Saturday, December 10, 2011

Solo traveller - Step 1

I finally took my first step to travel solo in 2012! Just booked my SQ flight to Taipei (ticket costs $500+, about $200 cheaper than a few years back) after thinking about it for weeks.

Have been wondering about how it is like to be a solo traveller for the past few years after hearing friends talk about it. Somehow I lack the courage to do it - I always tell myself it's cheaper (and probably more fun) to travel with people :)

Perhaps meeting so many solo travellers in Melbourne last month helped me to make up my mind and give it a try. If these European kids can travel in Australia for a few months on their own, I can surely survive for a week in Taiwan. I have been there, so it is not really foreign to me although I am visiting in a different season and planning to visit new places and stay in 民宿 this time.

It's also a big present for myself - I'm going in the week leading to my 33rd birthday :) I'm definitely looking forward to 2012 where I must really plan for the trip (because there is no one to rely on and share costs this time :P)

Monday, December 5, 2011

I don't know what I don't want

I was talking to this director from a HR consultancy firm last week and I remember two things he shared:
1) The three critical period people tend to leave their jobs - first year, third year and fifth year. After the fifth year, people tend to stay with their firm for a longer period.
2) People need to know what they don't want to do so they can know what they want to do in their career.

I guess they stuck in my mind because:
1) I'm turning 4 in my current job so the next critical period is approaching.
2) I'm not sure if what I am doing (or which part of it) is what I don't want to do.

For me, 1) is good - it reminds me that it is time to review my career plans and 2) is scary - how am I going to review my career plans if I don't know what I don't want.

I have this feeling about busy doing nothing in the past year. I'm busy but when I look back, I'm not sure what I have really achieved. Perhaps it's because I don't know what I don't want.

But I know it's time to do something about this.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

ilovelongvacation - Venice D10

Hot from the press
- D10 in Venice, in St Mark's Square
Bridge of Sighs has a beautiful story behind it. The bridge linked the court and the cells. So all prisoners had to pass the bridge to their cells. As they took a last look through the window on the bridge, they will sigh because it was their last look at the outside world. Perhaps a sigh that lamented the lost of freedom?