Someday when I have learnt more than the first finger position, I'll spend the US$6 and buy her sheet music for this.
This is the point where I'm hit with a First World problem and dilemma: For my next big trip, I could fly in economy and there are enough miles in my account for 3 of such trips, or do it in business again and still have enough for one more of such a trip in economy, assuming all goes smoothly.
It is pretty good value to fly in business for only twice the price of economy, but still poorer in value than flying to South America since it costs roughly the same for double the flight distance.
On top of that, if I am lucky, I could do it on Air France only.
Now I wonder if it could be arranged such that it's only business on the long-haul leg and economy on the short-haul in order to save miles because business on regional flights is a waste of money and miles.
15th Feb 2020
So I'm considering skipping Dublin because the train route is tough and forces me to visit places I have little interest in.
Basically to get from Dublin to Narvik, one route is to ferry+bus to Manchester, train to London, then to Paris, then to Frankfurt, then to Berlin, then to Stockholm, then to eventually to Narvik.
Another route is to ferry from Dublin to Cherbourg, then go to Paris, followed by the same train route.
I'd be happier with this if the individual segments were longer, but some of these are like 2-4hours long each, and I absolutely do not relish the thought of switching trains with my luggage even if I splurge a little and courier my snowboard over, and/or stay overnight after 1-2 train changes.
At the rate this is going, and with the outlook of the economy this year, I may whittle the entire down to just the snowboarding. That's going to be so affordable if I can find the right place with the right accommodation given how I can redeem my miles for the flight.
Also, fun fact: you can fly from Bangkok/Hong Kong to Europe on first class by Lufthansa and Swiss for S$5.5k, round trip. It can really be a lot cheaper than I thought, though it's still far beyond what I'm willing to pay.
5.2k for HK to lots of cities in Europe.
But since I plan to cut down my longer trips to once a year, it sounds ok to spend my miles on another business class ticket. With 300k miles, it's possible to fly business round trip to most places in Europe for under 200k, and still have enough miles for another economy round trip to the similar cities (under 80k). Or I could do 3 economy trips for under 270k which leaves me about 30k that could be combined with a little more miles that I can simply buy, if I don't redeem more credit card points, to get a one-way ticket on economy.
Frankly speaking, the first makes sense - there's almost no way you could get business class tickets for merely double the price of economy when you book in cash.
On the other hand, three very cheap flights (not free, because there are still a couple hundred dollars in fees) can last for an additional year compared to two and that makes a significant difference.
I'm talking about booking tickets without going for those insanely cheap special deals you sometimes see out there because tbh, that takes flexibility in your plans, ie you go to wherever is the cheapest instead of going to where you want to go. Keep your priorities straight - is the higher priority the flight, or the destination?
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| AF economy redemption price |
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| AF business redemption SIN-ZUR |
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| AF business redemption ZUR-SIN |
ZUR is a nice one because the rail journey is nice despite the lengths. The same redemption price can be found for Stockholm too, and that would dramatically cut down on the rail journey to pretty much a direct train trip to Narvik.
So I could easily add an overnight stop between each segment, or use lockers for my luggage and spend some time in the cities.
16th Feb 2020
Just noticed that my view count kinda exploded since my last post, though most of the traffic was from Russia. Weird. Don't know much about travel in Russia tbh, but the last time I saw Aeroflot air crew in an airport, the ladies were HOT!
Another thing is that this blog had exactly 6 posts annually since 2017 until last year. Maybe it will get more active again this year.
17th Feb 2020
Just spent another 3k SGD on a new cello and a case. This is so bad on my finances that I have to stop buying anything for a few months that isn't truly necessary. Wonder if I can do it.
Seriously though, this is quite necessary - my current cello is starting to annoy me, and that may mean that I have reached that level where this cello is no longer enough, which makes sense given how long I have been using it.
19th Feb 2020
Sold my old cello for S$100. Six people inquired about it within the day I posted, one came over in the following evening to try it out and paid in cash. Notable mention goes to some dude who asked if I could bring it to UOB Plaza, presumably where he works and also presumably paying for my cab fare since that's stated in my listing, and he offered S$75.
I told him he was funny, he laughed (in text) and asked what my minimum was.
My exact words were:
Trying to bargain over $100 for a basic cello is akin to haggling with the tissue paper auntie over one packet. Anyway it's sold.
Good luck to anyone finding a working cello for sale for anything under S$200. Brand new beginner cellos start from S$400 in the first place and that's really what I'm selling, albeit mine is pre-loved. The one I'm upgrading to is S$2.5k, plus a hard case for $460 (8% discount from $500), and I'm having to split the payment over a few months, interest-free, to my teacher - she's paying for all these upfront for me.
Definitely not the smartest financial decisions that I've been making over the last 12 months.
27th Feb 2020
So I really didn't get anything good in my GoPro while in Antarctica, so whatever. Seeing the seals and penguins, and the penguins and albatrosses living together on land, seeing all their babies and how they care for them, hearing their calls to each other, that was the experience and no photo will do it justice.
Yeah, I've never seen albatrosses calling out to their mates until then. Watching the wandering albatrosses and the black-browed albatrosses doing that, and taking care of their young in their nests, that was the stuff we went there for.
And the penguins. They're so spoilt they roam the land without concern for any danger, so sometimes it gets comical when they get so close they almost step on other animals. Except for the king penguins who seem a lot more aware of everything.
Always a reminder that evolution does not mean organisms get better, ie smarter, stronger, faster or etc, over the generations. Penguins are evidence that evolution just means they get better at adapting to their environments, and that can mean becoming smaller, less agile, less intelligent in order to adapt to the scarcer food supply. In fact, the biggest penguin ever discovered had long been extinct because it could not beat the seals or sea lions at hunting small whales.
Bought a second-hand Bose Quietcomfort 25 noise-cancelling headphones. Probably one of the best purchases I've ever made so far. The only downside is the need for a single AAA battery that lasts roughly two days of use, so I'm getting rechargeable ones.
The noise-cancelling effect is so good, if I turn my fan away, the place become too quiet, just like my aunt's place in Auckland. And it is too quiet because of my mild tinnitus, and the background noise of a city usually drowns it out. Not that the tinnitus is annoying unless I'm not doing anything, and if I'm wearing it, I'd usually be doing something.
Anyway, this is not safe for wearing outdoor - it can be harder to hear the cars or bicycles, and even the horns or bells can sound muffled.
4th Mar 2020
The old mate cup got algae growing in the wood and I couldn't tell if it was green or a little blue, so I'm keeping it solely for decorative purposes, and I got another cup for mate instead, this time a ceramic one. It is going to be a little hard to hold with hot water inside, so the idea here is to have one of those fabric knickknack holders which I had bought a long time ago to hold it with while it's hot, and it serves as a kind of coaster too since it's fabric.
The cup is actually very pretty, and simple, so... pretty simple. Hur...
Strictly speaking, it is not necessary - any small cup will do, but it's not expensive so whatever. It is a little bigger than the usual mate cups/gourds they use in Argentina and Uruguay, so that's something to keep in mind in the future.
Just found this dish called "Welsh rarebit" and Google's "People also searched for" section introduced me to the world of British dishes with misleading names. Now imagine an entire meal of these, like you're going to have some faggots and toad in the hole, and then finish the meal with a spotted dick.
