Adelaide

Remembering my time in Adelaide always brings a tear to my eye, or two. It was only 11 months but some of the most intense and wonderful months of my life. Sure, it was my first time out of the country (not including Singapore) and my first time living on my own - fending for myself. What an experience! It was my first proper foray into the Aussie culture, from little things like realising pubs were in Adelaide Hotels to how shops closed at 5pm (except for the ever wondrous Coles).

The city of churches, as it's known, or the festival state for all of South Australia - I absolutely cherish my time spent there. Experiencing things like the Fringe festival, which is every 2 years and the Art Festival which is every year to the Norwood Parade's Food & Wine festival, which was just down the road from my house. Getting amazingly drunk in the arvo was always a great feeling. Getting drunk at night didn't hurt either, like the first pub crawl I went on, ending up at various Hotels in Adelaide and their pubs (and subsequent punters).

There's nothing like taking a cheap bus ride (or a free one for that matter) and then hopping on the tram down to Glenelg for a breezy evening stroll. The beach wasn't always the best, but it was still heaps better than many I'd been to in my life. Of course, they say the best beaches are along the East Coast, so it's just as well I'm moving to New South Wales, and maybe one day I'll pay a trip to The Stradbroke Islands in Queensland, or the Sunshine Coast. I'll have to find good Brisbane Accommodation because I don't think Zel's mum would let me bunk at their place!

Travels

I wonder if some people would consider this blog a travel blog to some extent due to the endless stream of travel talk. I can't help it, I love to travel and I haven't done a lot of it so I'm naturally very naive and dreamy about it all. I know people my age who have got to travel all over places like Europe and/or the States mainly because they studied there or still study there. Money is not an option because they have rich parents and they themselves keep studying because they don't want to work! Brats!

I try not to read another travel blog or two lest I get jealous at their ability to go to places I can only still dream of - or they've been to places that now cease to exist/have changed so much. Like I always wanted to go to Greece but now I hear it's all so commercial and not at all sacred like it used to be. *sigh* With every baby born, the world becomes less a beautiful place to live!

Oh well, such is life, and such is the content of a travel blog - amazing pictures, fantastic stories, and tips for future travellers. The best tips to give are places to eat, things to see and the best accommodation - also, which transport to take - taxi, bus, train, walking, renting a car, etc! If you've got all that, the only thing you need is a language book if needed and a person with a good sense of direction who can read a map!

Oui!

I speak a little French. I know enough to keep a conversation going for at least half an hour, or more depending on the other person with whom I'm conversing. I won't give away my secret, but those I've told will know what I'm talking about! I think I know enough to pick up and head to France whenever I please. Especially with places like CheaperThanHotels offering last minute and year round accommodation at ridiculously cheap prices. So Hotels in Paris will be so not an issue! Then I can concentrate on sight seeing and the nightlife!





I've been reading "French Women Don't Get Fat" or at least, the first few pages. I haven't actually tried any of the recipes, mainly because I don't like the sound leek makes against my teeth when I bite into it. *shrugs* Anyway, I have a friend who goes to France once in a while, I think her family has a cottage in the South of France or something quaint like that. As lovely as that sounds, I would still prefer Paris Hotels somewhere in the city so that I could feel more.. Parisian?

I mean who doesn't love the French language? Moulin Rouge? French loaves? Berets? Spitting on each other? I would love to go to France one day and ask them about "le Hôtels en Paris ". Ok, my French is probably quite horrible so I better brush up on it before booking those flight tickets.

More travelling goodness!

So I was thinking (again, I know - shocker!). Seriously though, if you were to travel would you prefer a pre-planned itinerary or would you just free ball the whole thing? As a kid I was never the trip planner of the family, because obviously my parents took care of that role - so I just went with whatever they wanted. Now that I think about it, I don't think they planned anything past which hotel we'd stay at and for how long. And we had a damn good time!

So is there any real use for a trip planner? Someone that researches everything beforehand and plans down to the very detail, keeping everyone on a tight schedule - to the MINUTE? What's the fun of a holiday if you can't relax because you're getting up at 6AM just to 'make the most of it'? Is this a resort, or boot camp?!

The last time I went on holiday, my friend and I divided up the role of trip planner, she taking care of booking the flights and me booking the hotel rooms. Once we were there, we worked together on plans for activities, and flew by the seat of our pants. Since we're all laid back, we agreed quickly, set about our day and did whatever we wanted.

Save for the dirty sheets and crappy room condition, thus leading to the inability to consummate the holiday, it was one of the best holidays I'd ever had!!!

