4 posts tagged “plans”
Hmmm it's been quite a while since I updated! I'm socially busy as usual, knitting up a storm (am working on the first of two arms for my sweater.. no, not making a three-armed sweater!), and am really excited about my pending trip.
I'm thrilled at the itinerary - roughly thus:
Friday: get rental car, drive to my friend's cousin's country cottage in County Clare
Sunday: drive to Galway
Tuesday-Friday: work our way around northeast Ireland, and Northern Ireland, ending in Newry in time for the wedding that is the main cause of this trip.
Saturday: head to Belfast, Sunday fly out of Belfast to Scotland
Which looks like this:
Tuesday: take the train to Inverness, pick up rental car
Tuesday-Thursday: drive around, mostly west, to the Isle of Skye and wherever else we feel like going.
Friday: train to Glasgow
Sunday: small-town Highland Games west of Glasgow, then back to Edinburgh
Monday: mom leaves
Then I have three days to do whatever I want, as I leave from Dublin on Thursday the 14th. I currently have a 50-dollar plane ticket from Glasgow to Dublin on Wednesday. I'm not sure what I'll do in the meantime. I could go to Aberdeen, I could go to other-random-place-in-Scotland. I'm also thinking I could hop a plane to London for a couple of days, and just scrap the $50 ticket I've already booked. I wonder how late I can make that decision? I'd kind of like to see how I'm feeling - will I want Big City, or Small Town, or Quaint Seaside, or what? I spent two weeks in London in 1999, I think, so I don't feel like I *have* to go.
If I had it all to do over (it seems early for hindsight for something that hasn't happened!) I might not buy the rail ticket I have, since I'm going to have a rental car or will be in a city most of the time. That's one vote in favor of taking the train to Someplace, Scotland on Monday/Tuesday.
I'm trying to figure out luggage options. I think that I'll be a LOT happier if I travel with a small carry-on size. My one friend can view lots of options as abundance, but I think I get oppressed by too many options to sift through (probably why I prefer to Just Decide, now that I think about it), and that applies very much to clothing - especially since I'll be packing up at least every other morning.
Costs:
So far this is coming in under my wildly made up budget. I'm sure whatever I wind up not spending on lodging will be spent on food and drink, but that's okay. I've been saving for this trip since October, I think.
Transportation:
Airfare, train pass, and two shared rental cars = $1280. Add in gas and I should have all three weeks covered for $1400
Lodging:
I'm doing really well with this so far. I guesstimated $75/night and I'm averaging $45/night instead (woo!) That's not counting the two free nights, either! A couple of nights are in fancy places and several nights are in more low key spots That leaves me with ten nights that are unbooked, so I do have a lot of opportunities to blow the budget all to hell, but so far I'm feeling pretty good about this aspect of the trip.
Excitement Meter:
Pinging hard
Ah, looking forward to a new year is always so fun! I have BIG PLANS, my friends. huge.
As per usual, much of my plans involve travel. The big! exciting! one is that I'm going to the UK for three weeks in April/May. Friends are getting married in Belfast and are being incredibly gracious in allowing this C-list-friend (at BEST) to crash the party. Since I'll be out that way, I'm going to spend a week circling Ireland, 2-3 days being wedding-focused, a week exploring Scotland, and approximately 4 days in Wales or something. I spent 2 weeks in London in 1999 so don't feel the need to dip that far south this time.
I'll also be going back to Ashland for the Shakespeare Festival. I may be going in Julyish this time - partly so we can experience a different season, and partly because I may be crewing for crazy bike friends on a weekend event outside of Portland. I figure I can head north to Ashland, head further north and do the bike race support thing, and then come home. They're not sure they're doing the ride, though, so it may be only Ashland, which is fine, as I'll have thoroughly pillaged my vacation time already.
Other travel: Florida to help my sister move/see her new place at the end of January. Portland and Rhode Island in December. I've heard rumblings of some friends maybe hiking Half Dome, possibly this fall, and I would love to do that (though... it looks scary hard). Every year I intend to camp and hike more than I actually do, so maybe a trip to Big Sur or Shasta is in order. Then of course there's wine country day trips, some biking, and hopefully I'll have visitors this year (though none booked yet!), and there you go: 2009.
