Summer Reflection #5: Booked Locally
As mentioned, we aren't travelling much this summer as the holiday budget is going to be spent on landscaping part of the garden. However, I also think that we need to get out of the house, especially my wife, who works from home a lot. While convenient, one of the things about working from home a lot is, it makes the home a workspace, not a home.
I need to get out too.
So, we have booked a couple of nights in other towns, where we have some things to do. Leaving sometime next week, we will visit a castle, have a couple days at a kind of outdoor adventure park and pool complex, spend a couple nights with my friend's family, then move on to have a couple nights at a spa center on the coast. That adds up to six nights away, but only 4 nights for paid accommodation.
From there, what we do is going to depend on the weather, because we would like to head to a coastal beach to swim in the sea, but if there weather gods don't play nice, we will likely come home and then try for later in the month. The Finnish summer is fickle at best, so it could be that there will be no suitable days at all.
But even this short trip is still relatively expensive to do, just for the places to stay. On top of that, there is the food, fuel, incidentals, and whatever else comes up. While I do think that we should get away out of the home for a bit, we also got a quote for a slice of the ground work that we will have done, and it isn't cheap.
I am counting each booking amount in foundation foam, gravel fill and bricks.
This doesn't help of course, but every decision comes with an opportunity cost and when financial resources are low, the opportunity is far more limited, because the costs are more impactful. That is unfortunately where we are with the landscaping project at the moment. I am not willing to dip into savings for any of this yet, so it will be done piece by piece over the space of years if we have to.
One day.... crypto.
But not yet it seems.
Regardless of all of this though, I am looking forward to getting away for a few nights with the family and seeing some things that we haven't seen before. It will also be nice to spend a couple nights with my friend, as we barely see each other these days due to distance and work schedules. Hopefully a few days away from home will be enough for my wife to feel a little recharged, but I think it is also going to take some very warm weather. She is like a solar panel.
If only she could keep the lights on.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
We cannot be stingy with ourselves and our family. Nothing is free in this life, so those expenses are a good investment for each of you. Enjoy yourselves, life is short....
Out of curiosity, why do you make the text so large?
Now that's what I call a wonderful getaway plan. It's important to recharge and explore new places, especially after working from home. Enjoy every moment with your family and friends brother
Traveling is so crazy expensive now. My wife and I have a trip planned and even our overnight stops are really expensive. Something like $150 to $200 per night in some cases. Those are just run of the mill hotels too. I hope your family has a great time in your travels. I bet the little one is going to love the castle!
It is 170-200€ a night for us for these four nights. Everything is crazy... The costs have increased so much over the last few years - seems everything was supplied from Ukraine.
I am looking forward to the castle too though! It isn't like one of those Disney ones in Germany, but it is different at least. It is from Swedish times.
That is really cool about the castle. What's really sad about the hotel thing is the service hasn't matched step with the rate increases. In most cases it has went down the tubes. Finding a truly clean hotel room anymore is a mythic quest!
Many don't make up the room daily now either - as if paying foreigners who can't find other jobs is their biggest expense.
For sure!
It is definitely expensive to travel and holiday in peak season down under too
I don't know if there really is a "peak" in Finland though. In southern Europe for sure.
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I do hope you enjoy the getaway. Being a former workaholic I didn't take advantage of vacations like I should have.
As far as your landscaping project, I get it. There are projects around my house that I want done, but they will just have to wait until the funds are available.
You guys in the US are insane with vacations. Like two weeks a year or something?
Old houses (all houses I guess) are just money pits under the guise of investments :)
On average it is two weeks, yeah. In the military you get 30 days, but that is variable. You don;t always get all 30 at once most times. I never took it all at once and sometimes never took any during the year.
I have a lot saved up from a few years ago. Had the stroke just before vacation, so it became sick leave instead. Since then, I am always a year behind.
Yeah, I always had a lot saved up. Wish I would have just taken it and enjoyed the time with family.
On a vacation, too. I am able not to count the expenses in bricks because I did set the budget for vacations aside at the start of the year and it wasn't going to become bricks... it should have lasted to autumn but it's getting a bit shorter than planned. I guess I will be spending some bricks come autumn.
