A busy sort of day
After spending half the night awake panicking about what happens if I book this trip and then don’t find anywhere to stay, I decided to get pro-active today and start seriously begging for accommodation.
So I sent an email to the contact for Bookcrossing Singapore and joined their Yahoo group, sent PMs to friendly-looking bookcrossers in Spain, Chicago (Mojosmom said yes! Yayyy!!), Ottawa, and Honolulu, and wrote an email to the BC-AUS yahoo group, all begging for somewhere to stay. And at the same time, I did some major googling to find other options if I don’t get any response, and have identified two or three hostels in each city that seem to be reasonably priced (as in they at least won’t make my credit card melt if I’m forced to stay there). Obviously, staying with bookcrossers is still my preferred option, both in terms of cost and getting to see bit of “real life” in the countries I’m visiting, but at least I don’t have to panic that I’ll be sleeping on a park bench if that doesn’t work out.
So now I just have to check with my boss on Monday about stretching out my leave (I do have an entitlement to 4 weeks leave, it’s just whether it’s convenient for me to take it all in one lump like that), and then I can give the travel agent a firm list of where I want to go so she can sort out a proper itinerary and start booking stuff.
I should be able to sleep soundly tonight. (Though what’s the bet I find something else to wake up at 3 am panicking about?)
What an adventure!