travel, travel, travel

so....I have been travelling a lot!

Sunday night I flew into Saskatoon and came home on Monday.

This morning I flew into Fort McMurray and will go home tomorrow evening.

Next weekend Jordan and I drive into BC for my grandmother's 75th birthday and then Monday/Tuesday I'll be in Burnaby for work....that trend is going to continue until the first week of November.

One one hand I miss Jordan when I'm travelling a lot, but on a positive note I'll get some great networking opportunities and some overtime to boot. It's also going to be distracting me from the house - which might be a good thing because I'm so so eager to get going.

So far, so good

My trip so far has been pretty good.  It's been a struggle to adjust to the time difference, even though it's only two hours ahead.  I miss Jordan and my house... the quite is very strange. I'm sure the next couple of days will fly by though.

Finances wise...

I had to put my credit card on the room when I arrived, which I wasn't expecting.  So Jordan and I might not be able to pay off the bill right away.  That said, we'll still be able to pay it in full come the due date (the bill just came today).

My office is right across the street from the hotel I'm in, so I can walk in the mornings which is really nice - but it also means I don't have a reason to take a cab or rent a car.  With no mini fridge in my room - I have to eat out for every meal.  It's not particularly healthy and it's pretty expensive.  I will get reimbursed for it all, but it doesn't feel very responsible.

I'm Outta here!

There has been an urgent request to have one of our team members fly out to an office in Ontario to provide some additional support.  Due to a variety of illnesses and emergencies, their office went from six support staff to one, in a week! 

I'll be taking the red eye on Sunday night, getting to the hotel around 6:00am, hopefully I'll be able to catch a few hours sleep on the flight - because I'll have just two hours to get to work after I get situated.

It's a pretty great opportunity for me to network, help out another office - and see somewhere new.  Plus I have a cousin who lives in Ontario - so hopefully we'll get to see each other.  I've never been out there before.

This trip will be like my trip to Saskatoon not to long ago in that I don't have to pay for the flights or the hotel, but I'll have to pay for all food and transportation.  Once I get back, I'll submit all of my receipts for reimbursement.

I'll definitely be banking some over time this week.  There will be 7.5 hours today coded to travel and then regular working hours 37.50/week to the office i'm supporting.  I'll have another days worth of travel to code when I come home - and then of course any additional OT I do during the week.  My home office and the office I'll be supporting have a couple of hour time difference, so that means that I'll likely still do some work for the home office as well.

What does that mean?  I'm guessing around 20-25 hours of overtime.

Today/Monday are going to be very very long days! 

Business Expenses

My trip to Saskatchewan was spectacular!

The flights there and back were seamless and the cabs were available and helpful.  The local office was welcoming and I was able to get a tonne of training and work done while I was there.

I wound up spending a total of $308, this included my hotel stay, four cab rides, breakfast and a lunch.  I went out for dinner and that cost $65 (yeah, I know - for one person...pretty ridiculous...but that includes a good tip and two glasses of expensive wine...that I was planning on paying for myself)...so back to that $65...when I was checking out of the hotel the person asked how my night was.

Well, I'm a strong believer that if you don't want to know the answer, don't ask the question.

I told the hotel - rep - lady that It wasn't very good.  I didn't get to sleep until 2:00a.m. because my neighbor had traffic all evening and that i could hear street traffic all night (not normal street traffic - it was loud honking/screeching-type).  That plus the entire hotel was undergoing renovations and were still charging their normal price.

I was not impressed.

I told her it was unlikely I would stay there again.

She asked if there was anything she could do.  I responded (legitimately not in an ass-type way) that I didn't know if there was.  As I had  charged my meal to the room, she said she could take that off the bill.  I said that would be fine and I appreciated it.

I really did...and I'll probably stay there again.

...Funny part of this little story: I got back to my home office and told my boss about it.  He laughed....apparently subtlety is not on my lists of strengths....but also they are okay with that.

I submitted my expenses on Friday and will get reimbursed on my August 20, 2010 pay day.  As that will go into the joint account, I used our joint CC to pay for everything (yay for bonus AIR MILES).

Bi-Weekly Budget - there isn't one

Me not being organised combined with going to Palm Springs combined with the Easter weekend means there's all sorts of un-rest in my bank....
That said my credit card is paid off and I have $154 American and $260 Canadian to get me to Palm Springs and back.  I'm leaving $50 behind for groceries for Jordan (to fill up the fridge while I'm away) so we're all sorted.  I'll be chipping in $100 to go towards accomodation in PS's and I'll chip in whatever seems fair for food after the weeks through - but I figure that will be around $50-$75.  So I will have between $250 for other......

What does other mean?  Well, I'm not really sure.

I hope to do a bit of tourist-y stuff...would like to do some shopping - or at least see what shopping is like in the states.  We'll see how it goes. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Passport Has Arrived & Upcoming Travel Plans

Hurray!!

