I was all excited yesterday to buy a replacement phone at a (relatively) bargain price ($220 cheaper than in the apple store). I had to shop around a few stores to get it, Telstra stores not having a clue that it was available (despite it being all over their website), JB Hifi coming to the rescue (as ever).

I also had to get a new sim card with my phone number on it, to replace the lost one, which I did in the first telstra store I visited.

You can already tell where this is going …

I got home and tried to get everything set up but could not. My service hadn’t been provisioned (despite the claims of 4 hours to activate) and I couldn’t activate the phone itself and install my apps because I have 2 factor authentication enabled and it needs to send me a text, which I can’t receive because my number hadn’t been activated and because I cancelled the number when I lost it. The cancellation cannot be removed until the number is activated. The activation, which after I called telstra support, could take 24 hours**, not the 4 as promised in the store. I just know that after 24 hours there will still be issues and I will have to call a third time.

I couldn’t receive the phone authentication message (to install the apps to the phone) to my ipad, because the OS wasn’t the latest version. I tried to update to the latest version, but now the ipad is not functional because I need an activation code which needs to be sent to the phone, which I can’t use because the number hasn’t been activated.

I’ve called apple, who were very helpful, but nothing they can do – I need to wait for the number to be both activated and un-cancelled. Then I need to put the sim in another phone, receive the activation message and set up the new phone and my ipad.

I’m not quite sure what the universe is trying to tell me here, but in essence this makes me want to move to. 1. another mobile provider and 2. samsung or sony (and give my new iphone to Joe/Frank).

xxx

** 24 hours? I thought we were living in the future? This lengthy time-frame seems utterly ridiculous.

xxx

Updated (at 2:30pm) to add: Now it will apparently be 96 hours until my number is activated. Really? This is absolutely preposterous. And I had to follow-up twice, despite two separate promises that they would call me back with an update by a certain time – telecommunications ombudsman, here I come.

I really prefer long-haul flights to be in the day time. I’d much rather lose a day to sitting in a plane reading than to lose a night’s sleep, but unfortunately overnight was the only option for our return from Singapore.

Needless to say, I didn’t sleep very well on the plane (must get practice sleeping in contorted positions) and today was a write off. I snatched a fitful nightmare-filled sleep when I finally got to my own bed at around 7am and have been over-tired all day, my brain is not working too well and I’m feeling just a little fragile. 
I really am in awe of people who can do this on the regular and maintain their sanity.

It is  very good to be home! Although I miss the minimalism of a hotel room and the housekeeping and turn-down service.

Tomorrow, I seek out a replacement phone and hopefully get a run in. 

Travelling was always going to be one of the more challenging aspects of giving up drinking. Free booze (and lots of it) abounds in the qantas club lounge, on planes and in the club lounges of the hotels we stayed in.

the woman in the photo was manning the pina colada station at the hyatt regency in da nang. not shown – the fridges full of beer and wine.

There were a couple of occasions where waitstaff didn’t really get that I wasn’t interested in a glass of wine with dinner and did the “just one glass”, “are you sure?”, “I can’t tempt you?” pushy thing. I’m not yet at the evangelical/miltant stage (or maybe just a little), so always declined graciously – but that sort of stuff does get frustrating.

And of course the loss of my phone and half of my Cambodia photos was definitely enough to drive me to drink … but it didn’t. Even after all these months, my default coping mechanism for stress or aggravation *still* involves wanting a glass of wine (or 6 glasses of wine, basically All The Wine). It’s occasionally quite a challenge to sit with the discomfort** – particularly when there is loads of free alcohol surrounding me.

It turned out that the really excellent thing about travelling in South East Asia was the amazing booze-free drink options in restaurants – I drank tons of fabulous and festive juices, mocktails, shakes and smoothies, a completely amazing homemade ginger beer and drank my bodyweight in lime sodas in Vietnam. It was brilliant! In Australia you’re pretty much stuck with fizzy water or the usual big-brand sugary soft drinks – I really wish that would change.

And so another month gone (almost – it will tick over while I’m on a plane)! And the most challenging things covered off – birthday, SML Xmas party and various drinks things, boozy work lunches, Xmas and New Year, travel! I really do hope the desire for wine when I’m stressed leaves at some point, but I guess the fact that I haven’t succumbed so far is pretty good! I think my mood without drinking is much more even and I definitely feel healthier (though much fatter after all of those lovely holiday drinks).

xxx

** Now is one of those times – I was all set to buy a replacement phone at the apple reseller at the airport because it’s about AU$100 cheaper than buying one at home, but the store had neither of my preferred options in stock (only the iphone 7 which is crazy stupid expensive even at AU$100 less). Now I’m sitting in the club lounge quite annoyed (mostly with myself) completely surrounded by oceans of wine and very tempted.

Wow, reading that back makes me realise how absolutely bratty I sound – maybe journalling is the solution to giving me both a reality check and helping me work through annoyances and stress. I could delete, but I’m going to leave my petulance here as a lesson to myself.

MCE tunnel exhaust – I love those vertical lines

It’s the last day of our holiday tomorrow! It feels like it is time, I swear once I wash the clothes I brought with me I’ll pack them away for several months, so sick am I of the sight of them.

We fly out late(ish) in the evening and arrive home early on Friday morning. Then I’ll have five days to settle back to normality before heading back to SML. Don is home for two days and heads back to Singapore for a conference on Sunday. The turn-around is bonkers – but I think we just want some home time, however short. 

