Ultimate Challenge. 457 days / £16600!!!

NinjaSavingKat

Loveadove did you just mention a broomstick from HP??.. That made me chuckle!!!

I am getting more and more excited as the days push by.. your enthusiasm though as well is making me more desperate to go... lol! I read a Northern Irish guys web page yesterday.. http://dontstopliving.net/ and he was the first one to reiterate how important it is to write EVERYTHING down. I have the attention span of a goldfish and the memory of a slug so I take a notebook/journal everywhere but don't always write everything down. I did a budget itinerary when I went to Italy though.. it was interesting to see how the money added up..

So I am on the verge of somehow finding a printer to print the form to gain my Australian citizenship certificate and have been told it will take 7 days from when they receive it not the aforementioned 3 months (I rang them to have a chat), Aussie passports take a completely different size photo in which UK photo booth's won't do..

I have realised I want to see Fiji, Japan in April, the Austrian paddock that floods in winter that you can swim through, Alaska's Tundra, The Northern Light.. My friends in Slovenia, Denmark, Brussels, and Canada... I want to see Jordan and Petra... Have a Morroccan Hammam...eat Mango's wherever I go.. and only ever wear flip-flops... until I get to Antarctica...

And I want to avoid planes wherever possible... :T:T:T

Where there's a will theres a way...

NinjaSavingKat

Good Afternoon diary people...

I am sat at work...again... and thinking...again.... Travel blogs are the meat of my current reading prowess and coupled with a war correspondants collective musings (Small Wars Permitting) I am entenched wholeheartedly in working myself the bone in order to wave fare-thee-well to this thing called "normal"....

Lamb's accumulative writings has thrown me across the globe with little thought that I might not know all the names she conjures or ideals she espews...but I want to go there now... not before selling all my things though. Have you heard of Manaus in Brazil..? Well I now want to go there... and Zimbabwe, Rio de Janeiro....

I have a headache from the facts and follies she has encountered, we moved so fast she and I while I wallowed in the deepest bath known to man on Friday night... can you believe I was there for 105 minutes preciely and wasn't a prune, albeit last night I only managed a meagre 90 minutes... seething with envy at the countries I won't view in the same light but enamoured enough to think of the delights that await me in our newly formed lands of far far away....(no more Mugabe / Pinochet or Milosevic)..

It's not a book of rosey pictures spilling over with smiling children and welcoming homes... there are smiling children but they are slaves, and the welcoming homes are with the Yanomamu in the middle of the Amazon who are slowly being killed by the greedy white man and his disease's...

I don't want this turning into some kind of book review just a way to console myself that the little knowledge I have of the world can be rectified if I just keep reading... and learning... and pushing....

I need a minimum of £8000 to travel with. £1000 a month (for 4 months) for South East Asia so I can live on mangos, enough to fly myself to Australia for four months before heading to Japan for the cherry blossom season and my 31st Birthday in April and enough perhaps for a little car in Australia... I can sleep in that you know...

From there then who knows. I know I will find it hard being unsettled and away from home too long but what happens when I find it hard to resettle. What will become on the Intrepid NSK...

I hope to pay off £1440 of my debt at the beginning of October.
I hope to pay off £1640 of my debt at the beginning of November
I hope to pay off £560 of my debt at the beginning of December.

Debt free by 1st December 2013. Hardly worth thinking about just yet.

There will be another diary.. "£8000 in 8 Months in Order To Travel"
But Lamb's book now begs me to keep going..it should have ended with a year in Australia..... albeit I can't access Pakistan quite like she would have done...Afghanistan is no longer inviting of tourists......South Africa might not be seen in all it's glory without guides to spoil the ambiance....

One can try though can't we...:)

NinjaSavingKat

Hello Diary Readers & Lurkers...:p


So I have been advised today that the "forced move of someone in our office" to an office department that has just arrived in our building lands at my feet... deep joy!

To be honest I am not shocked. I am the least trained in my office ( much to my annoyance and despite pleading for more training etc ) and am slightly "blah" about it... I have been thinking recently about my travelling and whether or not I am being a little overly ambitious... should I wait a full year before leaving the country... should I be bringing this much stress on myself at all...

Then this happens.

The Positives

1. No more work passed 5pm.
2. I get to actually attend weekly prayer meetings with my friends.
3. I will have a brand new shiny research project thats hopefully just mine.
4. I get a new line manager who might actually care.
5. I get to meet new people in my office.
6. My self worth will increase with actual real work to do.
7. A new desk means new desk toys.
8. A new job with new work means less boredem and less eating to fill said boredom.
9. My money won't drop despite the slight change in shifts.
10. I can still work weekends somewhere else for OT..
11. Andy was sad when I told him it was me that has been ousted...
12. Better self worth as I will actual have real work to do that is important.

The Negatives

1. I have to leave my team behind, the banter, the shocking stories, the humour and comaraderie.
2. I have to leave my desk buddy Andy behind - a mutual love of animals, sharing food and stupid noises to accompany stories we tell each other will be hard to replace.
3. No more late starts and sleep in's as I start at 0800 everyday.
4. I start on Monday.
5. I have been told this is a 6 month placement - I really don't believe this and neither does anyone else.
6. My work life and it's direction is out of my control whether I like it or not.
7. No more researching my own travels - I will have actual work to do and a boss that will hang over me.
8. I am running out of annual leave allowance and there is no other escape from this job.
9. My desire to leave entirely is getting stronger by the day and this frightens me.

