Changed back to Austria

Hi Me,

As I thought, we changed again. 

Finland was cancelled off after Boss found out that it was mostly dark nights for the 11 days of stay. I knew of this fact and thought she did too so I wasn't very opposed to the idea of going there. But since she's a bit reluctant to, we switched to back to Austria + Germany.

She wanted to go Berlin because the Berlin Walls will be demolished next year. The news shocked me too. I haven't even been to Berlin yet and they are going to demolished it?

So I told Boss let's just go and she got really excited about it. 

Hence, our planned changed. She's a bit enthusiastic about it - first time I seen her like this. No wonder she's so bent on going to Germany. I thought she has a lover there or something. Haha!

This is our (her) drafted itinerary. Initially she dedicated more days for Vienna but I told her to do some away since I don't think she will want to spend most of her time there and frankly after researching online, there's isn't much to see in Vienna. So we replaced the last few days of Vienna to Berlin. 

25/12 - Vienna
26/12 - Vienna
27/12 - Innsbruck
28/12 - Innsbruck/Hallstatt
29/12 - Hallstatt/Salzburg
30/12 - Salzburg
31/12 - Salzburg
1/1/ Salzburg - Berlin
2/1 - Berlin
3/1 - Berlin
4/1 - Berlin/Sg

I checked out the place she mentioned but the ones that I am really keen on are Salzburg , Hallstatt and Berlin. The remaining two were just yeah.

Honestly, I'm kind of worried of the weather there. It will definitely be around a single digit degree Celsius to maybe minus degrees for the whole of Europe and possibly with lots of rainfall which may dampen the spirit. So maybe we will not be able to go out as often as we want to. see as much as we planned to. Besides, I haven't been to places this cold, at most a 15 degree Celsius. Which makes me doubt my ability to adapt. Please, I really don't want to fall sick there. 

People are getting out of Europe, we are going Europe. Pretty dumb, but hey. We wanted to enjoy some Christmas and New Year Spirit over there. So I guess it may worth it? Anyway, we will be going to the Christmas Market over there. Would be really great to go to a real one instead of its imitation back here in Singapore. 

I hope as we get closer to date, I will be more excited about the trip. Right now I'm really half-hearted about the year end travel although I was initially really thrilled about it. I guess I will be more enthusiastic if its Finland or maybe Italy and France since they are places that I really wanna go. 

Still, I'm not sure how this trip will work out but my fingers are crossed.

Flight Details

For now I will just list out the places I want to go in each city and then maybe we can cross reference to see if we have similar places of interest. 

As of now, I'm still not very excited but I guess that's because we are soo far from the departure date.

Let me know if we eventually go to Europe. :)

From,

Me

28/4/15

10:12am

Reference

http://www.passportchop.com/europe/austria/shopping-getting-around-in-vienna/

Austria:

Vienna
Schönbrunn_Palace
Stephensdom Catacombs (Katakomben)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRI8ffYKA8c

Salzburg

Hohensalzburg Fortress
Schloss Hellbrunn 
http://travelerfolio.com/salzburg-mozart-austria/

Results are Teachers' rewards of hard work

Teaching is one profession that is most rewarding but the least remunerated. It exhausts both mentally and physically of the being.

With all these bad points, I have never thought of being a teacher before. At least not on a long term. Plus, being dubious of my own ability and qualification to teach further restrain me from going into this line. It was only until I have seen many of my peers teaching part time, that I have decided to give it a go.

Teaching is one thing, teaching music is another.

The subject itself demands strong technical ability of the teacher before he or she is able to impart the skills to the students. So our ability to play are often challenged and we have to constantly improve ourselves.

Another headache is that, there are no clear defined lines to follow. Music is not as straight forward as Mathematics where you must learn certain concepts on certain age. (Eg. to count by thousands when 11 and learnt algebra by 12.) Yet there are certain expectations of the student depending on the grade she is in. Because of the ambiguity and lack of standard materials to follow, teachers have to source their own materials and slowly bring the students to higher level. So our job is to try to get our students as exposed to different music as possible. On a silver lining, we are granted more flexibility on the songs we can choose for our students.

