Getting Organised

Mkay, so let's start with the bad and sad news ... I did not win the Getaway Magazine's Dream Travel Job competition. I know, shock, horror.

Okay, for a moment we can be realistic about this and know that as awesome as it would've been, I think my bosses may have killed me. I mean, 2 months off work between 01 February and 31 May may be pushing it, just a touch :)

And so, as much as it would've been *completely* amazing, I'm not too upset about it. Since yesterday I paid for both my tours in full! And so, Holiday 2011 is officially the Trans-Mongolian Railway & China :) I'll be starting with Real Russia's 9day Trans-Mongolian Express tour. Which starts with a few days in Moscow (I am actually getting quite excited about this unexpected addition to my trip, since I have discovered some interesting things I'm looking forward to seeing in Moscow - like the Cosmonaut Museum and the Metro Stations!) and then takes Train 4 (did I mention that I'll be climbing on board the train on my 31st birthday? How cool is that?!) via Mongolia to Beijing. After arriving in Beijing, I'll join Intrepid's 15day Beijing to Kunming tour. And we all know that I absolutely can NOT wait to visit The Great Wall, most especially see The Terracotta Army and then there'll be the visit to the Giant Panda's :D How on earth can I be even remotely upset that I'm missing out on a few weeks of paid for travel around our lovely country? Okay, I still can. But it pales in comparison to the excitement I'm really starting to feel about this trip :) Will be booking my flights later today and then it's just waiting around until I can start applying for my 3 Visa's. Pfft. Not looking forward to that bit at all!!

So anyway, back to this week ... Um. It hasn't been a very social week (no doubt I'll be making up for it with this very busy upcoming weekend ... balance yada, yada). I didn't do anything exciting on Wednesday, but last night I went to Monte to watch Splice.

Oh. My. Word. I enjoyed this movie more than any others I've seen recently. Don't get me wrong, I walked out of there with a WTF feeling that lasted the rest of the evening! But I think that's a fabulous reflection of the film :) Seriously. I'd recommend you watch it.

And then I discovered Skoobs, the new bookshop at Monte, which I think I might move into. It is awesome :) Oh, and I had a big fight with Monte while getting a Club Festival card (because then movies are R15 each!). They want you to tick if you agree or disagree with Term & Condition 20 (Something to do with them being able to use my image / voice etc. etc. and owning any images taken inside their premises etc.) ... which I disagreed with. Which I'm guessing no one else has ever done because the dude processing my ticket had to go and talk to his manager. This all left him very flustered with no less than 2 trips back to his manager and eventually me calling the manager over because they didn't want to give me a card if I disagreed. As I pointed out: a) they were asking if I agreed or disagreed specifically with that one and below that I had agreed to the other Terms & Conditions and b) no where did it say that if I disagreed I couldn't have a card :P What a fuss and bother. Yes, I was probably being difficult, but I was given the option. I got my card anyway, but the irony was that the guy kept asking me if I'd actually read item 20 because I'd disagreed. I'm guessing people don't usually read it and just tick agree actually and if more people *did* read it there would be more people disagreeing.