1 Year, 1 month

It's been a week of anniversaries this week.  We came to Australia for the first time on the 21st March, 9 years ago. It's been quite mind-blowing just how much we have done in 9 years. Jack was 4 and Eve was 1 year old. Now he's as tall as me and Eve is the proper little Aussie girl we always hoped she would be.

It's also the 1 year 1 month anniversary before we commence The Big Trip. Trips to the library now result in us bringing books back about Tokyo, The Greek Islands, Bangkok & Disney World. Jack has been appointed Destination Specialist for Vegas and Tokyo, Eve is the Destination Specialist for Disney in Orlando. Em's speciality is Greece and The Grand Canyon. I get the rest. Watching Karl Pilkington in Bangkok this week for An Idiot Abroad I reckoned that the Lingam Shrine in Bangkok was a must do family activity.

After all what is life, if not an opportunity to embarrass the living daylights out of your kids?

Life became a bit simpler this week too after I decided that the job in Tasmania was not for me after the permanant contract became a 12 month contract which I then found out meant that it could be cancelled with 2 weeks notice. So we are staying in Perth.

Em has plenty of employment options at Kingsway after a meeting yesterday, the full time option is so appealing financially but it means she's completely knackered after a week at work and it's really not good for her. I have every faith that she'll do what is right for everyone.

On the Big Trip front, we are now a lot more comfortable with the itinerary having decided to increase our time in Greece and after a visit from a couple of great friends from London leading to the kind offer of some free accommodation in London. The chance to spend a few relatively cheap and easy days in London catching up with Em's dad and hanging out with our friends getting some culture and no doubt a couple of Gay Bars for good measure, is too good to miss.

Cheap accommodation is now becoming something of an obsession for me. You don't actually realise until you have to plan a trip of this length just him much can be spent on Hotels in 3 months. There are so many other options when you start looking. In Florida it is possible to rent an entire 4 bed villa with a pool for about $100/night. Most excellent value, especially if our good friends, The Arnolds, are able to join us. The weather in Florida in July will mean that a pool will be an essential after a day of traipsing around a busy, humid park.
Hostels are such a viable option and the ones that I have researched have blown my preconceptions out of the water. There are some beautiful, well equipped. clean, friendly places in really central locations and at a fraction of the cost of a Hotel. It may mean having to have a 4 bed 'Dorm' room to ourselves in places like New York & Tokyo, but I honestly think we will be so tired after days exploring these places that we could sleep anywhere.

I am really keen for your advice on such places as Disney & Tokyo so please let me have your tips.

Getting there.

The time is steadily creeping upon us when we need to book, and pay for, four round-the-world airfares. I now have an app on the iPhone and it reliably informs me that today we have "1 Year, 1 Month and 2 Weeks until the trip. Which equates to about 29 pay days.

Our local Travel Agent at Whitfords was most useful and suggested an itinerary that will keep us in a lower fare band. It only means reversing NYC-Washington-Orlando but saves us about $3,000!

It's amazing the things that you can find out when it's quiet at work and the internet is readily available. I chanced across a website called "Australian Frequent Flyer"  and I was able to discover that if I register with Aegean Air's frequent flyer programme, Miles & Bonus. This means that if I book the trip with Star Alliance then all four of us will be eligible to be Star Alliance "Gold Members" - No Austin Power references please.
There are a host of benefits with this, most notably the use of all their Lounges at Terminals world-wide and a very useful additional 20kg luggage allowance, each - Result!

I check out the exchange rates daily and try to see how it will affect our ticket prices 'cos once you have booked and paid for the tickets the price is fixed. I'm a little concerned that the Aussie Dollar could weaken and the price of oil looks like getting a bit silly, this will undoubtedly combine to bump up the price a fair bit. Fingers crossed.

Rather disconcertingly I tried to check out the current cost based on 2012 flights for the same dates as 2013 and the itinerary that I had saved showed that four of fifteen flights were no longer available. I'm guessing and hoping that that was due to trying to find four seats on small planes at short notice and not due to them cancelling flights.

My attempts at saving for this trip have been remarkably fruitful thus far. It has meant a major change in mind-set that I should have adopted years ago and due to us paying ourselves weekly the kids now have to accept that we can't afford it and they can't do everything that our hearts desire. They are starting to accept it and it was difficult over the school holidays but when you sit down and look at your expense it is quite remarkable how much money you can blow on utter crap. And guess what kids, you are getting luggage for Xmas this year!