With all that being said, it is a difficult job. Much more than an administrative clerk.

This year, I finally put my skills and teaching abilities to test by sending my students for exams.

I was worried, and nervous. Many times I had wanted to stop teaching but I always managed to convince myself otherwise.

What if my interpretation of the songs were wrong. What if I have been teaching them the wrong things. What if they fail? 

I couldn't sleep. This is my first time sending students for exams.

At last!

On the 16th day after the exam date, the results were released. It was late and I had been refreshing my account page since a few days ago to check on the result status.

When the results page showed on the small screen of my handphone, I must say, it was one of the best moments in my life. The rewards of my persistence and hardwork are paid off.

Two students which I had registered for exams had a Merit and Distinction!

A HUGE RELIEF!

So with this I should put a stop of me doubting myself and believe in my own abilities.

I am really proud of my students and it's really encouraging that most of my friends even my music teachers and conductors share the same joy. I will continue to work hard as a teacher and as a better pianist. 

So that's that. A huge mile stone and a big tick off my 2015 to-do list!

Planning ahead

Hi Me,

Time seems to pass really slowly these days, but I guess that’s just me getting impatient.

It’s thirty-two days away from the departure date and almost a year since I last flew. Well, to be exact it’s actually nine months. Still, this long period of staying put in one place kind of puts me off.

All the balance of payments are settled, except for the clothes and packing. But hey! We still have a month more to prepare.

And as it turns out, Aunty Sim will be going.

Mum and I actually had a bet on whether she would join us for the tour even though she had previously stated very clear that she won’t be. From my observation I don’t think she will be fond of being separated from her boyfriend for such a long period. After all, they are still in the lovey dopey period so I bet that she will eventually join us. Mum thought otherwise considering she had family circumstances but it turns out I'm right.

Frankly, I am quite glad that she is joining us. This will be the first time that I will be traveling with her and I know it won’t be the last. Of all the tales I heard of her, finally I get some of it live.

That aside, I’m already planning for my next trip and the subsequent one. Anxious you may think I am to have planned so much way ahead but I have to decide where I am going before leaving aside the very little leaves I have. It’s all in talks now and not confirmed and I don’t know the likelihood of it happening. 

I didn't planned for a trip although it did cross my mind to maybe take some day off.

However, Boss suddenly popped out asking everybody if we were keen to go on a trip with her at the end of the year. The response was cold as usual. Everybody couldn't make it.

Initially, I told her I couldn't as that is my peak season but after knowing that she wanted to travel during the Christmas and New Year period, I hesitated.

As these two holidays fall on Friday, all I have to do is to take a few more days of leaves, maybe 6 to enjoy 12 day of rest.

So I told her, I probably can make it but my leaves are subject to approval.

We have planned to travel around Germany but we changed our mind to Slovenia since both of us have yet to been there. I changed once more to Austria since there's no flight to Vienna at the timing I wanted.

And now we are going to Finland because Boss hasn't been there and she's swept off her feet by the photos of Finland. Since we have been changing our mind, I really don't know if we will change our destination again.

I'm quite skeptic on whether this trip will be possible but all fingers' crossed.

I really don't want to spend another year before I can make a trip to Canada.

My plan is to travel twice in a year. I don't think I can stay put in a country after I have the monetary power now. I don't mind if it's just a short trip to maybe Taiwan but I just want to go somewhere. Moreover, I plan to visit almost every country. In order to realise my dream, I have to start travelling or if I travel one country a year, I can never finish 195 of them. Well, maybe not all countries especially those war-torn nations.

Funny that before I go on to the first trip of the year, I am already planning my next. Haha. In fact, I'm planning my trip in 2016.

It's very crucial to plan ahead especially if you only have 14 annual leaves and are planning for a long trip.

Your trip isn't going to be a mere 5 days.

I have already did some research on the place and where to go but we will see.

My fingers are all crossed now.

