So we're staying now, yeah? in Adventures in paradise

Well, good news in that I think I can still write here, hopefully for good, and not for just now haha. Very thankful to Dan for all his hard work, and looking forward to seeing if Josh will censor my entries or not :P

Had today off work for Good Friday, and it was nice. Well I mean, I’m only doing a 2-day work-week which is pretty amazing haha. That was yesterday and tomorrow. Tomorrow I am kind of dreading though, because my store manager seems to think it won’t be busy. Umm, day after a public holiday and the day before Easter… and you think it won’t be busy. Yuh huh. And you’re an SM, how exactly? I’ll be amazed if I can even move. The only way it won’t be busy is if people think we’re closed every day over Easter and they’ve all gone away to visit family, so, fingers crossed.

I finally got given new work shirts which are SO much better. I’ll no longer look like a lesbian serving people in my checkered long-sleeve shirt. These ones are short-sleeve! My SM gave them to me on my way out the door last night, and included was a cute note which reads, “Matt! Thanks for everything you do for us! You’re always working your very best! We really do appreciate it,” and then signed with his name.
Damn right I work hard. I think I work so hard that it makes everyone else look bad lol.

Tomorrow after work I’m meeting up with the gaggle of gays to see “Love, Simon.” It only officially came out here yesterday at the movies, but just about everyone’s already seen it, including Moe, but he said he’ll see it again. It was actually my suggestion to see the movie and I asked everyone along, but now Steve’s suggested seeing ‘Ready Player One’ instead and my food-place option I suggested beforehand might be out in the window too since Luke suggested a Japanese place he likes lol. Nothing like organizing a movie and my friends planning other options instead! Geesh.
If Steve and Moe want to see that ‘Ready Player One’ ^cough^boring^cough^ movie, then I’ll go see ‘Love, Simon’ on my own. Maybe Rhys and Luke will join me, I dunno. We’re now seeing the later movie as well now, all because I was waiting to see if Moe’s boyfriend could make it, but turns out he can’t either way, so that’s another thing that got changed. Not that big of a deal cos I’m still gonna see what I want anyway, but I feel like it’s the last time I’m gonna organize anything. And I can’t even use my voucher because it’s not valid after 5pm on Saturdays, ergh. So I need to use that up before the end of next month.

On Sunday, I’m catching a Greyhound to Toowoomba (because that’s as far as I can go since my parents live in the middle of nowhere) and my sister and her husband are picking me up to go out to my parents for lunch. I’ve since seen told that my older brother is driving down from Brisbane and can also take me, but I’d already booked my non-refundable tickets, and even if they were the other tickets, they are only transferable and not refundable. He’s staying overnight so I could get a lift back with him on Monday if I wanted to, but I’d much rather come back with my sister to Toowoomba. I’ve organised to catch up with Kristy too, but she’s at church until 4:30pm and my bus back is at 6pm so it’ll be a very quick catch-up if all works out okay. It’s just so annoying having to inconvenience my sister so I can make it out to my parents, since I don’t own a car. I did look into hiring one, but once again, car companies have jacked up the prices for the holidays and they wanted $400 for a couple of days (since I can’t return it on a public holiday). Yeah, no.

I’m freaking out a bit about finances for the Europe trip, which is sneaking up. I made slightly more progress and have now planned as far as Florence, which I think I already wrote about. And this is only if everything I’ve booked works out. There is so much that could go wrong, like a late plane or a problem with travel documents or a missed train lol. Ahhhh travel planning sucks! Booking.com is good in the way that it offers free cancellation, but transport is a bit trickier. If I don’t book shit now, it’ll be over double the price to do so when I’m there. I want to make it to Venice, but as for other places, I’m not so sure right now. I’m a bit concerned I’ll be too low on funds, especially if I add in Zurich, as much as I really want to go there. If I get stuck in Portugal, then my whole itinerary will have to be altered.
My credit card charges foreign conversion fees, but my debit card doesn’t, so the sensible thing to do would be to only spend what I have, which I’ll try to do. I need to do what I did last time and set out a budget for each day I’m there, but I’m pretty sure that blew out last time because, being a foreigner, I have no idea what to expect. I’ve only planned one airport transfer and that’s in Rome. I know that probably won’t be too much of an issue but I wonder how far certain airports are from each city and if they are anything like MY city, the air-train costs a fucking fortune.
I still have a month of work to go before I leave, so I’m conscious of just grocery shopping for basics over the next 37 days. Then I’ll be nervous as fuck.
The first non-stop flight from Australia to London happened a few days ago (Perth>London). I have no idea how those people in economy did that flight. They are saying Australian east-Coast non-stop flights to London will begin in 2022 and will take 21 hours. 21. Hours. On. A. Plane.
Last time I went via Hong Kong but this time will be via Dubai, so the first flight will be longest. Apparently it’s still illegal to be gay in the UAE, so even stopping over in Dubai intimidates me a little, not that I’ll be seeing it outside of the airport.
I still have to plan getting to London and then getting back to Lisbon for my flight home. It’s the few in-between cities that I need to think about. I want to add in Zurich and Paris. I WANT to, but I’m getting a bit concerned. I think I’m pretty well planned out otherwise, and this is from someone who hates planning. I’m much more fun being spontaneous.

I hope Prosebox is in good hands now. I had some trouble leaving people notes earlier today but it seems to be okay now I think. It was probably a good thing to export my diary books anyway.