The triumphant exit, Mr Fluskey and I smiling at each other as we stroll through security with our upgraded boarding cards in hand, the camera fades to black and the string section soars to a glorious crescendo…that’s how I pictured it. Instead, I was ready to kill somebody by the time we had taken off on our five month trip. This is how NOT to start your adventure round the world!
(more…)Tag: Five month trip
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Planning For The Big Trip
After spending a month telling Karl that we were going to go travelling, he finally complied and we sat down to talk about it properly. This was going to involve planning beyond anything we had done before, except maybe moving to London for university. Here is how we went about planning it all and some valuable lessons that we learnt.
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The Big Decision – The Five Month Trip
What gives you the guts to make the big decision, to quit your job, leave your home and take to the road? What did it take for us to do it? It was never going to be a permanent state of travel but it was still quite a big decision.
The Economy
Mr Fluskey and I graduated from the same university course in 2008. Our student loans had run dry and we still had rent to pay on our shared house until September. We rushed out and got jobs. I started at Harrods in June, and in September, a full scale financial crisis rocked the banking world. Those of us who had jobs watched our friends struggling to find one and so we clung onto ours fiercely. I was making reasonable money and so I stuck fast.
Our graduation day The Job
Then the management team in my department changed. A manager who was a real bully took over and I started to dread going to work every day. I worked with some great people but its amazing how a bad manager can sour the whole experience.
A couple of gooduns 
It wasn’t always bad, but this was the exception to the rule In November, Karl travelled to South Africa for six weeks and I felt awful. He was off in the sun, I was having a dreadful time at work and then I got ill and felt completely isolated from him. It was at that time, I demanded we book a trip to Brazil’s Rio Carnival the following February. Work was still rubbish and the long winter nights still took their toll but at least there was something to look forward to.
Karl in Swaziland The Hostel
Staying in a very cheap hostel in Rio de Janeiro, we were exclusively in the company of people who were backpacking long term. One woman in our dorm room was travelling solo for a year. She was out partying in sparkly tops, meeting new friends every night and seemed to be having a wonderful time. The cogs began to turn and I asked Karl, “Remind me why we aren’t doing this!?”
The Gap Year
It is a very common thing to do, to take a gap year between college and university. Some people just take the time off to work, some to do nothing and some to travel. I’d thought about it, but the year after we finished sixth form college was the last year before the government increased university fees three fold. Taking a year out and then paying more on my return seemed like a very financially silly thing to do. Karl had done the same and I think we both had a sense that we had missed out on a very special experience. So if not now, when!? My mind was made up, we were going to go.
The Pitch
I worked out how much I could save and then it was time to convince Karl. Our contract ended in our London flat at the end of September 2009 and so I took the decision to make that our departure date.
In the end I just took to telling him that it was going to happen and this drip feed seemed to do the trick. He agreed and we both started saving properly.
Planning commenced…
Rosie xx
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Thirty Years Young Today
Oh my goodness…oh my goodness. Today I turn thirty years old and that’s rather a big number. It starts with a three and everything! Thirty years young today, wow!
The Last Ten Years
The last ten years have been pretty amazing. Ten years ago I was a second year student at London Metropolitan University. I had an almost/kind of boyfriend and I was a definite size 8 (a US 4). I was struggling for money regularly, like everyone at university, but I was having a lovely time. Ten years of education behind me, I was very independent but I hadn’t quite done “adulting” yet.
Here I am in New York, one of our favourite cities. Check out our 25 Tips for Visiting New York City.
So in the last ten years:
I have seen that awkward, it’ll-never-last sort of boyfriend grow into a husband. I am even adopting my new married name ‘Fluskey’ as enthusiastically as I can (just in case you were wondering what a Flying Fluskey was, and if you’d ever seen one on safari)
Here’s a pic from our wedding in London. We love London, check out all our adventures around our home city.
My enjoyment of holidays has grown into a real passion for travel.
We love South Africa, check out Seals, Sun and Sushi – Cape Town, South Africa
My waistline has grown by a good three inches (I’m working to reverse that one though)
In my thirty years I’ve seen 33 new countries on 5 different continents.
Many of those were seen on our five month adventure around Asia, the best five months of my life. It has left me bereft of long term travel ever since.
We love train travel, here I am on a train in Thailand. Check out Riding the Rails – The Joys of Train Travel
I have had jobs from Primark to Harrods, been a Christmas Elf and a Steward at the Royal Albert Hall. Now, I’m working at Heathrow Airport for Virgin Atlantic Airways after a few years of trying to break into travel. Finally, I know what it’s like to turn left on a plane…pretty sweet.
Recently (in the last month or so) I have decided to follow these wise words:
No one is ever going to ask you to do the thing you really want to do. So think about what you’d like to do, then start doing it. – Jordan Bach.
That is why I have been blogging happily away as Flying Fluskey. When I get home from Sri Lanka I am going to get to grips with it and start on the long journey to making it look and feel a touch more professional.
A Life Crisis
I am also having a life crisis about house deposits/how should the logo for my blog look/the pressure from other people to make babies/my desire to travel all the time/whether Karl will make me have a dog one day/what is SEO and what the devil is a long pin/Brexit/should I start yoga again because my flexibility is declining/can I handle the embarrassment of the lady fart incident if I tried yoga again/seriously, my desire to go travelling again, ALL THE TIME/can I just pretend I’m twenty again?
Ah well, best to stop worrying, at my age it may well give me forehead wrinkles. Let’s pull silly faces instead. I know I am incredibly lucky, living a life I can’t entirely afford. I have some excellent friends who do amazing things and a hubby who I can rely on to correct my spelling, hold my hand and see the things I can’t. Not to mention my family, who are exploring the world, are incredibly supportive and accept each crazy life plan I have with pleasant “she’s mental” smiles.
Here’s to the next ten years, may they be half as fulfilling and exciting as the last thirty. I hope to get to see even more of this super planet.
Rosie xx
