I still can’t get around with the idea of hotels not offering free WiFi access. Well, I appreciate that in some parts of the world, internet is not cheap but I would have thought that internet should be widely available in a country like Australia. But no, 80-90% of hotels in Australia incur a charge of at least $12 for 24 hours access. It would be a lot higher if you go for per hour rate. It may seem that a charge from 50 cents per hour (should you go for the 24 hours access) is not too expensive but when you look at the hotels’ rooms prices, the charge is unnecessary. I suppose Mee and I will be going to McDonald as it’s our best bet to get free internet access.

Time flies … I always like to use those two words. In fact, I almost forgot about this blog. I only thought about it when I was taking shower last night. I feel bad. Anyway, I didn’t update this blog that frequently because a lot of things happened and I am very busy with my work. The shocking news, though not really shocking, is that my manager has since resigned. He will leave the company early March and no one knows what will happen then. A lot of staffs have been put at the ‘at risk’ category. I am still fine because we are actually short staffed. No one can actually do my work at the moment, hence, I am still safe. That goes the same with my other colleagues in my department. Well, we are in the same department but the works that we do are totally different.

I have changed my daily habit quite a bit minus the late sleeping part. I am still trying to coach myself to sleep early but it’s always until midnight where I start to get all energetic. I have started to take shower before having dinner. The vacuuming routine has changed from Sunday to Monday instead. Mee and I have started attending gym classes during weekend; Body Balance on Saturday and Zumba on Sunday. Well, Zumba is only for Mee as I am not interested. I will just be in the gym area doing free weights stuff. We used to also go to the gym on Tuesday as Mee attended aqua fit class. However, the pool has closed since before Christmas and will only be opened next week. Hence, we have been staying at home all this while on every Tuesday.

Right now, Mee and I can’t wait until our booked holiday period. The last time we went abroad was almost four months ago and it seems like forever. This time, we are quite ambitious as we will be going to Australia and possibly New Zealand. Mee has a couple of friends living in Australia and we could save quite a bit in the accommodation side of things. In addition, my uncle and his family lives in New Zealand, hence, we will most probably be going there and stay at his house for a few days while sight seeing.

I am back to my office space now. Mee and I didn’t have a really great time in Italy though it’s still a good trip. In Milan, there were not many things to see and do except shopping. Well, the latter is no doubt Mee’s favourite. Our hotel was okay though we expect better service than that from a three stars hotel. On our last day in Milan, we left it quite late before taking a train journey to Venice. It was about 8pm when we reached Venizia Santa Lucia train station. From there we took a boat to a stop near our hotel.

On the way, I was surprised that there were still so many people wandering around in Venice especially it was raining at that time. We had no trouble reaching our hotel. The next two days were a bit of a disaster as it rained throughout the day and flooded part of Venice. We boarded a gondola as part of our tour. It was a good experience but spoilt by the rain and flood.

The final day was the best as there was no rain or flood at all. Our flight was at night, hence we still have quite a bit of time to enjoy Venice under the sun.

No doubt I am very excited now. I haven’t posted anything for a while and that’s because I am busy. Well, I am always busy. But there’s always a good reason to be busy. First of all, I am busy with my work and that’s always a good thing. Secondly, Mee and I will be going to Italy tomorrow! And that’s why I am excited. As usual, I like to plan things ahead and I am so busy planning things to do in Italy that I haven’t got much time to blog and to tweet. Moreover, Mee and I went to Bristol the previous weekend to meet my sister. She was there to do her yoga thing and she invited us to go there. Since we have never been to Bristol, that’s a good time to go then especially we didn’t have to pay to stay at the hotel, hehehe ….

Anyway, we are going to two different places in Italy; Milan and Venice. Just one place would keep me busy enough with the planning, let alone two. I still remember when Mee and I went to Hong Kong, Macau and Taipei. I was so busy planning and Google Map didn’t make it any easier for me as most of Taipei’s roads are in Chinese wordings. Upon arriving, I realised that Google Map wasn’t that accurate. But as with most hotels, they provide local map and now I don’t really feel as pressure as before. On the other hand, Google Map is very accurate if you are looking at European countries. So, no pressure here!

I thought about using my car gps but it’s never easy to walk around with it especially the battery dies quite quickly. At the back of my mind, I am wary of carrying too much gadgets while on travel. Though owning gps is quite normal nowadays, I still feel that it will be a target to thieves. Hence, I still like the idea of using map instead.

I think I have everything I need now and we’ll see when we get there. It should be fun!