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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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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Are you out and about this week, or are you hibernating at home like me? The kids are having a week-long break from school so I have the perfect excuse to hang out and do nothing.

Do nothing? Me? Nah, wrong person. I’m cooking up a storm this week. Remember I’ve been saying we’re going to try and eat out less since food prices have gone up and up? Well, this is it.

I went to the grocery store this morning with big plans to buy a heap of ingredients home to cook. But it didn’t turn out quite like I expected.

The first grocery store I went to hadn’t restocked most of the items I wanted. The second store was closed for the holidays. So I’ll pretty much have to go back tomorrow to get the stuff I want.

• haze time again
• are you feeling the pinch of higher food prices?
• freedom lost
• choosing a house design
• my plan-ahead menu

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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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We’ve had a very quiet weekend, quieter than almost any recent weekend. It’s only this quiet when the kids are busy preparing for their year-end exams.

Now that they are teens, I don’t really have to be constantly on their backs to study any more. They pretty much know what they have to do.

What puzzles me though is how they can concentrate when they’ve got MP3s plugged into their ears all day long.

I mean, they can’t even hear me when I shout for them to come down for meals, so how can they hear their internal voice when they’re studying?

• a nice, low-key day
• hello, John?
• nothing like a home-cooked meal
• where have all the voice talents gone?
• and I will brag

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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’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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Isn’t anyone driving any more these days or is it my imagination that there are fewer cars on the roads during peak hours? It now takes me about 10 minutes to get clear across the highway to pick up my daughter when it used to take me more than double that time before.

I read that the price of gas may actually be coming down in the near future. If it’s true, then it’s good news indeed but only if the prices of everything else comes down as well. So I’m not holding my breath though. I’ll just take it all with a pinch of salt, thank you.

• are you feeling the pinch of higher food prices?
• forget the news
• 5 reasons I don’t read the news
• book sales but
• why read the news?

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The daughter of one of my cousins will be getting married in a few months and I wish they’d ask me to help organize it. I know, I know, sounds like I’m asking for trouble, right?

I’m busy enough as it is. Who needs more running around, more deadlines? But you know planning a wedding is so much fun! Or at least, I wouldn’t mind planning their honeymoon vacation.

I know of a great place in Mexico called the Riviera Maya where they can be kings and queens for the length of their stay. The palm trees swaying, the ukeleles playing, it’ll be paradise.

• sea breeze, palm trees and no money?
• don’t ask me if I’ve been to Mexico
• and I will brag
• the tale of three Aussie cities
• not going anywhere?

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A friend of ours recently took his kids to Hong Kong Disneyland. It was something we thought we’d do but we changed our minds after hearing about their earlier teething problems with crowd management.

I think our friends too initially planned on opting for one of the Disney cruises but their kids are young, so they thought it’d be easier for them to manage on land rather than at sea.

I’m not sure about that though since the cruise ships are so huge and they’ve got so many exciting things on the schedule you’d hardly even notice you’re on water. I kinda like the idea of Disney on water.

• an enviable social life
• one-stop shop for Disney attractions
• pure water without boiling
• our 15 favorite Disney characters
• what kids want

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