Prepping for Gold Coast

Crap, a little over 4 years with this blog and I've maximized the storage for photos. I honestly thought it was unlimited. I was uploading photos and I kept on getting this error message below and was hoping it was a bug. I don't know when blogger decided to start storing my photos in Picasa. Argh.

I had no choice but to purchase additional storage space lest I want to lose this blog. It's not exactly expensive but it's still freaking money that recurs every month and I seriously thought blogger is a free service entirely. Working in a software company myself, I do understand they need to start charging for storage space. BUT STILL. I'm pissed. :-P

I am seriously now considering of hosting my own website. At least I get to control the design and everything else. But I guess my 5 readers really don't give a shit hehe. Anyway, that's that. I also had to adjust the width of my site, thus the annoying scroll bar below. I had to find a way to post extra-large photos and still show my drop-down menu on the side bar so adjusting the width was the only way.

Back to the topic, haha I was digressing. As mentioned, I've been prepping for my short Gold Coast trip this coming August 16. I got my visa quite quickly. 5 days for processing and it cost freakin' $150! So damn expensive for a short 4-day trip. Oh well. By the way, they don't stamp labels on your passport anymore. They just gave me this piece of paper as the visa approval copy. Read here for more details.

I'm really impressed with Scoot's website with all the options you can choose from, quite expected since it is a budget airline, but the website is neat, easy to navigate and the choices are not bad. I opted not to take any check-in luggage going there, only on my way back.

I just realized that the flight is almost 8 hours so I was thinking of buying some grub online. Luckily before I even did, I asked my cousin how the food was as she just recently got back from Sydney via Scoot as well. I was laughing at the office when I read her sms because she said she was so pissed they woke her up from her sleep only to eat Lasagna that tasted like dog food - her exact words: "Kadire!" - hahaha, which is Filipino for "gross".

I will be renting the iPad though - both ways. I guess $20 isn't so bad to avoid boredom eventhough it's not exactly a long-haul flight. Thing is I easily get bored on the plane so what the heck. Anyway, I just got my new Standard Chartered credit cards which came with $80 cashback a piece, so that's $160 in total for the 2 cards I got. Sweet! hehe.

I'll be staying at the Vibe Hotel in Surfer's Paradise. It's literally a stone's throw away from Cavill Avenue and the beach so the location is perfect. Aside from the fact that I got it for a really reasonable rate via bookings.com.

I'm so lucky 2 of my high school friends offered to meet up with me. Jason who is also based here in Singapore happens to be in Gold Coast on almost the same dates and Mark is based in Brisbane (I think). So yey! I won't be screaming alone on Dreamworld rides after all! hahaha. And damn those tickets are expensive!! Hello bankruptcy! hehehe.

I googled the image above to take a sneak peek on Scoot economy seats. Pretty standard of a budget airline. I wonder though what happens if my rented iPad runs out of battery given the 8-hr flight... I'm guessing they have spare units to hand out?? Let's find out on August 16.

I'm excited!!! :-)