What an exciting feeling it is to be at the beginning of a brand spanking new year. For me it is usually the time that I would normally reassess my life. I would look back over the year rating how I felt I did, work wise, love wise, life wise. I would make those resolutions that I am determined that this is the year I will stick too them. Well that has been the way it has normally been for me for as long as I can remember. This year for the first time ever (as far as I can recall) this process never happened. I did reflect back on 2017 and rather than assess how the year went I just smiled at all the memories. As for looking forward into what 2018 would bring me I didn’t bother. Instead I just enjoyed myself which was especially easy to do as I had three of my closest galpals fly over from New Zealand to spend New Years with us.
Over the actual Christmas period I was working non stop at the lodge. It ended up being 23 days of working straight and it was lucky that I had Craig with me who was able to help out. All in all it was quite a happy period leading up and through Christmas even though every day was a work day. We had a couple of long term stayers in at the time who were quite social and most days would find us outside with them sitting and chatting and having the odd drink or two.
Christmas Day ended up being a fun filled day as we had a couple of friends (Sue and Craig) from Cairns drive down to spend it with us. We started with a lovely brekkie and a shots game on the upstairs verandah, before heading downstairs to join others for games, drinkies and fabulous food, interspersed with dips in the pool. Even though we couldn’t be with our families on this day it was great to be able to create a fun time for others who were also away from theirs.
We then had the gals arrive in Townsville and it reinforced to me what really great friendships are about. As soon as they walked through customs and we saw each other it was like it had only been a few days rather than a year when we had last seen each other. The next 5 days were filled with adventure, glamour, wine, laughs, sailing, storms (weather) and just awesome times. Craig and I couldn’t think of a better way to end 2017 and welcome 2018.
So currently we are back at the lodge as I work. The next month will be an interesting one as there are a couple of possibilities ahead for us. At the end of 2017 I had a lady come to the lodge as she had heard about me from a realtor (the Yongala is for sale and on occasion the realtor will show people through while I am there). She and her husband are purchasing a motel in Ingham which is an hour North of Townsville. She has asked whether I would be interested in managing it for at least a year. Then a couple of days ago a couple who are very interested in purchasing the Yongala came to talk to me to check that if they did go ahead with buying it, could I stay on and manage it for at least the next year.
While we would love nothing better than to pick up anchor and sail away towards Indonesia we do have to look at things realistically. When we started this adventure just under one year ago (wow already its been almost a year) we did so with $30 000.00 in the bank as savings. Within the space of 8 months that dwindled down to us sailing into Australia with $5000.00 in the bank and very shortly after that down to $700.00 as we purchased some equipment we really needed to have.
This is why we are here and working currently. So far the savings has built back up to $5000.00 but we have a long way to go before we are at the stage where we can comfortably leave.
Happy 2018, it is yours for the taking, go out and do it!
What about putting Google ads onto your website to monitise it? Prob not all the $$ you need but all adds up 🙂