Bleeding Wallet

I have now returned from my trip to Australia - apologies for the lack of updates but it's been quite a busy time. My poor wallet has taken a hammering. I am now very close to my limit-limit on credit cards, that is, they are all almost maxed out. Since one of the cards decided to stop functioning right before I left, I had to spend on my most expensive card, so the game is back in play where I pay that one off asap and use a cheaper one for my day-to-day expenses.

It was a battering time physically, my legs ended up huge from the long hours sat in the plane and coach seats, and the ten-minute walk up the hill to get home at the end of all that was like a marathon. I've put on several kilos 😔 which given my health issues right now will be very difficult to undo. I must try to find the energy to get back to the gym.

I am back to work tomorrow and my sleep schedule is still very messed up. Fortunately I haven't been sleeping whole 8h chunks, but more like 4h then being awake for 6h, over and over. I should be ok in a couple of days though.

Frugal things that we did manage: we cooked most meals at home. When I say frugal, I should say "more frugal than eating out" because my dawg, the cost of groceries in Australia is eye-watering. I even packed us sandwiches for our trip to the zoo. We did overshoot with the food slightly and there was an entire meal's worth of supplies left over, which we gifted to my parents before we left. We did still manage to treat ourselves, eating a chicken takeaway, a lovely Chinese in the city, an amazing Oporto burger meal and a tavern lunch with all the relatives for a catch-up.

Pride: I didn't buy a single thing during my 36h of travel over, nor on the first 30h back. Then I caved and really just wanted a sandwich, so meal deal it was for my coach home (I was absolutely sick of crisps and fruit, and far too tired to behave myself and leave my wallet alone). It was possibly the nicest sandwich I've ever eaten 😁