Store experience and new homes

Everyone at Flight Centre, regardless of position or department, is obligated to spend one day out at a retail store to see how the travel consultants do it tough. An exercise appropriately entitled "A Day in the Life of a Consultant", the intention is to acquire a deeper understanding of the trials and tribulations that our front line staff have to face on a daily basis. My turn finally came up on Friday and I got to spend a lovely day in Flight Centre West End over hearing the globe trotting travel plans of overtly wealthy new-age socialites.

Sad to say, I didn't actually get to do any work out at the store so I won't be funding my next overseas trip with hard earned commission. Not that I'd ever want to shift career paths to take up travel consultancy, glamorous as that may initially seem. All the staff were in the shop from 7:30 in the morning and would be plodding on till past 9:00 in the evening, with a measly fifteen minute lunch break in between so the work hours definitely don't appeal.

One surprise on the day was discovering that one of the travel consultants in the store was the same lovely girl that booked mum's train trip around Australia over two years ago. She remembered me when I mentioned how we had to buy her a box of chocolates as a thank you for skipping lunch just to plan mum's itinerary. What a small world.

In other news, I've been too busy lately to really post anything of consequence. Most of our online time as of late has been spent on real estate websites looking for a larger home that will last us further down family planning track. As the more astute amongst you may have gathered, we think we might have found the place. I'm hoping to avoid gun jumping of any sort so I'll announce this with a small dose of reservation, but we've signed a contract on what we hope to be a happy abode for years to come.

The contract hasn't actually been counter signed by the owners but we've received verbal agreement on the conditions so we're fairly confident in moving to the next step. Of course the normal obstacles of building inspections, finance and the rest still remain but in truth it's the new addition to our worries that looms menacingly on the horizon. Of course I'm talking about the sale of our current unit, which will certainly introduce us to a whole new level of stress for us to enjoy. I've always been one for new experiences...

Saying all that, this hasn't stopped us from putting a deposit down for a new bed and planning all the improvements we'd like to do to the place. The house is a little older in build but we think it's certainly cute and in good condition. Over time we hope to build a patio/deck out the back and a couple of little extensions but time will tell. For now we're just excited at the prospect of owning land and have been watching Gardening Australia with new interest.

If all goes well we should be settling on the first week of September, actually October. Now we just need to find someone to buy our unit... any takers?