Travel booking = massive rage

When I had eagerly promised to take a friend and his lovely parents on a fun two week trip in the southwest, I knew that the cost was not the money ... it was going to be the bloody awful booking process. Granted, there was plenty of complexity. I wanted a certain hotel for part of the trip that was 1.5 hours away from the arrival city. I had already booked a resort for another part of the trip. There are two different departure cities (two parties). I was pretty particular about the vehicle type. None of this is resolved with a few clicks on [insert travel site here]. However, being an Elite Member of Expedia gave me hope to have an opportunity to speak somebody who had English as a primary language and could handle complexity.

First step whenever dealing with travel booking: Pour a stiff drink.

Second step. Call the wrong Expedia number and talk to somebody who "only books hotels". This brilliant move got me to the confirmation step many minutes later, and I asked why she didn't want the flight information to make it a package. "Oh no, Ms. Willeke, I only book hotels." Seriously?

Third step. Get transferred to the "package line", whatever that means...if I thought the Indian in the first call was difficult to understand, this one was impossible. It's possible I simply hung up. No, it's not nice, but I was losing the feeling of nice.

Fourth step. I realise that I have an Elite Member card and see that there is a unique number on there. Yeesh. Granted, the previous steps were my mistake for assuming they could transfer me to the Elite line (despite numerous requests), but the tunnel vision is a little over the top.

Fifth step. I phone the Elite line and get dropped several times due to some sort of technical glitch. While this is highly unlikely to be Expedia's fault, and more likely attributed to my frustrated pacing, it would be impossible for Expedia to escape my blame for such technical difficulty. About 20 minutes later I got a hold of a person who spoke English well and grasped the complexity of my itinerary. Great. I would feel good about this if an hour had not already been lost to me forever, but at this point I feel snippy. I feel even more snippy after many more scores of minutes pass before I'm informed that Expedia simply cannot support what I'm wanting. Fine. Whatever.

Sixth step. I run the numbers and actually discover that getting the reservation directly through the resort I wanted instead of a flight/hotel package actually saved me over a 1k. No complaints, but I struggle in wondering if I would have cared if I simply could have clicked a few things and had everything done.

Another stiff drink.

Attempt to reset brain. Getting the tickets for the parents is not a problem because it's a simple direct flight with no car or hotel. When I obtain their DOBs, I find out that they are over 65 and realise I get to save a few hundred dollars for selecting the "Senior" category for the hotel and flight. Who knew? No complaints there....that was kind of cool. In fact, I have something to look forward to in my own aging process :)

Getting tickets for my friend and I .... well, no problem except for adding the car. Expedia provides the option, but every damned time you select a car, it says it's not available. Fuming, I realise I'll have to get the flight separate from the car. Again, there is a decent financial savings by breaking apart the flight and car, but I'm so tired after three hours of booking nonsense that my brain screams ... "oh my God can this just end!"

This sad painful tale does end nicely. Everything is booked. I still have to get a couple odds and ends done, but the big guys are done.

Extra stiff drink.

Goodnight.

Painting: New Freedom

Painting is both a weird sense of relaxation and adrenaline for me. I deeply love watercolour painting, but it's strictly a mood thing based on sudden gasps of inspiration. This inspiration is typically found in those bubbles of life where sleep is good and stress is low .... mostly commonly located within holidays :)
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These paintings represent a nice breakthrough for me. Not only are they clear signals that I am in one of the happiest places you could put me (oceanic scenes), I am finally getting comfortable enough in my own skin to not be staring at photos I've taken constantly during the painting effort. Granted, I sometimes do that to represent personal "photographs" of my experience at a location, ie, the Red Fort in Malta, or something like that. But natural scenes, such as woods or water, can now be represented without imagery telling me what to do. It's a wonderful sense of freedom and experimentation that I have allowed myself to enjoy.

Ocean Synonyms: Relaxation, Fresh, Comfort, Sleep

It is my belief that the more one travels, the more one needs to escape on occasion. Although Hilton Head beaches have already had plenty of visits from our new home in Asheville, this one is special. It's just Eric, me, and the balcony that looks at the beach. I find it an annoyance to leave my fridge of favourite snacks, the new teapot, and the beach front balcony, and as such have minimised such forays into the jungle of civilisation to eating out and nature or beach walks. 

I am certainly loving the sea creature discoveries and ocean healing winds  instead of thinking about those more tiring things called projects, dissertation, and ... um ... life. 

(That crab looks potentially quite edible!)

Lovely Memories: Malta and Rome!

Memory Lane is especially pretty when it includes a wonderful December celebration of one's anniversary and Christmas in Malta and Rome! While it's somewhat pathetic that it took me five months get a nice little photo representation of our time, it makes the album compilation more enjoyable as all the memories come flooding back.

I blogged quite a bit during the trip, which was a great excuse to use my iPad and stalk free wireless. The whole experience was kicked off with a walk through Fiumicino, which was lovely. Maltese Days was posted during our "every-five-year" anniversary - honeymoon celebration in Malta, with Gozo, The Hobbit ... in Malta!,  and with Moments in Time: Maltese Reflections representing our time in Malta and Gozo. Busy Sidewalks, Christmas Thoughts, and Roman Meanderings, were posted during our Christmas week in Rome,which was a wonderful time with my family.

NOW we have more pictures than just the few I shared in the blogs, and even more importantly, I have the sense of completion that we have the trip properly archived for future Memory Lane walks :)