Wow. The last 10 days have been hectic.

First of all, I achieved my new year's resolution of running the Run Melbourne half marathon. I was stoked with my time of 2.04.49 - less than 6 minutes per km.

I was originally supposed to finish work tomorrow (Wed 28th July) but due to Papa's funeral being held on the week-end I decided to finish last Thursday (22nd July). I drove to Nowra on Friday (about 9 hours) and spent the week-end there before returning to Melbourne yesterday. Now I'm concentrating on packing and moving. The removalists come tomorrow at midday, then I have to drop in my laptop to the Accenture office at 4pm before my farewell (bowling, karaoke, and drinks at QV). Thursday is a big day of cleaning before the final inspection on Friday morning, after which I will drive to Canberra. I'm going to take about 4 days to drive up to QLD - first night in Canberra; second night in Sydney; third night on the Gold Coast before fourth night at Mum and Dad's.

I was supposed to find out about my job at Whistler 3 weeks ago, and I've been stressing that no news has come through. I'm dependent on finalising the job so I can book flights, accommodation in Canada, and receive my orientation booklet from OWH. Luckily today I received a phone call from Emma at OWH to say I had been offered a job of "Advanced Sales Host" at Whistler. My wage will be about $12.85 an hour - apparently this is good money!!

In every holiday, I always have a 'holiday from my holiday'. For this trip, I've just booked a week at Le Meridien in Phuket. AirAsiaGo had a fantastic deal that I couldn't refuse. It looks like such an amazing resort, including 7 restaurants, a tennis instructor, gym classes and a private beach. I watched the movie "The Beach" with Leonard DiCaprio for the first time the other night and absolutely loved it. I plan to read the book whilst in Phuket and of course venture out to Phi Phi island and Phangan Bay.

Ok, back to packing .... no rest for the wicked!

You don't realise just how much is involved with going overseas for a year. Not only do you need to plan (to some degree) your trip, but there is work to be finalised, an apartment to be packed, and millions of little nuances that need to be taken care of.

I'm an avid list maker and hate keeping things in my head - I have to write everything down on paper/spreadsheets. For the trip, I have a spreadsheet that is my lifeline. It has a heap of different tabs - i.e. itinerary and costs; but most importantly is my 'Trip Prep' tab. It has listed everything I need to do before I leave down to the most finite grain (e.g. all of the companies I need to contact to re-direct my mail or cancel accounts with). This might sound excessive but I go stir crazy if these things aren't documented.

This week has been an expensive one as I've tried to tie up some of those nuances. First of all, I booked the storage shed where I'll store all my furniture. It's on the small side, so I have my fingers crossed on moving day that everything will fit. I also booked a removalist and carpet cleaner (and am tossing up about getting a cleaner to help me ready the apartment for final inspection as I won't have a lot of time between the removalists and the inspection).

Next, I booked my travel insurance. Given my unpleasant experience last year (that was fortunately covered under the company's travel insurance), I'm not taking any short cuts for this. I considered numerous policies but everything kept coming back to CoverMore as the leading insurance provider. I also made sure the policy had a $0 excess and included ski and snowboard cover (knowing me, I'll break my leg on the first day of skiing in Whistler!) It is hard to see the money you've been saving over the past 18 months drain from you bank account so quickly though ...

Apart from that, I also had my car serviced (in preparation for the drive to QLD); had a check-up at the dentist; booked an appointment with the travel doctor; and finalised the paperwork for my LOA with HR. I even packed a couple of boxes and bought some Christmas presents - very organised!

I have a lot of countdowns going on at the moment:

21: The number of days 'til I run my first half marathon
23: The number of work days remaining
33: The number of days 'til I leave Melbourne
43: The number of days 'til I leave Australia
97: The number of days 'til the Commonwealth Games commence
140: The number of days 'til I start work at Whistler

These past two weeks I have been focussing on finalising my attendance at the Commonwealth Games. It was at Christmas time that I realised the Commonwealth Games were being held in October and were a possibility for me to attend during my trip. However, the fact that they were being held in India was a turn-off - ever since watching season 1 of the Amazing Race, I have been completely put off of the thought of travelling in India, and filed it in my 'list of countries I never want to go to' list. Additionally, there have been lots of news stories about the Games - terrorist threats; stadiums not being completed in time; athletes not attending. But then I thought to myself - how many times do you get to attend an international sporting event like this?

