This year has been fucked.
It's a very blunt viewpoint but I think its the best way to describe things.
My mum has had a cancer battle in 2024 which led to her bladder being removed in January 2025. She's been incredible strong mentally and has recovered quickly but it was still a really scary time.
Me and Emma got married in February. It was the best day of my life.
We went on our honeymoon in March to Vietnam. Apart from getting really bad food poisoning it was a wonderful experience.
In April, Emma's dad had some health complications in China which led to a brain bleed. Me and Emma took some time off work and flew to Beijing to be with him and Emma's mum Annie. It was also a scary time but thanks to some high quality health care he pulled through. It was a reminder for why you need great insurance when travelling.
The happy side of this was that me and Emma had 2 nights in Hong Kong on the way home where we went to Disneyland.
May and June were generally normal. We tried to get back into routine and the normal swing of things.
On the 1st of July we received potentially the worst shock we've ever had with Boots' cancer. It was painful and mentally exhausting. It was the final straw of getting mostly bad luck this year.
And now we're in August. Boots is now in a better place where he's not in pain.
Me and Emma have to carry on with our lives.
But as they say in Dead Poets Society:
Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.
Me and Emma have been doing some crazy planning with this in mind.
We initially thought about doing a big Australian road trip. Where we landed with this was:
- Buying a van proved to be very tricky, we tried to use Facebook Marketplace but actually finding something that worked for us in a limited time frame was tough
- The whole idea was very expensive and we would have needed to borrow some money
- We'd love to do this trip one day but the best way to do it is to buy "cheap" Toyota HiAce which is mechanically sound and then pay someone to fit it out properly, then hit the road with more confidence
- Working remotely for me would have been tricky being on the road so much, Starlink makes this easier but we would have faced some challenges
We had a reset and thought about what we both wanted. Emma wanted to go somewhere warm.
I looked at Google Maps and saw just north of Australia was Bali. It's warm, cheap and is still within the Australian timezone so I could work remotely for a short time frame. Me and Emma talked more about it and researched costs for Airbnbs. It was within our budget.
So our new plan is:
- We're going to Bali
- We leave on the 8th of September and will be back in ~3 months
- I'll work remotely, Bali is 2 hours behind AEST (3 when day light savings hits)
- Emma will take long service leave and do part time remote work in December
- We'll stay in 3 different Airbnbs across the 3 months in Canggu, Ubud and Uluwatu
So yes, this year has been fucked but it's also been a year of travel and challenge. I think this 3 months will be awesome for me and Emma.