stress of driving

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I picked up my daughter from school and we were driving down a straight road when, from out of nowhere, a school van comes speeding out a side street heading directly for us.

I was blasting my horn but the bus driver just kept coming at us. We both screeched to a stop and he would’ve smashed into my car dead center if he’d come one foot closer!

The stupid driver just raised his hand as some sort of apology and sped off again at the same speed that he’d been coming at us. His van was packed full of school kids and I’m sure none of them seatbelts on! I saw him again yesterday racing past the same spot at breakneck speed.

• stupid, in a word
• island vacation (2) - cruisin’ along
• fight or flee, that is the question
• our Santa’s home
• logistics brainwave

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I’m constantly amazed at my single friends who can just up and go on holiday any time they want. Isn’t it nice when you have no commitments and time and money are not issues to worry your little head about?

I got a text message from a swinging single friend of mine who’s leaving on one of her infamous Las Vegas vacations soon. We were supposed to be having breakfast next week but it looks like her sister has gone ahead and booked the vacation at Best of Vegas.

Isn’t that nice now? To be able to just drop everything and take off for a whole month! If I did that, my kids would be quite happy too because there’ll be no one to drive them to school !!

• coffee break
• how to reduce back-to-school stress (2)
• enjoying the best of Vegas
• staying home
• rain check on that vacation

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My neighbor’s son has just returned from his studies overseas. Before he left, his parents had already bought him a new car. I don’t quite understand the rationale behind that since he was obviously going to be leaving soon at the time.

So the car’s basically been sitting in their porch for a few years. His son would only drive it when he came back on summer vacation, which was like once a year. Other than that, the car’s just sitting there.

Yesterday I heard him and his father complaining about having to change the car’s Radiator. I know it’s not cheap unless they go to Outlaw Radiator whose radiators are affordable because they’ve eliminated the middleman and so can pass on the savings to their customers.

• fix instead of buy
• wierd salesperson
• i’ll gladly leave my wallet behind
• why would I pass up on cheap flights?
• new car? what new car?

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