Back into the swing .... and lovin' it!

Quick post just to touch base with my regular flollowers of my journey last year.

Somewhere between the last post and this one I found my work mojo again ... I'm back to it and going like crazy! Just before Xmas I made the huge decision to move from my company of eight years to a new company which I am absolutely thrilled with. I am surrounded by hugely successful people with enthusiasm, energy and a "can do" attitude .. its exactly what Im loving about it.  Long days of working and prospecting but its paying off with my first two properties signed up.

I have a new website up and running at www.exclusivehomes.co.nz  which I am very happy with and lots of advertising out in the ether and in letterboxes. I am resigned to wearing a tie and suit again. :) The only down side to all this working is not much bike riding, but at the moment the focus is on rebuilding the work momentum so Im okay with it.

I have also set up a facebook business page which you can find HERE
Do feel free to click through to my business page and join up to my weekly email newsletter (house selling work related not bike or travel related) ... and dont forget to click "Like" and help spread the word.
 :)

Yammie has settled in to NZ life and he is just a joy to be with plus his work visa came through just before Christmas so he has been looking for work. He is doing a little work for me as my personal assistant and it is looking promising that he may have some other part time work too.

So, it really is a case of head down and bum up and "getting on with it!"

Cheers, Nick.

Yammie with Big Bertha on our trip over Christmas (my friend Rob on the left)

This is my "work shot" ... no jeans, motorbikes or Leo beer in site .. :) haha

Favourite Five ... (plus 2)

I thought I'd join the postings on your favorite five photos of the year that I took (well, there's 5 I took plus 2 others) .... Thanks to Roger for the idea .....

With my travels I have many more photos that I love. There have been so many highlights during 2011 ... So many great life stories that I have been able to experience share ....

So, here goes ...



Part of the NZ leg of my trip .... South Island .... South end of the Queenstown Lakes with Big Bertha .... Reflective of the glorious riding roads we have.



Riding over the Ureweras on a cruiser .... Absolute madness and a real adrenalin rush.




Malaysia .... On Blue Bertie ... In the middle of the jungle and lost. Awesome!



Me on blue bertie in Malacca

The smiling machine gun wielding policeman (Malaysia) .... Love this photo .. :)






Thailand ..... And of course meeting this most beautiful man who has helped me find my fun, laughter and joy of life again ... Xx

Plus one more for good measure ... Back home in New Zealand ... Ponsonby Road ....




For me 2011 has included many of the highest highs and a couple of the lowest lows in my life ... 2012 is about regrouping, getting my finances on track again and working hard so we can plan the next exciting chapter in life :)

....and a huge thanks must go to my readers who have joined me along my life journey ... It has been great fun writing my blog and I thank you very much for your support and kind words.

......Thanks for taking time out of your day to follow my blog. Cheers, Nick.

The Reality ....

So, sitting at my desk in the office I am digging deep to find the motivation to be focussed and get a couple of sales under my belt. At the back of my mind is the nagging issue of money and paying off my debt.

With only a couple of weeks until Christmas, activity is beginning to slow, or rather signing people up to sell is quite difficult as it is the last thing on their minds. This means trying to set things up for the new year so that I come back all guns blazing becasue the cycle of selling takes time. List a house in January, run the marketing programme, find a buyer in Jan/February and hopefully get paid at the end of February. By February it will be 11 months since a pay cheque and seriously tough by then, so I need to stay focussed.

If by February I have no properties to sell, I will have to make some hard decisions. It may mean renewing my teaching certificate and picking up a few days teaching, or going back full time, at least to get some money rolling in.

I never envisanged getting back to it would be so difficult, and rather than making me motivated to get up at 6.00am and working like a crazy bugger, it has made it so incredibly hard to get motivated. I just need to dig deep and get on with it.

The beauty of my job is that if I can get a couple of sales under my belt I can knock off some of that debt much quicker than if I was in a "regular" job, but in the same token, without a sale under my belt, it is not a nice experience as it means no money coming in.

So, that is the reality! 

 

Post "trip of a lifetime" melancholy

So, where to now??????

It has been a few days since I have posted on here as I have been dealing with rejoining the "real world" and I have to be honest that I am struggling a little bit.




Back to real life .. And work ....

Of course it has been lovely catching up with my family and friends, however, looking around my city, going in to my office and lots of little things have made me feel somewhat confused and a little down about what happens next.

Obviously, with a trip comes cost and as much as I would like to pretend I could retire now, the reality is I can't. What I have found even more interesting is the fact that I seem to be seeing so many things with different eyes as when I left. Things that seemed so vitally important to me before, just seem unimportant now.

Firstly, coming from such a large city back to Auckland everywhere and everything is just so quiet. There is just not the hustle bustle. This is both good and bad.

Secondly, I have noticed how rough round the edges kiwi blokes are. There is not the same openess and kindness and I so worry about Yammie feeling safe here. We have already been yelled at once and we were simply walking down the street. The immaturity of the rugby hooligans who celebrated the rugby world cup and were screaming down the streets just put me right off, and I know made Yammie feel a bit scared.

I really really miss the people in Thailand.

