BootsnAll Travel Network
Add this blog to: MyYahoo, Google, Bloglines, RSS


Archive for the 'price' Category

« Previous Page
Next Entries »
« Home

to buy or rent?

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

There are some definite correlations between real estate talk and guidebook chat. In the travel world, character filled actually means pokey and dim, authentic bedding means a really thin mattress on a wooden platform, close to amenities means there’s a disco next door so you won’t sleep until dawn, and who would have thought that “safe” could ever mean you’d be padlocked into your cell room at night? But it’s true. Internet reviews have told me so.

So, just like when you’re looking to purchase property, you end up sneaking a peek at those places that are just a teeny tiny bit outside your budget;-) You apparently get so much more for seemingly not much additional outlay. Your own toilet. A Fan. No bedbugs.

And before you know it, you’ve discovered a costs-not-much-more-than-that-one place with a laundry and children’s playground and swimming pool. Because you’re no longer comparing the price to your original budget, it doesn’t seem so bad.
And you even email reservations and make some enquiries.

The reply brings you back to earth with a thud. Nice places like that only let you take three children. But you wonder how much it would cost to take two apartments instead of one. 560. Hmm, the budget was 144.

Thankfully Jim emails just in time to say he can do a room for two people for 22.

Does he have bedbugs? Don’t know (couldn’t find an online review)
Discos? Don’t know.
Fan? Yes.
Aircon? No.
Laundry? Doubt it.
Playground? Does the street curb count?
Internet connection? Yes siree.

Then we’ll take it thanks. If you’ve got five rooms, that is.

Posted in money, preparation, price | No Comments »

extreme passport

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Thoroughly frustrated, but confident that the late hour was a contributor to our inability to *make it work*, we went to bed.

It should have been a simple matter. Passport photos for all.
Of course we could have gone into a Passport-Making-Place and let them do it.
But we knew it would be spendy that way.
Besides, we have always done it ourselves in the past, so why not this time?
I still don’t fully understand what the problem was (I mean it has happened as if by magic every other time….you know….you just have to stand there concentrating really hard on trying to not look like a terrorist even though you know that all passport photos make you look like one…..then Rob has waved his wand and we’ve had photos). But I do know that last night, clutching a camera in one hand and the 14-page-how-to-get-a-passport-document in the other (for consultation purposes, because there are RULES, you know),we found ourselves a light-coloured wall and snapped off shots of everyone (eyes open, mouth closed, no hat, no reflection in glasses, no sunglasses, no red-eye, no altering the photo to get rid of any aforementioned problems, head straight, neutral expression, clear, sharp, in focus, no shadow, no hair on your face with head size of 32-36mm, no more, no less….I told you there are rules) before I went out for the evening and when I returned there was A Problem. We played round with ratios and formulas and caluculators for another hour before deciding to find an online-passport-maker-with-a-magic-wand. Easy – they certainly exist, but boy oh boy do they come at a price. $7.95 for half a dozen pictures. I’ll let you do the maths – we need at least two strips each and there are ten of us so you can kiss good-bye to $150. Well, we haven’t scrimped and saved to turn around and throw money away now…..hence the decision to Sleep On It.

This morning Rob-the-Genius sprang out of bed, knowing exactly what to do. He did *it*, I sent the files off and we’ll have twenty photos of each of us very soon. Cost? $5 That’s not $5 each, that’s $5 all up for 200 photos!

We like cheap, but even cheap comes with a price tag…….the photo software was not working and I had to spend HOURS uploading images. In fact it took so long that I decided to “blog it”, and realising we only kept the good photos from last night, we had another photo shoot, which left us with a feeling of dejavu, so I guess you can say it was authentic.
It’s very hard to keep a straight face:

…but he managed to look like a terrorist in the end. (Although I must ask which character would you rather take travelling with you?)

BabyGirl had trouble keeping her mouth closed and eyes open too:

At the time we thought we were silly deciding to embark on a photoshoot just before bedtime……..but in reality it was more successful than this morning’s one! If her photo gets rejected by any official anyone anywhere in the world, I’m going to drag out this one and ask them if they are sure it’s not acceptable.

So we completed the photoshoot, uploaded the pics, created a collage, knit a few rounds of the latest work-in-progress, went out to the fruit and vege shop and when we returned it was finally DONE.

We don’t actually have those little itty-bitty piccies in our wee hot hands yet, but hopefully, thus endeth the Saga of Two Hundred Passport Photos.

Posted in children, money, preparation, price | 2 Comments »

*GASP*

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007
We're going to need a miracle. So this will be a good place to link to the Seeing God page in the sidebar;-) The nurse from our medical centre just called with the news of which vaccinations we need and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in children, God, money, preparation, price, Travel | 4 Comments »

« Previous Page
Next Entries »