What else does the year hold? Most importantly, I'm going to pay off my final scrap of debt: my student loans. Right now I'm saving aggressively so I can pay for all of my big trip as it occurs (I already paid for my ticket), but after that, Sallie Mae is getting the giant smackdown. And I will be 100% out of debt for the first time since I got out of college! (of course then I start saving for a mortgage.. but that'll take ages before I nerve myself up to purchasing real estate)
Sorry Loyal Reader, I kind of had the feeling it'd been a while since I posted, and lo, it's been two weeks!
I'm still knitting bike hats - I cast the fourth one on last night. I realized that the first one is pretty skimpy. If I have time, yarn, and motivation after finishing all six, I'll revisit # 1 and rip off the top and add some more sky to it. Otherwise... I'll just give it to whichever biking buddy has the most cro-magnon-like short head (i.e. not me... I have enormous brains & therefore an enormous forehead and skull).
I've been biking in preparation for said trip, but I spend a lot of time thinking about it, then procrastinating, then finishing earlier than I ought, then castigating myself. At least I get a vocabulary workout, but it gets pretty annoying being in my head. I'll be glad when vacation gets here (three more weeks!) if only so I can stop fretting about training, and lack thereof, and get on with the vacating.
I'm getting caught up on Culture (of a sort): watching BSG season 4 (what episodes are currently available), and have also picked up the 2nd season of Doctor Who at the library. It's taking me a while to warm up to # 10, but I have hopes that I will.. soon. Please? I really liked # 9 and didn't expect him to be swapped out so soon.. and was very sad when it happened.
My birthday is approaching! There will be a very fun co-gathering on the 16th (yet another day of minimal biking) to celebrate my day (the 25th) and neighbor-T's (the 12th). I am going to be .. older, and still in debt. *sigh* I know I'm making strides and all, but when does the day come when money feels positively abundant?? Don't tell me never.. please don't say never.
Well, I feel whiny about my busy-ness, and broke, but I suppose all in all things are great. I've got 750 miles under my belt so far this year, and plans to get more in. I'm going to have TWO! weeks! off! and it'll be here sooner than I know it. Before then I've got lots of fun things to distract me. So, I'll try not to let it get me down. I realized that the last time I had a day off was 2 months ago, when I did my NYC/Boston/college/RI/NYC tour - so it hasn't been so long that I can justify being this whiny! Therefore: back to it.
Last August, I paid off my credit card. Earlier this year, I paid off my car. So, yay!! and all, but I have one more big hurdle, which has a higher balance than those two debts combined (though a low rate): my student loans. In January, when I realized that nearly 30% of my loan payments were going to interest, I came up with a plan to double up on my payments.
Then I realized that just paying ahead wasn't getting me out from under the interest load, as they were probably applying the overage toward future payments in general, not to the principal of the loan. (That whole concept is vague to me, so I even got a second opinion.)
That pissed me off, so I changed my school loan repayments to the minimum required, figuring I'd deal later.. or something.
Well, no more, my friends. I again looked at my monthly payment and how much of it goes toward interest (26% of last month's payment!). I have just pillaged my travel and emergency funds and will be paying almost half of the loan off next week. (I was going to go for a straight 50% but that last few hundred felt too tight.)
That means that my Christmas plane tickets (when purchased) will not be paid in cash immediately, but will probably be paid off before they start accruing interest. It also means I won't be able to do some fun warm trip next winter, as I'd thought I might. But it ALSO means that if I really kick ass, I can pay off the loans this year - and more likely that I'll have them paid off by next spring, or a year from now at the latest.
I wanted to get money in the bank for a down payment, but let's face it: it ain't happening in this market on a single salary. And the stuff I could MAYBE afford is crap. So, let's do the thing that makes the most sense big-picture, and get rid of my very last debt.
I'll keep ya posted.
