We’re catching up on posting about life here on Urban Departures, so let me tell you about our impromptu-ish vacation in December.
At the beginning of November, both Daniel and I had a week’s worth of time-in-lieu, paid-time-off from work accrued from overtime or travel on weekends. According to both our companies’ policies, we cannot carry time-in-lieu to the next calendar year and was left with the question of “what to do with a week off?”
Why hello there. We’re 12 days into the new year. Happy 2015! We’ve been moving slowly for the last two weeks. I didn’t mean to take time off from the blog; I tried to write a few posts during the holidays, but we just relished in the fun and celebration. In fact, we had to much fun that we needed 12 days to recover!
Daniel just celebrated a big birthday, and I have yet to finish writing about mine, which over six months ago. We both turned thirty this year, and celebrated with pizzazz.
“I want to go hang gliding on my birthday”, I told Daniel back in January. We were planning for our trip to Brazil and I was specifically searching for things to do on my birthday which was to pass while we were in Rio de Janeiro. “It’s going to cost a lot, but I only turn 30 once”.
I emailed a few hang gliding companies, requesting rates for my birthday. They responded- some quickly, some a week later- all informing me that there was a hike in rates because of the World Cup.
“Should we still do it?” I asked my husband, gawking at the 25% World Cup premium being tacked on to an already expensive excursion.
It was day 30 of our media fast. Daniel and I were sitting on our living room couch sharing an egg tart. In between every other nibble of egg tart, we’d our sip tea- my usual Harney and Son’s Paris Blend for me, some coconut one from Tealish for him. Daniel was working on a post for HowToSaveMoney while I flipped through the latest book I was reading- the ninth or tenth one since the start of the month. Music from Bahamas, an artist I discovered during our vacation in Prince Edward County, played in the background.
The dessert may change and sometimes we may find ourselves on the bed rather than the couch, but the most evenings during our media fast was similar in nature: quiet, relaxing, productive.
Every time I watch an episode involving real estate purchases in the US on HGTV, I marvel at how affordable some of the properties are. Houses with acreage can be purchased for $250,000- granted none of these homes are not located in large metropolitan areas. Housing prices in Toronto have been steadily increasing with no ceiling in sight. So much so to the point that descriptions of our housing market often include the words over inflated and potential bubble. Is it really that bad?