This morning someone complained about the fact that I had a couple of things sitting in my basement carpark and that it looked messy. This simply enraged me as all i could think of is all those people's lives in Thailand whose livelihoods have been ruined with the flooding, and people working their butts off simply to be able to eat, and I thought to myself, how fucking pathetic. (excuse my language)

I went in to my office yesterday and the thought of going back to work just leaves me feeling sluggish. The other thing that I have been struck with is a sense of guilt - I started pulling things out of my storage and I thought to myself ... There are people in the world with nothing and here I am with all this "stuff" ... I don't need 10 towels and everything else that I have collected over the years.

Alongside this I have Yammie with me which is the one thing that I am happy about. In saying that I am constantly worried that he is okay and that I am keeping him busy, and the fact that life is just so different here. Technology is great though and he is able to talk with his family and communicate with his friends which make me feel better. My family have also embraced him as have my close friends and I am so very grateful to them all for this. I have also introduced him to a couple of people and I am hopeful that they can build friendships so he can create an extra support network. Of course we both have some feelings of separation anxiety I reckon as we have basically spent 24 hours 7 days a week together for the last four months and as I get busier there will be times when we he cannot come with me, so a job and friends are so very important.

....written a little later ....

..so I did some googling and apparently these feelings I am having are quite normal and there are a few things I can do about it ... So here's my list of ways to combat the melancholy ..

1. A few people have suggested that I could write a book about my travels ... I kind of like this idea so I'm going to spend a bit of time pulling all these experiences together into a semi coherent way ... Check back in a couple of years. :)
2. We have yammies work visa to sort out, so we need to begin this process.
3. I will plan a few "mini trips" for Yammie and me over the next three months.
4. I need something big to look forward to (and to work toward) so I will sit down and look at where we want to be in One to two years and work towards it, then it gives me a reason to put my head down and bum up to make some serious money so we can do it.
5. I will make an active effort to reconnect with old friends and have people over more - we are already doing this and I am really enjoying hosting at home rather than out at restaurants all the time.

Hopefully, these should all help kick start the next part of my life journey.

So, onwards and upwards... :)

Thanks for taking time out of your day to follow my blog. Cheers, Nick.

Bangkok, Hong Kong, Macau and Home ....

Sorry about the delay in getting this post out. Between bad internet coverage, zooming around with limited time and long flights home, this post is overdue.....

Written last Friday

As I write this it is Friday morning and we will soon check out of the hotel and head to the airport. It has been a very nice stay here for the last two nights at Lebua at State Tower.

We met with our landlord yesterday so got the sign off of the apartment. We also dropped the car off. Thursday night was a farewell party for Yammie from his friends. We went to a huge place called "holland beer" where they had a stage about three times the size of the Auckland town hall with live music and great entertainment. A couple of the girls got fairly emotional as you can imagine as they have very little knowledge and understanding of my country except that it it a he'll of a long way away. Being very close, they are of course pulled between feeling excited for Yammie about this amazing opportunity and being sad about him leaving.

I have gotten to know them well and have grown to love his close knit circle of girlfriends as they are incredibly loyal with each other and as is the case with gen y? They Share all their highs and lows together. They have embraced me during my time here and I will miss them too.


"the girls"

Tonight, running down Soi Silom was a huge festival to do with the local temple which has caused chaos with the already bad traffic and has really encompassed everything I love about Thailand ... Throngs of people, crazy roads, a heap of cheap good food and great atmosphere.







Written on Sunday - hong kong and Macau

We left Bangkok on friday and had a short flight to Hong Kong where we had an easy run through imigration. We caught a taxi to the hotel where we were immediatly disappointed with the accom, but only three nights so we could cope. After a leisurly stroll to stretch our legs and grab abite to eat we crashed in to bed for the night where i proceeded to feel quite ill probably from a combination of bad food and a lack of sleep.

On Saturday we decided to head to Macau for the day but decided once we were there to stay for the night at the venetian casino and hotel where they have 3000 over the top hotel rooms aspart of a ridiculously large complex. It was totally worth it and shortly before we were due to leave I managed to win a bit of money which meant a bit of shopping and it had covered our weekend their. excellent! I bought a really nice wallet, Yammie a bag, and my mum a little gift. We caught the ferry back to spend our last night in Hong Kong before the long trip home tomorrow.


















It is with a surprisingly heavy heart that I think about packing tomorrow and heading home. I feel excitement about catching up with my friends and family and of course having Yammie come to NZ with me and showing home round and seeing where life takes us, but I am filled with this huge sense of sadness that this trip of a lifetime is nearly at an end. It has changed me in so many ways and there is no doubt that I am worried about rejoining the workforce. I have definitely left a part of me in Thailand too. Coming to Hong Kong there are just so mNy stark differences. I do so hope Yammie doesn't get a shock when he finds that not everyone is open and kind and respectful of others.

Written in New Zealand

We had a very long trip home before getting the Spanish inquisition at the airport and been lead to a different area at the airport where we were questioned further, then after an extra hour or so at immigration we were allowed to go. Yay! We were in New Zealand.







Yay! In new zealand ... Cold, but we're home!

....more to come in a few days :)

Thanks for taking time out of your day to follow my blog. Cheers, Nick.