My fate was sealed when I scored a 'free' flight from Delhi to KL with Air Asia post-Games, and also scored tickets from Cambodia - Delhi (via KL) at a low price. My ticket request is also finalised (all netball games, including the gold medal match; and tennis, athletics, and gymnastics tickets - at ridiculously low prices). My Indian colleagues have told me how I will be the 'only one there' as Indians don't care for anything but cricket (news headlines show that almost no tickets have been sold except to the opening and closing ceremonies).

I also finalised my accommodation. Delhi seems to be such an extreme, like many other Asian cities - absolute luxury in some parts, next to absolute squalor and bargain basement prices. Given I'm slightly terrified about my two weeks in India, I decided to pay for slightly nicer Western style accommodation that includes a TV, fridge, and air con (I've found it amusing that a lot of Indian hotels proudly state they offer '24 hour power' as one of their services!) I have a few days spare at the conclusion of the games before I fly out, in which I will travel to Agra for the majestic Taj Mahal and hopefully to Jaipur as well.

Apart from my flight to Vancouver, I've now finalised all of the flights and accommodation that had to be pre-booked - so now I can focus on the trip! (Oh - and the packing and other fun things like that!)

There have been a number of items marked off my trip prep list this week.

Firstly, I received official approval from work for my leave of absence.

Secondly, I started booking flights and accommodation for the start of my trip.

Air Asia was the cheapest option to fly to Kota Kinabalu (connecting through Kuala Lumpur), at approximately $300 inclusive of tax, baggage, and meal. However, I was concerned about the quality of the flight as I'd heard that the seats were quite uncomfortable, you couldn't consume any of your own food on board, and they did not provide for transfers. In comparison, flights with other carriers such as Singapore Air, Malaysia Air, and Royal Brunei started at about $600 for a full service flight.

My decision was made easy when I received a flyer this week providing 20% off Air Asia flights from Australia to Kuala Lumpur for flights booked by this week-end. I snapped at the opportunity, booking a flight from the Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur for $132.80. Adding on tax, meal, baggage, comfort kit and seat allocation, the total flight cost was $241.80 - bargain! I considered spending additional money to upgrade to a premium economy seat (with lie flat beds), but I decided it wasn't worth the extra $400. For $400, I could splash out on a 5 star hotel for 2 nights when I arrived in Kota Kinabalu - or, that could pay for an extra week of travelling in Asia! I also booked the subsequent flight KL - Kota Kinabalu for a meagre $40. My flight to Malaysia is now cheaper than what it costs me to fly to see my parents in Queensland!

Since the flight arrives late at night, I decided to pre-book hostel accommodation in Kota Kinabalu. I found a (hopefully) great hostel that provides lots of freebies (filtered water, breakfast, wi-fi, towels, linen) and has a great location, so I can't wait!

So, I know I want to travel long-term, but what exactly do I want to do?

When it came to planning the itinerary, there were several things I wanted to do:

1. Work a ski season in Canada.
It seems to be a rite of passage for every 20 something Aussie to work at a ski resort in Canada for a ski season, and I'm no exception. Jobs start about mid November and run through to April.

2. Follow the beaten path through South East Asia.
Most people want to get off the beaten path, but I actually want to stay on it. I want to do all the things on most people's checklists: tubing in Vang Vieng; hike Mt Kinabalu; catch the slow boat to Laos; have a Singapore Sling in Singapore; visit Disneyland in Hong Kong (probably not on everyone's checklist, but it's one of my goals to go to every Disneyland in the world before I die.)

The next thing I had to consider was the length of the trip. My first priority was to book in the job in Canada via Overseas Working Holidays (more on this in a later blog). Face to face interviews are conducted with the resort staff in Australia in June, with jobs formally offered and the process completed by early July (for roles to commence in mid November). This gave me a window from mid July - end October to backpack through South East Asia (a few months less than I would like, but there will still be time for travelling post-Canada). For financial reasons, I decided to commence my leave of absence on Wednesday, 28th July, with travel commencing Monday 9th August.

After Canada, I have a number of options I am considering.

1. Fly to Gallipoli for ANZAC Day 2011 (something on my 'must do before I die' list), then backpack through Europe to England to work at Wimbledon (another 'must do before I die') and then maybe look for a 'proper job' in London.

2. Short term travel in the US/Canada before spending another season in Whistler (or an alternative ski resort)

3. Short term travel in the US/Canada before looking for a 'proper job' in either the Canada or the US (which would require sponsorship).

4. Return to Australia

The option I choose will most likely depend on how homesick I am!