Travelling

All this talk about travelling has got me wondering about just how well I'll be able to handle myself when I'm out there in the "wild" all alone, or even with a partner or two. How much trouble could we get in (the good kind of trouble, mind you) with just a map and a small travel guide? I have to give this some serious thought, don't you think?!

I mean we could go on tours but tours don't give you time to bask and enjoy and immerse yourself into the culture. Plus you might get a mean old grumpy travel guide who won't be much help at all when you ask questions! Backpacking is heaps more fun and a lot more free, but I like a LITTLE more luxury than potentially roach-infested bunks. I'm sorry, but I'm a germaphobe like that.

I guess what we could do with is a helpful travel guide, maybe not a professional but someone who lives there or has been there before? Knows all the best spots and maybe even gets us hooked up with some people on our own for future visits/entry into night spots. That would be pretty rad, you always see stuff like that happening in neat road trip flicks.

I'll go ponder some more and get back to you about that.

Spain?

I have always had a craving for walking the streets of Spain. I used to have an obsession with a certain Spanish boy, who doesn't really exist but that's a story for another day. Needless to say, Spain has always been on my "Must See" list of all the countries in this lovely world. Who wouldn't want to run with the bulls in Pamplona?

The best places to hit would be its two major cities - Barcelona and Madrid. I believe my mum has been to Madrid before, and my.. it certainly has gorgeous architecture and amazing nightlife. I would love to stay at any of the Hotels in Madrid and fancy myself a Spanish princess of some sort.





Then there's Barcelona, that makes me think of Madonna for some reason. I'm not even sure why because Evita was Argentina. *shrugs*





I hear Barcelona has a lot if not more to offer than Madrid, boasting a much livelier nightlife and overall tourist experience. Well, I wouldn't mind Hotels in Barcelona, that's for sure. I should pick up Spanish before I head over though, just so I can say something like Hoteles en Barcelona when looking for a place to stay. *ponders on that thought a bit*

I don't think Spanish is as sexy as French, but it is heaps easier to learn and speak. Heck, if I can semi-master French, Spanish should be a breeze! Europe, watch out.. I'm going to paint you red one day!

Missing Sydney

Okay, about the ARIAs, in case some of you aren't actually in Sydney, you could always fly JetStar from KL or Virgin Blue within Australia/NZ and get awesome deals for Hotels in Sydney. I have personal experience with a few places myself such as The Menzies which is wicked awesome and right in the heart of the city. However, if that's not for you, maybe you could try any Travelodge which is really affordable.

Yes, there is such a thing as Cheap Sydney Hotels, believe it or not. No more than AUD$100 per night to boot! There are some deals that could get you less and all within the city too! There's great travel by bus, trains or a pricey cab or two. Or you could just walk and explore the gorgeous city, get lost on George St and be in awe of Martin Place.

Honestly, you'd be saving money on Accommodation in Sydney at any of these awesome affordable hotels, and trust me you'll need to save money on hotels if you'll be staying there for more than a few days because there's so much to see and so much to eat and take in. There's heaps you don't want to miss, and so much you will be missing once you leave! Make sure you charge your camera before hitting the town!

Anybody want tickets to the ARIAs?

Hey people, totally not a paid advertorial because it's a personal favour - someone I know wants to unload a couple of tickets to the ARIA Awards in Sydney on the 28th of October 2007. If anybody's interested, please leave a comment.

It's two tickets in the A reserve, Section 52. CLICK FOR SEATING MAP

The tickets were bought at $55 each, bringing them up to $110. If there are no bites, they're willing to lower the price, just let me know if you're interested! Don't worry about payment and meeting up - payment can be made by direct deposit and the tickets are in .pdf format to be printed so it can just be e-mailed to you!

Easy peasy! For more information on performances, awards, nominations, etc.. go to the ARIA Awards website.

Silverchair and Powderfinger will be performing, and I know you want to see Silverchair take back their crown of being Channel [V] Artist of the Year!!!!! :D

Auckland

It's been really interesting getting to know my "new family" who are from all over the world - Denmark and New Zealand mostly. That's pretty cool knowing that if I ever drop by New Zealand some day, I won't have to worry about Auckland Accommodation because although I hear that the hotels there are good and reasonable, I could be put up for free with my family!

I've never been big on New Zealand but now I may just have to give it a shot, with all sorts of interesting things on the schedule such as the Waitakere World Junior Badminton Championships 2007. Who knows Badminton better than a Malaysian? Come on, be honest! I say let's get 500 Malaysians, or 50 because we're loud enough and put them up in Auckland Hotels just for the heck of it! Maybe we could give them pointers!

