Or maybe it did and was just too much. The scalene triangle is flat baby like a straight line from Brisvegas to an Australian capital city. Hint Hint. Yes another USA trip cancelled but unlike Fred Trump, sadly, I pulled out early. With all this changing of mind lately I could become a DEI hire soon 🙂 Ouch
So the reasons are multifuctorial .
The USA is a shit show and likely to stay that way for forseeable future with the Orange Clown in charge and doing what he promised. Well duh. Suffer in your shorts Yanks. Ye reap, ye sow. The exchange rate is very poor and a likely trade war wont help little old Aussietown. USA was already getting more expensive every year . Buffoon Bob has warned of some “economic pain” to come but it will be worth it . Because he will get very rich of course.
Love Las Vegas and Santa Monica and if could teleport there for a couple of weeks every year certainly would but transport dont work that way yet. You listening Elon? Pull your finger out son. ( Do love the Swastica moniker for Teslas now ). The fires have certainly ravaged the LA area in general and that wont recover soon and imagine some of the highlights had ticked off around Malibu for example are simply gone. Rebuilding will also impact costs etc. October was never ideal time as do love me some chill but that was driven mostly by trying to maintain Qantas status. Not sure of the need for that but seemed a good excuse at the time.
Qantas is not as reliable as many would think as I do monitor these things. For example QF11 (my option for Sydney-LAX) simply cancelled twice in 3 days. There is always a flow on effect with all airlines. If the A 380 from Joburg to Sydney is a few hrs late and is then used for QF 11 it takes days to catch up for example. The necessary flights (for status) to USA and back required Premium Economy minimum at a cost of around $4000 on sale. Can do two trips to Melbourne and back in Business class for about half that money and earn more status and laugh at cattle class loading late. And dont land at LAX 🙂 If flight to Melbourne is cancelled you catch the next one an hour later. Dont work that way with international of course. Even in BC , 14 hrs is still 14 hrs. I checked. As you get older you look for less stress in life.
Speaking of which this month represents a significant change with switching over to Well Aged Pension hopefully but not sure how much will get each fortnight now despite best efforts to spend my savings over last 10 years. One does need to keep an eye on finances because despite some clear signs I could have another 10 years to get through. Man my arm will be sore by then . Why, you ask? Well if not going to Vegas have to do my own tattoos now each year. Here is one I prepared earlier
One thing have slowly learned is never say never so who knows what the future holds travel wise . It will be nice not to wake up every morning and first thing is check exchange rate and Super balance and then any emails from Qantas about flight delays 🙂 Ok, first 3 things! In the meantime will flit down (ie a short flight) to Melbourne for a week in June as they also have cafes and pubs and cool weather apparently . And no excessive tips or poor exchange rate. Maybe another trip to Sydney in September, time will tell. I will miss USA certainly but things change and that place certainly has. Have been very lucky to see what I have seen over the years and eventually it had to end. It may not have yet but it will one day. In the meantime while can still produce a good stream after 2L of water
flashman181 