Hi again everyone. Well here we are with less than 3 weeks to go to the wedding and the honeymoon. There doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day or the week to get all the little fiddly things taken care of. My idea of elopement a year ago still looks appealing to me… gets me dirty looks from Lyndsay though.

So Thailand is getting closer and closer. I have started to finish up the honeymoon plans so that we are ready to get ourselves to the airport. I have registered with “smart traveller”, and have copied all my travel docs etc. All that is really left to do is to pack all of our things, organise the kids, say goodbye, and make the trek down the F3. After that all that is required of us is to make the most of it, enjoy ourselves, have the time of our lives, and make sure we come home with no regrets.

So speaking of enjoying ourselves, I recently read an article in the newspaper that made me think. I’m not one for “stereotyping” or “pigeon-holing” or giving out “names” but this article hit the nail on the head when referring to me and lots of others I’m sure. The article referred to the “Evolution of Dinks”. Does everyone remember what a Dink is? Dual Income No Kids. And just for the record.. Debbie.. Cats do not class as dependants! Well 6 years or so ago we were just that .. Dinks.. well sort of anyways as Brayden is not with us full time. Along comes Laycie, and a few years later Caleb joins us. So now we are no longer Dinks, and come to think about it we really hadn’t been given a new name so I wasn’t sure what we were then. That was until the before mentioned article. Apparently Dinks have evolved. Life has gotten busier. 3 jobs between 2 of us, kid’s football and dancing, rent, loan repayments, credit card bills.. the list goes on. We have gone from “working to live”.. to “living to work” Bills have to be paid, kids entertained and the load on just the two of us can be exhausting. So with all these changes in life and the evolution from being Dinks, what is it we have become? Are you ready for it.. Apparently, we are now called NETTEL’s. Nettel = Not Enough Time To Enjoy Life  How is that for stereotyping? I’m sure that there are lots of people out there that probably see themselves in the same boat. Working too much, running around all over the place, barely time to relax in front of the TV to watch a show without being interrupted. The more I thought about it the more I realised that I had become a Nettel, especially in the past 2 years. We had been so focused on the wedding and honeymoon that life had sort of passed us by. I had always said that sacrifices had to be made so that we could spoil ourselves in the long run. But it is almost like that it has been so long can we still remember how to have fun on our own and how to spoil ourselves. Bloody hell I hope so..lol.

So here we are 2 Nettels, about to get married (finally) and head off to wonderful Thailand to have fun, forget about the day to day responsibilities of life, enjoy ourselves and above all… try to ditch that Nettel tag for the 2 weeks we are away. Maybe we can just pretend for the 2 weeks that we are back to being Dinks. We will never forget about the kids, as I can see us calling home everyday to check on them, but just maybe for the most part of each day we are away we can pretend that we are our own first priority. We can sleep in.. a nice change for me at least lol.. we can indulge and eat good food instead of cleaning it off the kids and the floor.. we can over indulge and have a few drinks and let our hair down with little or no responsibility.

So for all you Nettel’s out there who may read this take heed that it is possible to shake that Nettel tag for the briefest of times. Take the time out of your busy lives every now and then to spoil yourselves, because I’m sure that you deserve it.

And if you can’t.. keep following this blog and live vicariously through our story. I hope that we can entertain you with out travels and antics so stay tuned for more updates and stories. Cheers

P.s.

Congrats to Nick Bowditch Travel on its 1^st Birthday this week. Nick is the consummate professional who has done a wonderful job planning this honeymoon and organising it for us. A big thanks to Nick, and a huge recommendation to anyone looking for that more personal service than you can expect from the “Woolworths” variety travel agent where you are just another job. So support Nicks website, leave messages for our blog, either questions or comments, and enjoy. Bye for now