The holiday starts with us flying with Qantas from Canberra to Sydney (QF1476), and from Sydney to London (QF031) via Singapore. We leave Canberra at 15:55 in the afternoon and arrive in London at 06:40 the next morning.

We are fortunate that we were able to book one of the return flights using 128,000 frequent flyer points; although, with the addition of the compulsory fees and charges, the award booking still cost $656. In comparison, our other ticket, the full paid fare, cost $2,622. In total, therefore, the two return flights cost just under $3,300.

We will spend a total of 4 full days and nights in London and have arranged to stay with two close friends. Their swanky new apartment is in a very central location, right on the river Thames, and only a short walk from the Tower of London.

From London we will catch a Eurostar train to Paris (from St Pancras to Paris Nord). We depart at approximately 9:30 in the morning, and arrive in the center of Paris just over 3 hours later, avoiding the overheads incurred when flying (e.g. time/cost associated with traveling to/from the airport). In total, the two tickets cost $230.

We will stay in Paris for 4 nights at the Alcove et Agapes Bed and Breakfast. We will be staying with Laurence and Marie-Claude, and their two children, in what appears to be, from all reports, a private mansion. The photograph to the left is of the dining room where we shall be enjoying our morning breakfast. Our room is equipped with a private ensuite, and as indicated, breakfast is provided daily. I consider this a steal at $520 for the 4 nights.

From Paris we fly to Venice in Italy with EasyJet. We leave from Charles de Gaulle airport at midday, and arrive at Marco Polo airport in Venice at 20 to 2 in the afternoon. The total cost of the flight is $170. We will stay 3 nights in Venice in a bed and breakfast succinctly titled A Room In Venice. The accommodation is conveniently located in the heart of Venice, and has been consistently praised by travelers on the amazing Trip Advisor web site. The 3 nights, which includes breakfast, will cost a total of $480.

After Venice, we board a train to Florence. We will stay in Florence for 2 nights at the Colori Bed and Breakfast. As with our accommodation in Venice, this choice was largely shaped by the positive reviews we encountered on the Trip Advisor web site. The two nights will set us back $245.

On the morning of our last day in Venice we will pick up an Avis hire car and head out into the rolling Tuscan hills. We will spend the next two nights at the rather spectacular country homestead of Il Canto Delsole, and during the day we will drive through the region exploring towns such as Siena and San Gimignano. The 2 nights in the homestead will cost a total of $360, whilst the hire car, which we shall have for 3 days, is set to cost $250.

At this point we head west, driving along country back roads until we reach La Spezia in the late afternoon. The intention is to drop off the hire car at the Avis depot and then to catch a train to Riomaggiore, one of the 5 coastal towns comprising Cinque Terre. We have arranged to stay at the amazing La Baia di Rio. The room has an uninterrupted view of the village and the wide expanse of the Mediterranean. We decided to stay in Riomaggiore instead of one of the other 5 towns that collectively form this region, as Riomaggiore is consistently touted as perhaps the most authentic of the villages. Our 4 night stay will cost $590.

From Cinque Terre we will catch a train to Rome, leaving at approximately 10am and arriving shortly after 2pm. We will stay 4 nights in Rome at the Beehive Apartments in the rather funky Millefiori studio. The apartment has 3 rooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and large living area, and will cost a total of $520.

From Rome, we continue our journey south, traveling by train to Naples. The journey is only 1.5 hours, and we arrive a little after 2:00 in the afternoon. We will spend 4 nights in Naples at Hostel Napoli, one of the top 10 hostels in the world in 2007, according to the Hostel World web site. We will use Naples as a base for day trips to Pompeii and the island of Capri. The 4 night stay will cost approximately $370.

After Naples, we return to Rome by train, arriving at the Fiumicino airport in the mid-afternoon. We depart for home at 5pm, traveling first to London (BA559), where after a brief stop over we fly on to Melbourne (QF10), before finally touching down in Canberra (Q814), 1 month later, at 9:30 in the morning.