Reference
http://whenshetravelstheworld.blogspot.sg/2014/03/review-finland-tour-packages-by.html

Bus from airport to city

http://www.finnair.com/INT/GB/information-services/at-the-airport/transportation.


Kakslauttanen (Glass igloo)
Kakslauttanen: Accommodation: http://www.kakslauttanen.fi/assets/2014/01/KAKSLAUTTANEN-WINTER-ACCOMMODATION-2014-2015.pdf

Rovaniemi: http://www.arcticsnowhotel.fi/

Aurora + Sleigh Ride:
http://www.kakslauttanen.fi/assets/2014/03/KAKSLAUTTANEN-WINTER-ACTIVITIES-2014-2015.pdf


Aurora Trip

http://www.laplandwelcome.fi/activities/winter-safaris-in-rovaniemi?id=131

Finished Writing on:

25/4/2015
3:31pm

Latest Update

My leaves have been approved.

Now what's left is to up for the day to arrive.

WAHHAHAH

False Alarm

False Alarm!

The promotion will end one day before I fly off. So there will be no good reason to reject my leave request. Bad unfortunately, Aunty Sim couldn't really join us.

She had just received news that her sister will be undergoing an operation so she felt that she should stay beside her. She said that her sister would wish Aunty Sim to be beside her.

I guess maybe that's why her sister was throwing a big fuss when she mention that she is going overseas.

Oh well, I guess that's that.

I have already applied for leave so now all I have to do is to wait for the approval.

One step down

We went to book our place at the Travel fair yesterday. 

Went to the booth, talked to the travel consultant, made known our worries and then registered and paid. 

This just means we are one step closer to Tibet. 

The next crucial step is to, apply my leaves.

As of now, I have only 7 days of Annual Leave but I need to take 8 days off. I will have to wait until tomorrow to be able to use all 8 days of leave as the remaining one day will then be credited to my account. 

After this, there's still one more thing to worry though.

That is whether my boss/manager will approve my leave. I will be in deep shit if she don't. There is a chance that she won't approve because our promotion last all the way to the week I am flying off. By right, according to the schedule she gave me, promotion should have ended by then. 

It seems that there is a change of plans.

I hope it will be fine since there won't be any important things I have to do during that week. The work load was always toned down during last week of promotion for the past few events.

Another bad news is that, Aunty Sim may not be joining us. Apparently, her sister and her dad disapprove of the trip. She said that if she really want to go, she can just book without their consent but her main concern was that she didn't want to worry them. 

We just went ahead to reserve a slot for her so she has until this Wednesday to think about it. Till then, I guess she will be in a dilemma since her boyfriend is joining us though. 

I really can't control much of my excitement since the trip is just next month. Although there's still more than a month away from my take-off, I can already start preparing the things I will be bringing. 

Which means, shopping! :DD

Let's just hope all will be well and I can successfully go to the land of my dream. Till then ~

Pay Day

My "boyfriend" looked at me in pure excitement as she announced enthusiastically: "Yay! It's pay day!"

I watched as she threw her fist in the air before turning around to give me the brightest smile.

"Why are you so happy? Are you in need of money?" I asked, trying to make sense of her excitement.

"Ya, so I can go on a date with you mah", before giving me a hug.

And then I wondered to myself.

Yes, it's pay day; but why am I not so enthusiastic about it?

In fact, why should I? It's time that the company remunerate me for my work isn't it? In the past maybe, that I would be gratitude upon receiving my payslip.

But gone were the days that I think that issuing salary is an act of benevolence.

I guess besides thinking that receiving salary as a matter-of-fact, I'm not in a poor financial position.

All thanks to my sideline jobs, I have been receiving additional cash to sustain my living. AND, all these sideline jobs are paid on the spot after the day's work is done, which replenishes the wallet whenever cash falls low.

So I am never resorted into asking for advance payment, neither do I need to struggle with expenses to last till the payday.

So I guess, I'm glad I have another job to keep the cash flow healthy but I don't know how long will I be able to keep this up.

Nonetheless, it's always prudent to have an additional source of income. At least you are not entirely dependent on one.