Seriously though, I've been checking it out online and there's SO MUCH you can do in New Zealand! Things such as sailing, various major events, conventions, performing and visual arts, trade shows and expos.. and of course the best part of the southern hemisphere such as Australia and New Zealand - Food and Wine!! I'm going to make a list of all the Hotels in Auckland and hook myself up with one and make a holiday out of it!

Money Talks

Yesterday I was going through all my money, whether it be in savings, fixed deposits or anything else - and I've realised that despite not having a 'real job' for a year now, I am still sitting on quite a lovely sum. All things considered of course. There will be no talk of unsecured loans after all! No borrowing money or cash advances!

What I would love more than anything is to take out my money and put them into high interest bank accounts. If all this money talk has taught me anything, it's that INVESTMENTS = GOOD. Let's not even go down the line of debts and credit anymore. No credit cards UK or even debit cards. Let's talk, big lump sums in separate accounts, all over the world.

Yes, different currencies! I know a person whose father put a huge chunk of money into a UK account when our economy was still good - and now that money has pretty much well.. multiply it by 7 then maybe 10 or 100 times more! Crazy rich! Talk about kaching kaching and bling bling, hey? There is nothing that makes me happier than when I check on my account and see that the interest has given me a "surprise sum" as I like to call it.

I'm too "young" with my money to invest in companies or stock at the moment, so I'll just put it into bank accounts and fixed deposits, and let the money grow grow grow!!!

I love money.

More credit talk

So I was thinking, as I usually do because I have a brain - all this talk about credit cards made me think about grouping people together to compare credit cards. Eventually, I'm going to have to get my own credit card, not just some supplementary one that gets paid in Ringgit! Of course, that being said, like I mentioned in an earlier post I'll need to build up a pretty impressive credit history.

First things first, once I move, whenever I get my damned visa, I'll be getting insurance because that's bloody important if you can't afford health care on your own!! At least I won't be getting a car there for a while or I'll have to compare car insurance as well! So not ready for that right now. I don't even have my license over there yet, much less know my way around the roads. So car insurance will be a long time coming.

At most, it'll be credit card comparisons and maybe once in a while we'll compare loans too. Loans for houses, businesses and maybe even the occasionally shark loan - but only during desperate times!!! No seriously, don't even go there. It's a bad road, ok kids? Stick to the legal and the straight and narrow. All that rot! Debts and bad credit is no place to be!

Credit cards

The other day a bunch of mates and I were showing off cash, credit cards and of all things, discount cards. A true sign of the "getting there" age is when you have discount cards in your own name and not your mother's! But hey, we can't help the benefits sometimes, can we? Anyway, I love how credit cards here and credit cards UK or anywhere else are all pretty much the same thing compared to cash currency. Did that make sense?

Basically, plastic will always be plastic. Like all those credit card ads for Visa or whatever - it's accepted everywhere! Even if you don't want the plastic, there's always the option of some of the best online credit cards where you won't run the risk of credit fraud!

I used to be against all the "evils" of credit cards, but now I have not just one, but two credit cards. In a way it's comforting not having to lie to promoters at malls with their interest free credit card offers or whatever. Instead of having to come up with an excuse or be rude and feel guilty about either, now I can just say "Thanks, I already have a credit card" or something.

It's still evil when I have no cash and go shopping though! I end up buying twice as much clothes than I normally would have. *goes out to expand shoe collection*

Money money money

You know that song? I think it's by Abba, and I believe it's the theme song for The Apprentice. Also, I read that Charisma Carpenter won't be on Celebrity Apprentice, which is good because can you say CHEAP? It's not like she can't find a good career in adult films or something! ;) That ought to help pay off her mortgages compared to reality TV! Although I suppose they're both a kind of reality TV huh?

Anyway, speaking of money... I was wondering more about the whole deal with cash advance loans. I would probably need to find a really reliable and reputable company that offers really good loans if I ever want to open up my own company. Well, maybe not a COMPANY, but some sort of business. What constitutes a business to be called a company, anyway?

I just want to build up a good credit history, which I have over here but once I move over, all my past bills are only phone bills and the occassional bank transaction. Rent was paid online via internet transfer and I never got a credit card until I came back home (and ironically was unemployed at the time!) I just don't want to end up getting bad credit loans or something. That would majorly suck.