It’s a full schedule, but i suspect we have found a good balance between travel, sightseeing, and rest. It is easy to over reach on overseas holidays, attempting to cram too much into too small a period, until it all becomes a senseless blur. We have been very conscious of this trap, and have deliberately arranged our restful meanderings through Tuscany and Cinque Terre to fall between half to two thirds of the way through our journey, a time when we may otherwise begin to run out of wind.

I suspect a significant percentage of the total holiday cost will relate to food (thanks to our active lifestyles we are both exceptional eaters), but even so, the accommodation and travel costs have already proved to be surprisingly reasonable. The total accommodation cost adds up to just over $3,000, which for 27 nights, falls in at approximately $110 per night (greatly helped by our free stay in London), and the travel costs (flights, hire car, etc), excluding 4 main train trips in Italy (which we are yet to book) adds up to just under $4,000. Not too bad at all.

Anyway, i hope this itinerary is helpful to those that may be planning a similar holiday, and if you’re not, i hope it encourages you to consider thinking about taking a break from your day job. You only live once.

However, although this approach has served me well, i’ve come to learn that people are seldom inspired by negativity; even conversation dotted with subtle or indirect negativity can chip away at the subconscious level and leave us feeling despondent, concerned, or simply doubtful. I’ve therefore decided to make a concerted effort to add some positive polish to my dialog. Here’s an example. Instead of the following:

Friend: Are you still coming over for dinner tonight?
Me: I’m not sure if i can make it anymore. I’ll let you know shortly so as not to mess you around.

I could say something like this:

Friend: Are you still coming over for dinner tonight?
Me: I’m not sure if i can make it anymore. I’ll let you know shortly so you’ve plenty of time to plan your evening.

The first snippet finishes on a somewhat sour note: the idea that my friend is being messed around. This is unfortunate, especially since i’ve got their best interests in mind. The second quote finishes on a positive: regardless of my decision, my friend will have plenty of time to prepare their evening.

At first glance the difference may appear slight, but when you round up the 7,000 odd words we speak each day, not to mention the bounty of emails, memos, and other written documents, even a minor splash of positivity will surely leave us all feeling a smidgen brighter.

I spent several weeks meticulously crafting the perfect itinerary. Each travel leg was researched and logged to the minute. Train schedules, platform numbers, and airport departure gates were duly noted. Anticipated expenses were carefully recorded. It was perfect. And then i went to book the airfares.

Fortunately, we had enough frequent flyer points to “buy” one complete return flight. I logged onto the Qantas web site and started the process to book a seat only to discover that there were no award bookings available on the requested day. Bugger. This was not good. I looked to the days either side. Nothing. I started to panic. I soon discovered that there was one, and only one, solitary frequent flyer flight available from Italy to Australia for the months September through to November. I was aghast. The holiday plans were in tatters.

Luckily, there were a reasonable number of award flights from Canberra to London, and after a decision to shift the holiday by a few weeks and to extend the trip a few days, we were able to find an end-to-end schedule that worked and could be booked with frequent flyer points.

Phew. What remained was the need to book a matching “paid” flight (so Megan and i could travel together; one of us under an award booking and the other under the standard paid fare). You would think this would be easy. Unfortunately, i could not for the life of me find the right flights on the Qantas web site. The award booking had us leaving Rome at 5:30 in the evening, while every single paid fare option on the web site departed at 12:45. Where was the 5:30 option?

I rang the Qantas booking line and was told i needed to specify that i wanted to fly from Rome to London to Melbourne to Canberra, rather than simply specifying Rome to Canberra (as i did for the award booking). Excellent. I thanked the operator and returned to the web site. Unfortunately this approach did not work. I was told there were no flights at all from Rome to London on the day requested. This was impossible, as we’d already booked an award flight.

I called Qantas a second time and spoke to another operator. I explained the dilemma. The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Operator: Just book the flight over the phone.

Me: But won’t that incur a $100 surcharge?

Operator: Yes.

