So maybe you want to know what the numbers mean, maybe not. If not stop reading!
25 is the number of years my parents have been married for at the end of this month.
122 is the number of days until my parents head off on their trip to Canada (Their anniversary present to themselves).
35 is the number of days since I have been back from my trip to Thailand.
38 Is the number of days I was away for.
6 is the number of years since I left school and the number of years I have been working at the job I’m in at the moment.
23 is how old I will be next week.
How do these all have remotely anything to do with a blog post?
Well mum and dad have been wanting to go to Canada for years and have always said it would be there 25th Wedding Anniversary present. I love to travel so I have been helping them work out where they want to go what they want to do etc. I’ve just been on a big trip so am already feeling wanderlust and helping out mum and dad isn’t making it go away.
The 6 years I have been working, well I’m now an ACA (Associated Chartered Accountant), finished my double major degree all via correspondence and have only this year to go on my post grad diploma. I have been moved up to a senior position in the firm and all is well and good.
23 – Ugh such a wretched number, I don’t know why I just don’t like it, its like admitting to myself I am getting old, even though its really not old at all.
So the deal is this;
When I first began working my plan was to get my degree then bugger off overseas for a few years, do the obligatory stint in the UK then maybe head over to Canada to work, somewhere along the way do Camp America or something to that effect. This still would have happened had I not been offered a different position in the firm I am working for, I was doing accounting work and I got offered work in Audit, which I really enjoy (as far as having a job goes its pretty good).
I am in a position now that we get 4 weeks off at the end of every year, and I earn time in lieu from all our travels to be able to have 2-3 weeks holidays mid year – or extend the Christmas holiday, as I did this past year, pushing it out to just over 5 weeks. We are also now in a system where we are earning bonus’s (the end of this year will be the first year). The next few years should also result in decent pay rises due to the completion of the post grad and then sitting PC2 and becoming a Chartered Accountant (something I no longer have to save $5k to pay for since work will pay for this so long as we stay for 3 years). This will keep me in a senior position with two others, the thing is I will never move past the other two due to their experience, and I’m not exactly sure that I want too anyway.
BUT
(Yes I used the B word)
I want to travel, I love to travel, I can’t help myself.
I can use the time I get off each year to bugger off somewhere exotic, or somewhere closer to home (without having to work), or I can save like a mad women for a couple of years and bugger off for a couple of years (all be it having to work). Part of me is also torn between being able to just up and leave whenever I want due to the fact that I don’t own a house, have kids or pets and the fact that I want a place to call my own and the pets that come with it, and at some point way down the track the little snot machines.
This is just me trying to get it out there in the open the things that fly around my head, even though I think I know what I will do.
Given the choice would you;
a) save like mad, go do the big OE and work then come back and try to slot back in to a job after a couple of years
b) Save like normal having a 1-2 week break in the middle of the year and 4-6 week trip at the end of every year, keeping the job, saving for the house etc
c) Something different?