Day 0: Luxury start to the poor life

And so it begins.

I’m drafting this while sitting on seat 11A – flatbed. Yes, I can’t seem to be able to fall asleep after my nose started acting up. Instead of trying or pretending to sleep and enjoy the ‘luxury’ of a flatbed, here I am sitting upright at 3:18am Singapore time typing this.

I’ve decided to ‘bring back’ my casual writing diary style for my website as I foresee that there would be a lot of free time this trip. Anyway, I started this travel blog for my work and travel holiday back in 2010 when I went to the states. Now that I’m 9 years older, it’s time to re-live the freedom I once enjoyed. Similarly to my Korea trip last month, it was a burden-free trip as I no longer have to worry about my day job – which I could never let go of work. This time round, I’m even more relieved of any sort of stress as I do not have any commitment to sponsors. Well of course I’m always on the constant look out for them, I just haven’t seem to find any yet, or perhaps NZ doesn’t need to do this sponsorship publicity at all.

Yep, as I stepped into the departure hall earlier this evening, I was on my own. I had to be responsible of everything anything and there’s pretty much no one to blame or rely on for the next couple of months. As excited as I may be, I’m still pretty scared of the uncertainty but like my ex ex boss said, he knows I will be able to survive anywhere cause I’m.. resourceful?

So for the past couple of weeks or so, in fact I had 52 days of loafing around, probably one of the best time in my life where I’m not bothered with schoolwork, earning money from part time jobs, being stressed over blog profits (I gave up) or being pressured with job hunting. The weeks were spent meeting up with friends, some of which I have not met in the past years, some of which I met so many times in a month, compared to the past years. Well, I’m pretty glad that there are still people wanting to meet me. As you grow older, people tend to drift apart and it’s inevitable that you grow tired of meeting people. So to those who have spent time with me (though I highly doubt they are reading this), thank you for hanging out with the unemployed soul.

Another thing I did during this time was that I re-instated my GrabHitch driver status. While I didn’t go out aggressively to hunt for jobs, I made it a point to look for riders every time I’m driving. I think I clocked about 20+ rides so far? It was fun to hold conversations with random strangers that you’ll only get to meet once. Many of them were jealous of my braveness and one of them even tried to poach me to be a property agent. You really meet all types of people as a driver. I guess it’s fun to do it once in a while. But of course, there were the rude ones who don’t even say hi. Thankfully I’m not a petty one and I don’t really care so all is good.

Omg. I just opened the window and the stars are so pretty outside. A pity I can’t capture them in photos as the reflection would be too strong. I hope the sunrise would be beautiful later.

So my cousin told me something last weekend. She said, are you going to NZ to find yourself? My friend did it before and he/she said that you can’t find anything one. Weirdly, finding myself has never been an objective of my trip.

I was looking back at my old diaries and blog entries where I wrote down some goals or aims I had in life. One of them was to work overseas. Sadly, I haven’t been in a company/position that gave me such an opportunity so it seems I had to create the opportunity myself. Though my job ain’t gonna be anything fancy or proud to put in my resume, it’s still an overseas working experience I guess.. #tryhardernexttime

I also wrote somewhere before that I wanted to work on a farm – where all I had to stress about was my crops. Looking back, it seems that I have been pretty stressed about my jobs my whole life and the only way I can completely let go is to quit. My mum did ask me why I didn’t consider a sabbatical and to be honest, I’m glad I didn’t. If I had been on a sabbatical, I’m pretty sure I’ll not be able to let go and continue to check my emails like crazy and then.. how much of a career break would that have been?

Like the Chinese saying goes 休息，是为了走更长远的路, which can be translate to resting would allow you to walk a further distance/journey ahead. I hope this break would be able to refresh/recharge my mindset and hopefully I will figure a way to ‘let go’ more in my next job. Or perhaps be in a job that won’t be too demanding? I don’t know if it will happen as the problem could be me and not the job nature. Let’s see.

Anyway, if you’re wondering what I’m doing in business class, you can read my previous post on my NZ prep where I drafted the full story but to summarize, SQ was having a 30% spontaneous escapes promo and my impromptu trip to Korea gave me 4,000 more miles in my account and I hit the amount required for this trip redemption. I guess it was fate as well that I didn’t get a job in the ski resort job (would have required me to reach end May) plus I was advised to fly later so here I am, enjoying the luxury of fine dining and alcohol buffet in the air. They keep asking me if I wanted a drink and I’ve drank 3 cups of different alcohol so far and I need to thank my limit for remaining sober. However, it did made me so hot that it took a while for me to doze off and now I’m up again yet can fall back asleep cause of my nose.

Oh wells.

Anyway, many people have asked me what’s my plan in NZ and whether I have a job and it seems like my answer of ‘no plans’ ain’t satisfactory. For most of my life, I’m a planner but for my NZ trip, my plans ain’t working out? I applied for every single ski resort and didn’t even score an interview chance. I only had two emails for on-site interview invitation but obviously I can’t be there and I guess they didn’t need to rely on skype to fill up the spaces – yes it’s that competitive.

I tried to look for accommodation early but most hosts said that they are only able to advise on availability 1-2 weeks before I arrive – as they are not sure when the people leave. Seems like the notice period is pretty short.

I tried to look for friends, well I did find a few online people but you wouldn’t know if you’ll end up meeting until you’re there.

So now, the only plan is that I’ll be staying with a HelpX host – yes I paid for that membership (thankfully using my earnings from booking.com PayPal) – for a week or so while I figure out which city or town to explore or find a job at.

My ‘no plans’ answer was not literally a lazy me not wanting to plan anything. It’s just that the situation doesn’t allow me to plan ahead. I just have to move with the flow and figure things out and this is the norm.

Time check now is 3:59am which means that I’ve spent 40 mins typing this and let me use the free 30mb of WiFi to upload this.

Sorry for being longwinded but I guess if you’re reading this post – you’re probably a loyal reader – cause this ain’t gonna be index by google with my lousy SEO terms.

I will try my best to update more random musings of NZ. I need to help many people fulfill their dreams. Ha.

Anyway just wanted to share this quote of mine.

If I do this, I may regret. But if I don’t do this, I will regret.

Adios~ till next time!