Financially Independent, Retired Early(ish) at 57.

Wednesday W’s #112

What’s top of my mind: The Antarctica trip just keeps on giving!

Look at me – I’m with my lovely friend Morgan from France on a beautiful winter’s evening, with the Yarra River behind us. Morgan was the tour leader of the Antarctica trip back in 2022. Since then, he’s taken a full-time position with Young Pioneer Tours as a guide and is being paid to travel the world.

What a gig.

This time around, he was on his way home from a tour in the South Pacific and he found himself in Melbourne with some time to spare. We met up for dinner last night and we had a great time. When two like-minded travellers meet up, the conversation FLOWS. Hopefully, we’ll be travelling together again next year to Iceland and Greenland, which will be a lot of fun.

In two weeks he’s off to Syria.

Earlier that day Liga and I were talking. I mentioned that I was going to be in Estonia next year and to cut a long story short, I’m going to be extending my trip to go to Latvia as well. She also mentioned ducking into Lithuania as well, so that I get to see all 3 of the Baltics.

omg.

I’m excited. I’ll barely be home next year, the way things are going!

Where I’m going: to my sewing room.

Unfortunately, my friend’s sister died a couple of days ago. I need to finish her quilt.

Where I’ve been: nowhere much.

Apart from dinner in the city with Morgan, I’ve been at home sewing.

What I’m reading: The Red Queen.

I needed a book to read on the train last night so I downloaded this one from Borrowbox. It’s a Spanish thriller. I’m enjoying it, though sometimes the English is slightly clunky. It’s translated from Spanish.

What I’m watching: The Block. Bad Sisters.

I read a thread on Twitter where people were talking about really good series on AppleTV, so I saved it for when I needed something to watch. Bad Sisters was mentioned a lot. I’m enjoying it. It’s about a family of 5 adult sisters, where 4 of them want to literally kill their brother-in-law. They have reason – he’s a real arsehole.

And of course The Block. I love this show.

What I’m listening to: Music.

As I’m sewing, I’m putting on Mum’s Boppin’ Bangers on mix and enjoying what comes up. I’ve decided to let my podcasts mount up for when I have the Long Drive Home from Uluru in November after I drop the Ligas off, so I’m giving Spotify a good workout.

What I’m eating: nothing special.

What I’m planning: hmmm…

I leave on the Ghan trip in a little over two weeks. I should be planning what I’m going to take with me, but I haven’t started yet.

Who deserves a thumbs-up: Jeffrey.

A while ago I bought a dog pram so that I could take Scout to crowded places without her getting scared and refusing to walk. She might only weigh 6.5 kilos, but carrying that much weight gets heavy after a while.

I mentioned last week that I was worried about Jeff’s heart because he was panting a lot. I decided to try out the pram on a walk to the library to return some books. Jeff took to it like a duck to water.

He probably walked about a kilometre, but the rest of the time he was up high and enjoying the view. Scout got tired before the end of the walk so I popped her in there too.

What has made me smile: the light on my wall.

Look at this! Sometimes it’s the little things that bring a smile to the dial.

Dad joke of the day:

6 Comments

  1. Sandyg61

    Just mentioning that you won’t have internet between towns on your drive back from Uluru. Can you download the podcasts.

    • FrogdancerJones

      Yes, they download automatically. I elected to buy a cheaper iPad that doesn’t have its own internet. Every time I switch it on in the house it downloads any pods or books.

  2. Josie

    That is great that you are adding those countries while you are there! Many years ago we took my mother on her lifelong dream trip to Egypt. We considered adding a side trip to Alexandria or Morocco. Due to work time constraints, we did neither. Poor decision as none of us has been back to that region. So now my motto is to add on whatever possible.

    • FrogdancerJones

      Yes, I’m really conscious that this window of crazy travel won’t last forever.

  3. Kathy Aylward

    OMG Bad Sisters is great and funny and you just want to knock him off yourself. It’s so good. If you haven’t watched “How to Please a Woman” on Netflix – just a movie…it’s so good too. Australian and funny.

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