The break has of course been completely wonderful. We both feel very relaxed. The challenge of course is to maintain this relaxed state when we’ve reinserted ourselves into the daily grind.

Nothing for it but to whip up a relaxation Action Items list.

One of the more excellent features of our resort in Da Nang was the adorable band of wild kitties who roamed about the area surrounding the club lounge.

They were all so tiny – even the adults – occasionally aggressively affectionate and submitted to pats, but always very interested in eating.

I managed to grab some photos just as we were leaving:

Last leg of the holiday and we’re in Singapore (again)! Three more days here and we head back to normality and the challenge of maintaining the holiday zen.

While in Singapore, we’re staying at the Conrad using some crazy-good deal Joan (traveller extraordinaire) found on Luxury Escapes.

We arrived to cute gifts (above), an enormous bed (seriously, it reaches my hip!) and pretty great bath (with pink bath salts!). In addition to the usual turning down the bed and artfully placing the slippers, the turn-down service thoughtfully put on soft classical music for us to arrive home to. The music confused us for a bit, “where’s that music coming from?”, “did you leave the television on?”.

Quite possibly the best bit though was opening the bedside drawer and finding copies of The Great Books: The Bible, The Teaching of Buddha and … Conrad Hilton’s Be My Guest.

This morning we took a stroll down the road to the marble mountains and climbed the hundreds of very uneven stairs to get to the top of and around Thuy Son. It’s quite amazing to see these mountains just sitting in an otherwise absolutely flat landscape. Also crazy to see the huge number of marble sculpture outlets in the surrounding area – so many quite giant marble things for sale!

It was extremely hot and humid climbing about but we had a pretty great time! There were many small caves, grottos to explore and (of course) marble absolutely everywhere. The views from the upper parts were incredible. Rather strangely there was piped music all over the mountain – sort of modern middle-of-the-road Vietnamese music (occasionally ballady, occasionally poppy, occasionally a bit dancey, stuff you’d expect to hear on mainstream radio) – from speakers which were shaped like rocks. Definitely unexpected.

It was somewhat crowded with visitors and many of the (marble) stairs were quite treacherous and required a little wait-time, but everyone was pleasantly considerate of one another.

I took a huge number of photos, most of which I was dissatisfied with (really must sign up for that photography class!) – some of the more tolerable ones below:

Today we visited Hoi An – which I think is probably the most touristy place we’ve ever been in our lives. We could barely move for people trying to flog us stuff over the course of the 5 hours we were there (even when we were in a bar grabbing a drink^^).

Hoi An is quite a picturesque town and we had a really fabulous meal at Bale Well (recommended by Don’s caddy** from yesterday), but overall I can’t say we were huge fans. I realise this makes me sound completely insufferable, but I much prefer less obviously touristy places.

By far the most exciting thing for us was finding a tube of magical banana boat aloe vera gel which is absolutely stellar on the sunburn! Definitely needs to go in with the holiday supplies.

And I did manage to take some pleasing photos:

xxx

^^ Non-alcoholic for me of course!

** Yes! Don had a caddy – the club forces you to, we are not that fancy!

Today we mostly sat about reading and resting the pauvre swollen sunburned feets (occasionally wrapping them in soothing cool facecloths).

Ouch!

I originally included a shot of my patchily burned back and shoulders here which I removed because you really don’t need to see my bra. This is where being better at drawing would come in handy!

I say we sat around reading, but despite the burned feet Don did get up at 5am to go and play golf – after which he also sat about reading. We did vary our reading locations (on the balcony, by the pool, on the beach) and had an excellent and refreshing swim in the sea. It is incredibly peaceful and lovely here.

However it takes all of my powers not to feel guilty for sitting about. I need to remind myself that this is exactly what one is supposed to when on holiday – particularly when one is staying at a beachy resort. Not everything has to be an improving cultural experience.

It is also taking all of my powers not to be infuriated with myself for getting sunburned. I should know better than to let this happen. Frustrating too because I’d been doing a completely stellar job of coverage up to this point.

Clearly I have quite a long way to go in terms of being kind to myself and cutting myself a frigging break.

Another walk which is not *strictly* a hike, but hey – my challenge, my rulez.

I’ve still to write up hikes 2 (kyoto – temples and mountain) and 4 (hanoi – roaming the city streets), but we can definitely call this challenge done! Woo hoo!

This morning we decided we’d take on some of the 30km(ish) of Da Nang beach and went for a very long (shoeless) walk. The morning was cool and bright – we put on sunscreen, grabbed some water and camera and set out.

The beach is really lovely – loads of wee birds, crabs and the occasional dragonfly and butterfly. There were parts which were slightly less pristine, but not too bad – pretty sure the beachside hotels spend a good deal of time ensuring their patches are spotless. There’s a whole lot of construction going on along the beach – mostly new hotels/resorts – I doubt there will be any empty beachfront property in 10 years.

It was a really great walk – we did 6km out and back (for a total of 12km). The downside – clearly we didn’t apply enough sunscreen as various parts of us are terribly, terribly sunburned – particularly the tops of our feet, which (ouch!) are very, very pink and swollen. Wearing shoes is a bit of a challenge. Truly this is karma – because only yesterday I was snarking on the very very pink sunburned people laying around the pool.

On with the pix: