New Direction

No not the cringey x-factor band (or was that One Direction?) I never get to watch TV these days!

I've had a very nice, but brief week off this week which has given me a chance to reassess myself. I was starting to get too sucked into the old CP. No, no, no I need to see the world.

I do have a new dilemma now... should I stay in the hospitality industry? I do enjoy it now... but the crazy 60 hour weeks? Not so much. And can I progress.. that is another question.. I refuse to be stuck being a 40 year old waitress. I spoke with a good friend, L, the other day and she opened my options a bit for me, she suggested TEFL abroad, so I'm considering this now to get some more teaching experience.  There is a programme in France, where you teach children in an au pair style envirmoment so you have mornings to do language classes and things. It's a year long though and I want to get myself to Asia and Oz first.

Anyway I need to save That Boy from the evil skanks lurking around at the minute!

I'm having serious problems with saving now as well, I really need to stop spending. I've given myself a budget of £30 a week to live off after paying my bus pass and bills. That's £4 a day practically... goodbye daily lattes!! But some people live far more frugelly than me.. i CAN do this. I need to focus on the bigger picture.

I wanted to start some yoga classes because I feel still as a board these days, instead I'm going to invest in a Yoga DVD from Amazon, then I can practice at my leisure and it won't cost my a fiver a time.

I'm adding French to my language repetoire as well! Self teaching though, seeing as I keep forgetting when my Spanish classes are (oops). And anyway I'm a little disappointed with them, we are basically just learning out of a BBC book, with BBC materials online... I could of bought just the book and taught myself for 10% of what the course cost me! C'est la vie, we live and learn.

I really want a new tattoo as well.... I think I wil have to save up some tips for that though, seeing as I'm going to have to scrimp and save everything. Uploaded a few more items onto eBay tonight, all though I'm having all sorts of problems with eBay at the minute!

So far, since moving home I seem to have saved a grand total of... NOTHING. I still only have a net £3k in the bank.... but it's pay day next week so some of that will be moving into my ISA.

So the revised plan for travelling is:

Head off mid-April (so I have an extra month and a half ish to save, plus people may give me early birthday presesnts in the form of cash contributions to my travelling hehe)

Fly to Bangkok, and do the Thai Intro package (especially if I''m going solo - it will be way less daunting) for a week.

Head to Phuket and Phi Phi (an add on package from Thai Intro)

Head to Ko Samui (I've heard they have some cool mauy thai shit there too)

Then on May 6th go to Koh Phangan for one of the legendary Full Moon Parties!!

Then head to Trat, which is waaaay down south of Thailand, to teach Thai children English. It costs about £400 for two weeks, but it does include accomodation, and will give me some experience in a teaching envoriment.

Trat borders Cambodia, so I'm thinking of doing a bit of a circle thing anticlockwise around South East Asia, and depending on my budget hit up China too. This is where the plan gets a bit more vague :)

The options are to go from Trat - Cambodia - Vietnam - Laos (gotta try tubing) - Ha Noi - Nanning - Xian - Beijing.

Then from Beijing to either: Singapore/Bali/Sydney
OR Beijing - Singapore - Bali
OR Beijing - Singapore - Malaysia - Bali then to Sydney : ]

Obv I'd like to see as much as possible so i have to save HEAPS.

I was looking into Oz Intro and Ultimate Oz as well, Ultimate Oz seems like a pretty sweet deal for when you start up in Oz to help with things like jobs.
I looked into a hospitality internship in Australia, but I think they are around six months, and I want to travel around more than that (unless something happpens... then maybe I will want to stick on one place who knows!) There are also Language schools in Australia too so...

Basically though, I'm not booking any tickets past Thailand too far in advance, because I don't exactly know where I am heading yet or who I'm gonna meet along the way. Although there is specific start dates for the packages so I am kinda constricted by that.
                             
There is still a lot to think about, but I think this itinery is going to suit me best, especially as I will be with a group of other solo travellers, and I made friends easily so I should have no worries :)

Currently I am feeling excited...