And another year passes - many an update #1

December heralded planning for my birthday party .. yep, the big 3-0. I think 27 was the only year I've ever looked in the mirror and *noticed* a difference in my face, so I'm not really fussed about turning 30. At 29, I achieved my first major career milestone (officially, on paper and successfully unlike the similar achievement I had in my previous job), so I'm not really sitting there wondering "what I'm doing with my life". I also have my own roof over my head and transport and, more importantly, people to put in my house and cars :) Nope, definitely not worried about where I am in my life.

So, mad planning for my party, which became slightly more frantic, the closer we go to going away for Xmas. I finally managed to secure a location and give them a fair idea of anything else I'd need, before we went away, which meant I could go and relax :) 10 January (a week after my birthday), was locked and loaded.

For several months, we'd been planning our trip to Sydney. It was going to be a road trip all along, despite the raging fuel prices, because we had plans to get to Marrar (outside Wagga Wagga) and Sydney. To get to Wagga by plane is insanely expensive and still quite time consuming. As we were approaching the time to head off, we started having concerns about our red car - we'd been having issues for months, but it was really starting to get to crunch time, both for our sanity and whether it would affect our plans for going away (ie new car - do we take it?).

At the end of November, we pretty much decided on a Diesel VW Jetta because ultimately, the running costs would be lower at the moment and it has a MASSIVE amount of boot space. To be honest, it fits a Maclaren stroller lengthwise, so no worries at all with it width-wise ;) Soooo .. We asked questions of the people we know with them and then took one for a test drive. Not surprisingly, we loved the demo one we took and beat them absolutely senseless with a trade-in deal. Our $40k+ car came down to a about mid-$20k car, drive away, including the trade-in. Happy days ;)

Having the Jetta meant that our trip away was looking surprisingly cheap AND we'd have a chance at fitting all the Xmas presents in *laugh*. We were getting weekly updates on the spoils that Cody would be receiving from her doting family ;)

Our trip to Wagga was quite uneventful (well, except seeing a monkey on a side street in Renmark .. does that count as an event?) and our round-world trip certainly prepared Cody for hours in a car seat. If we'd attempted this prior to that trip, I think we'd have been sorely disappointed and ready to turn around before Gawler :P We stayed at Mildura on the Friday night and we were in Marrar by dinner on Saturday. Not a bad effort for our first road trip with a Grungeon :)

After a bbq and a good night's sleep and Xmas day #1, we drove to Sydney. We had several people to see in Sydney. Our sister-in-law had major surgery before Xmas to remove a mass in her lung (minus 1/4 of a lung and 1/2 a diaphragm), our friend Trent had had major surgery as well and after a pneumonia scare on top of the raging cancer, it was definitely time to see the boys and get some hugs in. And certainly not least of all, we were meeting Mr Project Elvis himself after 3 months :)