Month: May 2015

Long-haul flights suck – Deb’s Top 10 Tips to making them half bearable

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Through my travelling adventures, and now living in Austria, I’ve spent a lot of time on aeroplanes, and not just short trips, but the long, nasty, boring 20+ hour ones. However, I’ve come to love them, or at least if not love, I’ve learnt to tolerate.

What you have to do, is acknowledge that it’s 15-24 hours out of your life, and then get over it. Use it to catch up on reading, movies, listening to music – just let it go by as easily as possible. Realise that it’s going to be long, it’s going to be boring, and by the end, you’re going to feel like crap. But at least you’re one of the lucky ones – with the opportunity and money to fly for that long.

So here’s my top 10 tips for long-haul flights: Continue reading →

Uncomplicate your wedding by stuffing tradition

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My original wedding plan involved a red dress, bridesmaids in black and bring-a-plate-instead-of-a-gift. However, upon the organisation of my actual wedding, though I still went with the red dress, I cut out the bridesmaids and my husband, being Austrian, had no concept of what bring-a-plate was.

With my Dad and bridesdog... ready to walk down the sandy aisle
With my Dad and bridesdog… ready to walk down the sandy aisle

My plan was to apply the KISS principle. Like so many before me, I had witnessed plenty of stressed out brides, and decided I wasn’t going to be one of them. If I was super organised, I surmised, surely it couldn’t be that stressful.

Well, I was wrong and right in the end. Because I love organising things, most of it was highly enjoyable. Making lists, crossing them off… heaven! But I have to admit, that even I gave into the stress every now and again… had a couple of mini tantrums and sleepless nights and wondered why we hadn’t just eloped.

So here’s how I cut out some traditions to make our special day a little more us and a little less stressful. Given that neither of us is overly religious and being a bit older and wiser meant that we could DO IT OUR WAY. Continue reading →

Why my new car is awesome – meet the Snow Tiger

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When I finally (just in time) got a job in Austria, I didn’t have much time to buy a car. Though with a 45 minute commute to contend with, it was a necessary evil.

New car_awesome
Meet the Snow Tiger

Thomas doesn’t like car shopping, and I’m not much help. To me, it’s a car – I want to be able to drive it without breaking down and I want to listen to music… if it was a cool colour that would be ok, too. But that’s it. We checked out a few cars and found some models I liked (in truth, I would have been happy with any of them… I just wanted a good deal) and I ended up with a Ford Focus. I’ve never been a Ford girl, but it was the best one we found. And here’s why: Continue reading →

The Death Pass – an excellence place for an Aussie to learn about snow driving

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My job is conveniently located (despite quite a long drive) just off the autobahn out of Graz, which means I have an easy run every day with no traffic problems. The only problem is that it also requires me to drive over ‘The Pack’ which I have affectionately renamed: the Death Pass.

It's not surprising it's always snowing on the pack
It’s not surprising it’s always snowing on the pack

It is one of the higher parts of the Austrian autobahn, climbing up over a mountain range and being notorious for heavy snow and ice. With my minimal snow driving experience, the thought of driving the Death Pass in winter scared the crap out of me. I was sure I was going to be stranded overnight in my car as thick snow slowly built up around my car turning it into an icy death den… ok so I was being a little bit melodramatic.

So now that winter is finally over, here are my more realistic reflections on the Death Pass.

Continue reading →