This REALLY Sucks!

As I said, the George Michael Australian tour was cancelled. I bought my tickets in June this year and now my refund was given in October. And since the USD was stronger in June compared to now, I have lost RM85 from this refund. I doubt if I'm the only one.

So, it's like I've paid to park my money somewhere for 5 months. Talk about rubbing salt into a wound! I feel scammed. 

Hey, RM85 in Malaysia can feed my family of four for one good meal at a decent restaurant. RM85 is USD27. One full tank of petrol.

This is the first and last time on my attempt to watch George Michael in concert.

Squeezing in another trip

Barely had our plans for Perth in November were confirmed, I was itchy and started to plan for another family trip for December.

You see, my parents were supposed to go USA to visit Grace this year instead of Melbourne with Ron (they went two years in a row). Grace instead decided to come back to Malaysia so my parents were then deciding where else to go. NZ came up but I encouraged them to go in Autumn rather than Spring as it can get quite rainy. Plus if they went, I'd rather they go with some friends because the drive from one place to another is long.

Then they decided to go Israel. But because of the unrest, the trip was cancelled. So my parents are overseas tripless this year.

Since Ron is coming back in December while Jan and I have to clear our leave, I am proposing to go... Lake Toba. Yes, the largest volcanic lake in the world with an island that is larger than Singapore. I've been on Lake Taupo, NZ which was apparently 1.5 times the size of Singapore (why do they always compare to Singapore?) and it was lovely. Crystal clear waters which we could drink from (I didn't but my friend did) and a strange calmness as it doesn't have waves. I am not expecting to drink from Lake Toba though.

Thing is, there's not much stuff on Lake Toba that I can find on the internet. Plus the hotels on the island, well, they're not like the villas in Bali. Mum's not estactic but hey, we're all broke plus it's supposed to be really nice.

A quick survey with my colleagues showed that no one has gone there. Hmm... Not very popular despite it being so near to us. I guess the best plan would be to book a trip via a travel agent (Gasp! So not my style!). Anyone gone to Lake Toba and have something to say?

I was also reading somewhere that someone commented it is showing signs of an eruption. KS then asked me, "How then?". Let me put it this way, if it does blow, I doubt if there's anywhere we can run and hide even if we were in Malaysia.

Curls?

So my company annual dinner was held last week. I was planning to wear a long dress I bought years ago but it failed the zip test. Unless I planned on not breathing, it would have fitted. As usual, my trusty stretchy and over worn dress saved the day. 

Anyway, here are some photos of the night with my colleagues. Er, vain question to those who know me, should I consider curling my hair permanently one day? I'm not sure if these sort of curls can be made permanent or they'd be tighter curls. Or only curl for special occasions? 

Ew... so many photos of myself. So not used to it.

Cancelled Concert

When George Michael announced his Symphonica Tour in early 2011, I followed his release dates carefully and was deciding to buy tickets from various parts of Europe and travel there to see him. As I've mentioned before, his concert is on my top 4 concerts. But I wasn't prepared to travel to some part of Europe where they speak in different language as I was worried he might speak in some other language or that we might get lost trying to get to the concert.

Anyway, he then extended his concert to Australia so I thought it would be safest to go there. Somehow or other, I didn't buy the tickets and they quickly became sold out. Then, he suddenly became very ill and had to cancel his concerts including the Australia one. I thought to myself, thank goodness I didn't buy those tickets.

After he recuperated, he announced new dates for Australia and this time, I thought, okay, this could happen and just to be safe, let me buy tickets in Perth since Yen is there and since it's only a 5 hour flight. So I bought the tickets for KS, Yen and myself. Then about a month ago, I bought flights to Perth, arranging with KS parents that we will all go together as a family. I then applied for 10 days of leave.

Now, because of this trip (and other incidents), KS and I decided to cancel our Christmas trip to Europe. We were supposed to scour the Christmas markets and experience winter as part of our annual just-the-two-of-us-to-somewhere-we've-never-been trip. Despite deciding not to go anywhere in December, I was greatly tempted when there was a travel fair as somehow this year doesn't feel complete.

And last Sunday, George Michael announces he's cancelled his Australian tour. WaaaaaAAaaaa!!!! To add insult to injury, they offered to convert our tickets to watch Elton John instead. Elton John came to Malaysia last year but I didn't bother to go. I like Elton John, I just don't have the desire to see him live let alone travel all the way to Perth to watch him. *cry*

So now, I am determined to go somewhere we've never been in Perth and do something crazy like climb the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree.

At first when I watched the video, I was super scared. What if I slipped in between the rods and fall a long way down? Now? Huh! Bring it on! I'm gonna rock my (4th) Perth trip, with or without George Michael!