By the way, I do have the potential to get some free bricks... but that's only in terms of money. They are not free in terms of time. Restoring them would take a lot. Cheaper to buy, perhaps but I wouldn't throw away what was worked on hard and was already made useful once.
And by bricks I mean wooden material.
But also bricks.
"We spent half a wall yesterday, dear"
It is cool when it is possible to get free old bricks. Sometimes people have a pile of them stacked for years against a wall or something. We don't need those kinds though.
She wouldn't like me reminding her that.
This adventure has much fun but it looks like it could be expensive. All the best, we spend to give ourselves the pleasure we desire
When I was planning for the works here in Portugal. I thought I could rebuild both places, the tiny house in the farm, and the apartment in the stable. I am spending way more than I predicted in the farm, just because once you start, you keep facing new options you can do now that everything is easier as you have the time, tools and conditions (as everything is already upside down).
My friend who was supposed to be with me for 3 months, just had to leave, so will have to hire some local company to help. And I have just given up on converting the stable into an apartment. It will be a storage and workshop until next summer.
We tend to under estimate work on things we are not experts on, and then the initial budget increases in time and cost, but I am happy to do part of the work myself, saving some money and also learning a little bit from the professionals. But yeah, no beach time for us this summer eather, although we may go to some of the many river beaches around here.
Money pits!! :D
There is always the desire to get things done faster, but sometimes it makes more sense just to wait a bit, live a bit, and see if the plan still holds over time.
As long as you spend some time with family, not working. It might not be where or as much as you want, but some is better than none.
I hope you have a good time with your wife during this vacation. Things may be expensive but I’m glad you could at least take out time and money so you all could enjoy yourself especially for your wife who works from home a lot
Enjoy!
A few days are better than no days :)
I think Europe is one of the best places to be if one likes to travel. Being able to go to different countries with just a train is amazing. You mentioned about the cost, but I think you guys deserve it.
Yep, it is great to be in Europe, though being so far north limits us a bit. Central Europe is awesome, because trains go from center to center.
Traveling is also very expensive for me now. A walk to my garden and back gives us pleasure and a pure breath of nature.
Costs have gone up, crypto has gone down.
Not all cryptocurrencies fell. It's good that HBD exists.
I hope that you can get one relaxed vacations. Sometimes, it is not only the location, but mostly the companion. For your wife would be some great days to be off her workplace a.k.a. your home... I never work from home, besides some couple of hours per week, finishing some reports. Mainly my work is made in the company facilities.
I'm also looking forward to spend some days of my home. No need to be physically very apart from Lisbon, only hoping to have some days off, without thinking of the daily work routines.
I do this too. It is good to have the option to work from home whenever and as much as I like, but I normally go into the office.
Lisbon is on my list to visit one day. I would like to go and dance some Kizomba there, as I hear they are great dances :)
You and your family wouldn't regret to visit Portugal! Kizomba, besides not being a national dance, it is very popular over here, since it is such a strong and energizing dance, that makes everyone around happy! Even the ones that are only standing to see others dancing!
Dear @tarazkp !
I thought you and your wife both had jobs!
I wonder what your garden will look like in the future!!
We do both have jobs.
I can see how much you think about your wife here just wanting to make sure that she enjoys every bit of the outing and also have fun
Enjoy the vacation!
She deserves better than I can give her.
Your holiday sounds action packed! Hopefully the weather agrees and you get your swim in the sea!
My partner is just the same way and she also works from home. when she is having a rough go I tell her to bring the laptop outside and do some work in the sun and that usually straightens her out for the afternoon! Just charge up babe!
Is that on one of those rooftops where they have the parties, and welcome the aliens?
Well, we have a private patio as well as a rooftop area, so she has twice as much area to charge up (and summon aliens). Our 2nd floor apartment backs out onto the roof of the car body shop next to us, so we have their whole roof as a private patio.
Then on top of our 4-story building, someone disabled the alarm on the emergency exit to the roof, so we can hang out up there with views of the Manhattan skyline and the elevated NYC subway train on the avenue next to us. It's fun to take a relaxing smoke up there and wave at the commuters on the subway as it cruises by. We are only 2 blocks away from the next subway station, so we can even see little people waiting month platform for their train.