Me: Well, i’d prefer to book online. Can i do this? Can you explain why the web site is not showing any flights from Rome to London?

Operator: You’re doing something wrong.

Me: What am i doing wrong?

Operator: You need to request a multi-city flight.

Me: Oh, yes, i’ve done that. Rome to London. London to Melbourne. Melbourne to Canberra. The problem is that the web site is saying there are no flights from Rome to London.

Operator: It’s because you’re trying to book a complicated flight.

Me: It’s not complicated. I want to fly from Rome to London.

Operator: But you want your flight to match up with your award booking.

Me: Sure, but that’s irrelevant. I just want to know why the web site is not showing any flights from Rome to London.

Operator: Because your request is complicated you need to book over the phone.

Me: It’s not complicated. I want to fly from Rome to London.

Operator: You’re doing something wrong.

Me: Is there someone i can speak to that might be able to explain what i’m doing wrong? Someone that can talk me through the process of booking the flight online?

Operator: We don’t use the web site. We use a different booking system.

Me: Are you saying there is no one at Qantas that can help explain what i am doing wrong on the web site?

Operator: You’re selecting the wrong options at the start.

Me: What options? I can only select a departure city, an arrival city, the date i want to fly, and whether i want the system to return the available flights ordered by schedule or price, and i’ve tried both options. What else can i do?

Operator: You’re selecting the wrong options at the start.

Me: What options?

Operator: You need to close your internet browser.

Me: Close my internet browser? Why will that help?

Operator: [silence]

Me: Hello?

Operator: [silence]

Me: Hello? Are you there?

Operator: [silence]

Me: Excuse me? Are you there?

Operator: [silence]

Me: [Directed to Megan who is sitting on the couch across the room] I think he hung up on me.

Megan: I think it all went pear-shaped when he started the conversation with “you’re doing something wrong”.

Me: I think you’re right.

Two more phone calls later and it was clear that i was not the “problem”. The web site only allows you to book a subset of flights and it just so happened that the flight i wanted to book wasn’t shown. I had to pay the surcharge and book over the phone. And you know what, in the end, the person who sold me the ticket was wonderful, and i was happy to fork out the admin fee. All it took was someone to say, “it can’t be done; we don’t provide that service”. No bullshit. No blame. Just an honest admission and a friendly and helpful tone.

After all of that, i feel like i need a holiday.

There is a wealth of material on the site. And each section is downloadable as a PDF. Unfortunately you can’t download all the info as a single document. So i downloaded each section and massaged them all into a single 343 page PDF. Grab a copy using the link below and nerd up on all the latest house building tips.

Pete: “Hey Megan, here’s one for you: Don’t eat anything that doesn’t rot”.

Megan: “Hmm, how ’bout this one: Don’t eat anything that looks like it never lived”.

Pete: “Wow, did you just make that shit up? Man, that’s deep”.

The joy of sunday afternoon conversations.

You might say, well, what’s the point of saving up all those spare coins anyway? It’s not like you can take it to the grave! I agree. I’m not suggesting that we all become frugal scrooges leading self-appointed lives of misery. There is little point, and certainly no happiness, to be found in amassing big wads of cash under our beds.

I’m suggesting we stop to consider a simple equation: money out cannot be more than money in. Therefore, if i spend lots, i have to earn lots. And that is the problem. There are possibly an infinite number of things i’d prefer to do in life than haul my sorry arse into the office five days a week. It’s not that i don’t get the odd kick out of a good day in the chair. It’s just that i can think of better ways to while away the hours. So i’m thinking, if i can cut my spending by 20%, i can cut my income by 20%, and still be just as well off. And that means 20% less time stuck in the corporate rut. For those of you that aren’t too good with numbers, a 20% reduction in work means i only need to work four days a week instead of five. Just by cutting back my spending by 20% i can take every wednesday off work for the rest of my life. How cool would that be? Never working more than two days in a row. Nice. Now that’s what i call value for money.

