Escape from reality

Amidst the chaos currently enveloping our lives, Garry and I have found a way to bring a little joy and light relief. We’ve been planning four vacations, including two that have been in the works for some time.

First up, is our forthcoming trip to Samoa. We fly out eight days from now, returning on 1 October. Garry’s Mum is stable and looks likely to be with us for a few more weeks. As a result, Garry has decided we should proceed with this holiday. It’s also what Rhonda wants. She’s been adamant that everyone carry on living life as normal. This includes us sticking with our annual Spring break vacation.

Dealing with hotels and tourism ventures in Samoa has been an eye-opener. It's clear the locals are operating on island time. I’ve struggled to get clear and timely answers to simple questions and booking activities via email has become a handy lesson in patience.

For example, it took a string of emails over a week, to get a simple answer to questions like “What’s the dollar value of a deposit required to secure our hotel booking”, plus more emails to clarify the date the final balance was due. We never got a straight answer regarding the deposit's value (“it’s 50% of the total booking value – which is how much exactly?). I eventually gave them a credit card authorisation without a nominated total.

We’re now experiencing a similar circular email debate while trying to book a day trip to neighbouring Savaii Island (you can see its famous blowhole above). This is a treat for my birthday – if we can finalise a payment? Perhaps the easiest activity to book was a rental car for five days. However, this still involved three hours of email ping pong last Sunday before it was finalised. This exchange included two completely different booking confirmations sent within minutes of one another. I definitely need a holiday after all the stress these bookings have caused.

Following Samoa, we’ve scheduled a vacation for Christmas/New Year. We’re off to Ballina again. Given the failing health of Garry’s mother we’d deferred all plans for Summer until now. However, sadly we now know she won’t be with us for Christmas. By chance, Garry discovered that the same penthouse apartment we booked in 2021 was available in early January.

We’ve decided to spend four days making our way up the coast. We’ll stop for one night in Harrington, staying at the Harrington River Lodge (our third stay here), before basing ourselves in Yamba for three nights. We’ve booked ourselves into a studio apartment at the Moby Dick Waterfront Resort offering an uninterrupted view along the Clarence River.

Once we're done with Yamba, we'll spend four nights staying with friends on their lifestyle block outside Alstonville, before finally making our way into Ballina for seven nights. We’ll finish our vacation with an overnight stop in Port Macquarie on the way home to Sydney.

A week after returning from Ballina, we’ll be off on a five-day break to Morocco in January. Garry and I are off to Northern Africa for the weekend before kicking off our annual week of business meetings in London, at the London Toy Fair, and then on to Nuremberg for a second week. We’re basing ourselves in Marrakech. I’ve booked us into a classic riad hotel on the outskirts of the old city’s medina, plus an overnight tour through the Atlas Mountains, visiting some of Morocoo's famous Berber mountain forts. We'll stay the night in a palm oasis before returning to Marrakech.

This will be Garry’s first time in Morocco, and my second. Although my first visit, in 1990, only included the northern cities of Tangier, Fez and Meknes. This will be my first visit to Marrakech.

However, I won’t rest easy until we board our flight to Marrakech. We’re taking the non-stop flight from Perth to London again. The flight is scheduled to land at 5:05am. We then have 2:40 hours to clear immigration, collect our bags, transfer to Terminal 5, and drop our bags again. We’re travelling on separate tickets, so we’ll be in a world of pain if our flight from Australia runs late.

Finally, we’ve just paid a deposit on a Caribbean cruise departing January 2026. This will become part of my 60th birthday celebrations. I’ve been dreaming of a cruise through these tropical isles for decades. I stumbled upon this particular cruise earlier in the year. It visits 12 countries in 14 days, with a new port on offer daily - and no “days at sea”. 

However, it’s rather pricey, so I sensibly set it aside on the “dreamer’s shelf”. Since then, I’ve received a small unexpected cash inheritance from my mother’s estate. I decided to put it towards this cruise for Garry and me. My mother would be delighted to know we’re using it to create special memories. It’s exactly what she'd do if she were alive. We can cancel our booking without penalty until the end of August 2025 so there’s plenty of time to reconsider.

Oh yes, there is one more out-of-town excursion in my diary. I’m scheduled to fly to the Gold Coast at the end of November for an overnight retreat with my EO Forum. While the trip is business-focused, we've set aside some time for a little fun including a Koala encounter at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.