Insurance questions

Last night my friend made an interesting observation - "My girlfriend isn't mature like me, I mean we have a different set of friends, her friends are just uni people.. my friends are... ALL OVER THE WORLD *throws arms up dramatically*" Then we laughed, because it was true. Sitting there, we had one person who worked at Sara Lee, another at BAT and myself who's migrating out of the damn country.

Basically, a whole bunch of boring adults! How did we get this way? One day we were discussing homework, the next we're sitting down to compare mortgages and other homeowner loans!

Okay, so none of us has actually planned to buy or even rent just yet. Well, a couple of us have but nothing's set in stone just yet because we can't afford it right now. The most we can do is personal and car insurance, and even that's stretching it, but it's a necessity! Such is life, eh?

Honestly, as taxing and scary as it can be, I wouldn't want it any other way. It's very daunting for most, and as a result people older than me by years have yet to actually grow up, preferring to party all night every night like it carries any substance to building your character. Hah! Oh well, to each his own - as long as you're loving life!

Loans

Speaking of loans and cash advances, I was thinking of people who get by on loans for the majority of their lives. I mean it's hard enough to find cheap loans, much less many loans with low interest rates. So how do they do it? Are their books balanced?

I don't know if I could live like that - worrying day after day how I'm going to Clear my debts. I hate the thought of being in debt at all! I was so aversive to ever owning plastic, and now I have two credit cards! I was always all "No no no, I would hate being in debt! I would rather spend money I already have!" such as using a debit card like I did in Australia. You know, very Dharma. ;)

However, my mother made the point of credit cards being useful in emergencies. However, I think the cons still outweigh the pros to some extent - or maybe it's just that every pro comes with a price? It's good for buying stuff online and checking into hotels, but then you end up BUYING stuff online and CHARGING to your card when you're at the hotel!

Regardless, as long as you can control the urges, you shouldn't have to crawl to the bottom of a bottle when you see your bank account hit zero. It's a tempting and crazy world of supply and demand out there, among mortgages, bank loans, adverse credit loans, up to giving up and filing for bankruptcy, it's all a little out there for my brain to handle right now.

Cash Advances

Lately, all that's ever been on my mind is MONEYMONEYMONEY. I need it, I lack it, and I don't earn nearly enough from my side endeavours. So I got to thinking - which is rarely good - but in this case I came up with the idea of cash advances. With this in mind, I went around looking for cash advance sites.

The best one so far has got to be Cash Advance 1500, a perfect site for people who are looking to get emergency cash right to their checking account safely and securely. Hey, fits the bill doesn't it? The best part? It's simple!

You can read all the details about how cash advance loans work, but the gist of this great site is that you don't have to meet the usual pesky requirements of bank loans. If you need money but don't have a great credit history (or one at all), Cash Advance 1500 takes care of your payday loans.

An advantage of online cash advance payday loans to most consumers is that they are offered to people with no credit, poor credit or bankruptcies AND they can be done anonymously to the public and in the comfort of one’s home.

- excerpt from cash advance FAQ

So I'll be looking into this - if any of you are up for it, that's Cash Advance 1500. There are many different kinds of cash advance categories, so be sure to check it out!

Lies, lies, lies

It's amusing really, how some people you've known for years can lie to you and how some people you've never even met can be the most honest. I guess it's the whole "strangers are easier to talk to" deal, plus close friends have too much to lose if they wrong you.

I don't know, I guess it's too complicated to label and explain because every situation is different. One thing's for certain though - you'd be surprised how much your loved ones have to hide. After all, it's the ones you think you know best that you really gotta watch out for. They're the ones who know all your secrets.

Online shopping

I've been so bored at home, and trying so hard not to go out and add to my shoe collection, but being at home online doesn't help, because that just leads to online shopping at places like Coupon Chief.

Anyway my mum wasn't too happy when she returned from Europe to find half her plants pretty much dead. She keeps accusing me of only watering them once a week, but I tell her I did it at least once a day! Which is true! Maybe there were times I watered them once every two days - and on days it rained I didn't water them at all. I'm terrible I know. The point is I've been looking at gardening things like Home & Garden coupons because despite the current evidence proving otherwise, I have a pretty good green thumb.

We've been thinking of doing over the garden, since we have so much space - and properly utilising it. If people with half the space can make gorgeous little verandahs and fish ponds, why not us? So I was looking at Home Depot coupons, where we can get 50% off on patio sets - great stuff there!

Of course, all that being said and done, I ended up going up the list to "Apparel" and I was stuck for hours making lists on what I could get with all these coupons for women's apparel, such as 30% Off on any item from Jessica London - I'm a girl, okay?! It's how I'm wired! I couldn't help it!