Ok, it sounds great, but is it possible to slash 20% of my spending? I think it is. Like i was saying at the outset, it’s easy to spend money without thinking about it. And i suspect most people spend a lot of money on shit that really makes no tangible difference in their lives. I mean is a sandwich from the work cafeteria really any more sustaining than a freshly packed lunch? Do i really need to eat out at an Italian restaurant on a Friday night when for half the price i could cook up a storm in my private kitchen? Heck i could even splurge on candles, fine wine, and post dinner chocolates for less than what it would cost to eat out amongst a throng of noisy revelers in a jazzed up restaurant. There are always opportunities to cut back: borrow books from the library instead of buying from Borders, download music and film from the net rather than splurging over the counter, create a relaxing atmosphere at home to drink coffee, eat cake, and listen to jazz, rather than paying through the nose at the local cafe. And most importantly, think ahead. Nip opportunities for impulse spending in the bud. Take a bottle of water when your heading out for the day instead of buying fluids from some rip-off convenience store. Pack an apple for morning tea. Know where the free car parks are to be found. And when you do find yourself in a restaurant, instead of the after dinner coffee and dessert, opt instead for a home-made brew and bowl of that unhealthy ice cream that’s stashed at the back of your freezer. You won’t enjoy life less. You’ll just enjoy it more cheaply. And with the extra cash left in the wallet, well, you can spend it in ways that really do make a difference. Maybe take that extra holiday. Maybe give more to others. Or maybe, just maybe, cut back the hours that you work.

There may be some among you who are shouting “but i enjoy eating out… i enjoy the change of scenery, the atmosphere, and the crowds”. That’s great, but these experiences don’t have to put a dent in your back pocket. Pack yourself a home made hamper and enjoy an evening picnic by the lake. Eat under the stars with friends and family at a free outdoor jazz concert. Be creative. Look for opportunities, instead of assuming that all good things must come as a paid service.

Anyway, it’s fine for me to blab on about it, but it’s quite another to walk the talk. So on Monday i decided to stop spending. Well, not entirely. I’m still using electricity, and surfing the web, cooking on the gas stove, and flushing the toilet, but all non-utility spending, anything that is not already booked up under some monthly account, is off limits. (Fortunately, we don’t have to pay for fuel as our car is leased, and work forks out for my phone). Oh, and there is one other exception: i’m still buying groceries as food is kind of essential. But other than that, i’m not spending. No parking. No eating out. No new clothes. No new books. No admission fees to concerts. Not even a coffee over the counter. If it isn’t already booked up on some account, or if it isn’t from a supermarket, i ain’t buying it. Well, i’ve made 7 days so far. I’m aiming for a month. It’s a personal challenge. I just need to keep reminding myself: less spending, less working, more time enjoying the freedom of life.

Although i’ve only seen two episodes, i’m absolutely besotted with the new series called Skins that recently started up on SBS. It’s a UK series that follows the lives of a small group of rather screwed up teenagers living in Bristol. To quote Wikipedia: “The group includes a popular boy, his girlfriend, a Muslim boy, a gay character, a girl with an eating disorder, a boy who is desperate to lose his virginity, an intelligent and privileged girl with family problems, and a party animal in love with his teacher”. And in case it wasn’t clear, it’s all a bit naughty.

It’s jam packed with nasty words, drug guzzling, sexual delinquency, and grand scale immaturity. It’s also riotously funny. Yes, it’s bursting with exaggerated stereotypes, and it makes light of some serious issues, but it also consistently hits the spot. I suspect that somewhere, in the mismatch of characters, each of which is the focus of a separate episode, there is ample opportunity for us older folk to catch nostalgic glimpses of what was (or could have been) the staple of our formative years.

I’d like to think there are some serious messages that rise to the surface, somewhere between the pill popping and rampant sex, but even if there isn’t a higher moral point, at least it wins votes for being, hands down, the most hilarious program on television.

Episode 3 screens this coming Monday on SBS at 10:00pm.

The following is an 8 minute edit of the first episode (which in full, runs for approximately 50 minutes).