I am now a travelling lady! ... or I will be...I'm really quite excited about it all.

I'm really looking forwad to  my trip to Palm Springs - not just for the amazing time I'll have - but I'm going to travel to more places in less time then I ever have before.  What do I mean? I think I mentioned that my grandpa took care of my flights for me using his points....well points have their limitations.  Each flgith will have three transfers!

Three.

So here's what it's going to look like - I'm interested to hear if I'll be landing in your state!?

Depature Day:

• Calgary , AB  (1:25pm) - Seattle Tacomoa, WA (2:20pm)
• Seattle Tacoma, WA ( 3:45pm) - Salt Lake City, UT (6:41pm) 
• Salt Lake City, UT (9:30pm) - Palm Springs, CA (10:12pm) 

Return Day

• Palm Springs, CA (6:00am) - San Fransicso, CA (7:30am)
• San Franciso, CA (8:17am) - Vancouver, BC (10:33am)
• Vancouver, BC (12:00pm) - Calgary, AB (2:18pm)

phew!

so - it's going to be pretty intense - but I have four whole wonderful days to spend in Palm Springs with my Best Friend!!

I'm a little nervous because I've only ever flown from Alberta to BC.... I've never done any hop-skipping...so little nervous, but I know it's all going to work out wonderfully

Vacation or Banked time - Palm Springs

I've been going back and forth between using vacation time or using banked overtime when I take a week off to go to Palm Springs.  Why the back and forth?  Up until now I was planning on using my vacation for camping trips in the summer/Christmas and using my banked time to pay of my student loan debt (I can just request a pay out if i don't want to use it).

I've decided to use some of each.  With all the upheaval at work right now I'm sure I'll bank a few more hours between now and the trip.  So I think that I'll use 2 days of vacation and 3 days of banked time - That way i can still use a lot of those hours for debt and keep some vacation time for Christmas.

perfect.

Speaking of Palm Springs (again).....what do you all think would be a good way to thank my grandfather?  I said thank you on the phone a couple of times - but I don't really feel like that's enough.  He doesn't really have any hobbies....he still works (even though he's technically retired).  He's passionate about his family and about giving (he still tears up from the donation our family did in his name to Free the Children for his birthday).

So....what do you think?

Palm Springs is a Go!

I have the most amazing family!

My mom recently went to Las Vegas with my grandparents.  On that trip it came up that my Best Friend had invited me to Palm Springs and I was sorting out whether I could go or not.  My Grandfather, in passing, told my mom he thought he might have enough Airmiles for a trip like that.

That was a few weeks ago.

I wrote last Thursday, about all the things I figured I needed to organize to be able to go - one of the biggest hurdles would be money (next would be getting my passport and approved time off work).  Well, my mom read that post - and unbeknown to me she e-mailed my Grandmother and asked if Grandpa was serious, because if he was my trip was coming up fast.

Well last night my mom called me - my Grandpa is going to fly me to and from Palm Springs with his Airmiles.

I feel absolutely loved.

In half an hour, I'll call him at work to confirm the dates that i'm flying and then at lunch I'm taking off for an hour - or so - to drop off my passport application.  Processing times are about 10 days right now - and there are 16 (business) days until fly day.

It's close. Real Close. It's all going to come together.

PalmSprings - Update

I talked to the boss lady last week and althought she didn't outright say I couldn't go, it's not a good time - to take time off.  There's one other person that's taking vacation time that week and we're already short staffed as it is.   I'm going to keep saving and getting things organised - just in case - but it might not happen afterall.

My Best Friend has invited me to Quebec the following month - so that trip may be more feasable - work wise.

Palm Springs

My Best Friend (BF) has invited me to Palm Springs. This is a big deal. 

I’ve never been anywhere. I’ve never left Alberta/BC – the two western provinces of Canada. I don’t have a passport. I don’t have any savings for travel. I so so so want to spend some quality time with her. BF lives ohhh…about an 11 hour drive from me – so we don’t get to see each other as often as we like. 

So what to do. 

1. Step one – make sure I can get the time off work 
2. Step two – get a passport 
3. Step three – figure out the money 

• I've sent an e-mail to my boss (she is out of town for a couple of days) asking about the time off – there are two other people taking time off in April, so we’ll see how that goes. 

• I’m going to get my passport photo taken early this week and then go about filling in the application forms and what not (I've now done this since I wrote the original post)

• The Money. Oi! The Money. 

I checked on WestJet and if I CAN'T get any seat sales, flights will be about $1,000. Lodging would be free b/c BF's parents have a place that we can stay at - so that would be amazing.  I have absolutely no clue how much to budget for food, fund & beer.  Can anyone help guesstimate that?  I'm thinking anywhere from $500-$750.

I have $385 in my clothing fund which I would be okay to use for the trip - but the rest I'm not so sure about. BF worries that if I'm always planning on doing things like traveling "later" then I'll never wind up doing it.....

what if later never comes?