Approved

Just before Christmas, I got some exciting news at work. My month abroad was officially approved (as you see above in a detail view of my official certificate.) Yes, ladies and gentlemen, come March I am bound for the land Down Under. Accompanying me for most of the odyssey will be Paul, and I'm not without hope that one or two other stragglers might be able to join in for part of the fun.

The flurry of planning a month-long trip to Australia and New Zealand - 25 days, to be exact - has just begun to die down. Paul and I have put in days upon days of research on flights, hotels, activities, and more. Although every second of our trip isn't planned out, I think we have a pretty good itinerary cooked up. In fact, we probably have enough ideas to happily occupy two or three months. I don't want to "spoil" our plans for you, because you can expect updates and photos along the way - but I can reveal that I personally booked nine separate flights for myself, so we'll be covering plenty of territory. On a not-unrelated note, we will also be spending a truly impressive amount of money ... but I figure that if ever there's a time to cut corners, this would not be that time.

Part of me still can't believe I'm really going to do this - and that it's happening so soon. I mean, two months from today, I will be - (checking calendar) - in Sydney. Hot damn. Unless something totally unforeseen happens to me, like being kidnapped by bandits.

(By the way, Part 2 of the Coblog is now up at Allison's site. Check it out!)