So yes - the positives out-weigh the negatives and Andy is only an office away...

But I wrote to another person in my office about this and was sent his reply...

"Yeah the 6 month thing I'm not sure about, but at least you have plans for next year. Just make those plans happen!.."

And thats what I plan to do. Makes those plans happen. I know a lot of the travel blogs I read are by people who have left their jobs entirely, sold their businesses and create blogs and stories that will carry them across the globe. I have an idea for a blog, a different one, one that I cannot do for money...

But I know I need to travel...

But do I stick to my leave date of 1st September 2014..? It was my plan to only do 4 months in South East Asia.. More on that in the next post in case you want to stop here and get a strong coffee..lol!

NinjaSavingKat

Dear Reader.. if for whatever reason you have diverted here from Facebook I am sorry. I am in a reflective mood today and where it fairs me well to put fingertip to keyboard it might very well bore you to tears. For that I will allow you to switch off and read another more interesting thread... may I suggest the Families, Relationship and Something Else board.. very interesting. My life seems extra dull when I read those threads. However I digress....

This job change has shaken me a little. Although not as much as I thought it would. There was a time when change freaked me out, left me feeling uneasy, expecially if I had not been given enough time to PLAN.

Thats a favourite word of mine.

My other favourite word is RESEARCH.

I took a questionnaire once called The Strenghs Finder when I was seeking direction from the last job I was in. Google this book, then buy it new, not used. Used the secret code in the back ( that can only be used once ) and log on line to fill in this questionnaire.

The theory is that we encompass 5 of 30 personality traits. For what we lack in the other 25 we make up with by having adequate people around us - healthy people that make us grow, not those that hold us back...(I have yet to dispence of a few of said persons but I don't know how without being cruel-ish)...

So this questionnaire showed me I am comfortable researching, pouring over books, articles and reading like a geek. I got a job then as a researcher..........which leads me to the debt busting side of things....eventually.....

I have taken a grasp of my life and am turning it into what I want it to be. I am ashamed to say I should have done this a whole lot sooner. Paying off money that I owe to other people has allowed me to claim back what is mine - my own bl**ding life. A sense of calm shines from on high when you have a plan.

I wish I was spontaneous, then I might be a little more exciting. But I can't be. I like to know that I am not missing anything by careful and diligent research. And this is what scares me about my travelling... how do you balance knowing enough about a country you are about to live in for months on end in order to be happy that you won't feel unsettled but not researching so much that the country is dull after a few weeks.. how do you prevent yourseld being more excited about the planning that the action itself...

Ok a little melodramatic here and it's all based on an individual's personal issues (mine) but the sense of calm when you are financially sorted - not debt free or financially clear - but IN CONTROL is very under-rated. I know where my finances will be for the next two months at least and its an AMAZING FEELING!!! - do you?... (It's half the reason I am willing to bet that I can raise £8,000 by August 1st when I intend to pack up my moggy and ship her and myself back to Ireland to see parents before I travel far and wide...)

So the job change has made me realise that I can peer through whats directly in front of me to the future... that I can see where I am going and not panic that I am losing my grip.
The funny thing is is that my entire being is about growth, change and experiances that will shape me into a better me.. this means proper change.. hence wanting to travel... but the change bit scares me a little because I know life would not be satisfactory if I didn't do it... so yes perhaps I am travelling for so long and so far on purpose.. I don't believe it will fix anything but it will shape me... not sure into what but it's a shape I am willing to risk....

What has shaped you?

NinjaSavingKat

Payslips are in. I am on track to whack £1440 off the debt in October. One step closer to debt freedom. Whoop Whoop!

Interest gets added this month though.. not such a Whoop Whoop!..



Dear Overtime Fairy.. I need at least 3 weekends of double overtime shifts in October please.This is about 48 hours in total but please don't tell my Mummy.... I have TAX / MOT and a service for Hercules the Bandit to pay. He is the only way I get to Overtime and pay my debts off - see the conundrum... thank you very much as this will also give me a few pennies to spend on my family at Christmas....

NinjaSavingKat

So excited for payday in approx 90 minutes so I can give my hard earned cash to someone else. Ha!

Indebted2U

NinjaSavingKat wrote: »

Payslips are in. I am on track to whack £1440 off the debt in October. One step closer to debt freedom. Whoop Whoop!

Wow those are as ever amazing amounts to be paying off Kat!!! Unfortunately I don't earn overtime even when I work more hours, which is often :mad: but I suppose I should be happy just to have a salaried job in this economy and will just keep paying off what I can
Keep up the good work you really are an inspiration :T

NinjaSavingKat

Hello stranger... nice to have you back! Yes I worked 23 days straight for that, got quite sick and am constantly exhausted but I can't wait until I earn money that I can keep...

You do work supremely hard don't you.... no scope for OT at all is hard. I think I have become so hardened to it it makes it hard to give up. A sunday off fills me with guilt! Which is never good...

How are you coping with it all... didn't you want to move at one point..?

Listerbelle

NSK! Look at your total! Well done!!!!!!

NinjaSavingKat

Thanks Listerbelle.. however got a surprise £82.70 on my account this morning. Thought I had got away scot free due to how much I have repaid - obviously not. It will be my plan for the month to make that up some other way!