Oh no I could've made it!
...was the first thing I thought when I woke a few days back. Tuesday. Started writing this then but didn't finish.
I felt okay, I'd slept a full eight hours and apparently didn't need more, I checked my temperature - it was low - to the point almost of being too low - on Sunday it was high to the point of being too high, but I felt alert, like I hadn't in a few days... then I got up and realized I was maybe not fully recovered yet after all.
It seems my temperature rushes a bit when I sit upright. My back sweats profusely in this robe - like a lawn covered in morning dew. If I stay in it too long I get cold, or if stay upright too long, thus I return to bed after a while.
Maybe that's normal. I'm still inexcusably weak. My fever crept up to 39.2°C on Sunday, before it siphoned off and I had the best sleep I've had in maybe... ever. In a long time at least. Totally exhausted.
I still have a sniffle and a raw throat from trying to force up phlegm I know will make it difficult to sleep otherwise, but overall it's not so bad... this is the first day in a few days where I am sitting by the computer with the intent of being somewhat productive. By writing this. By catching up on NG. Maybe I'll have energy for email too.
I'm not working fully, but it seems possible to get a real work day in before the week is over, if the boss obliges (he did). It would've been yesterday if I was okay. I called in sick on Sunday since I thought I may not be coherent enough to do so on Monday. And today I should have been flying up North, for the first trip of the year and summer.
Had big plans for this one, was looking forward to it - alas it seems the bigger plans you make the more probable they falter.
All trips require planning of course, ahead aplenty, especially if you want things as cheap as they can be, but I wish I didn't have to. I wish I could manage my bookings as spontaneously as my sister does. Go when I want to. Know when I'm rested. Never take a day for granted, but make the most of granted days as they come.
Alas that incurs exponentially greater costs, too.
I'm not there yet. In fact I'm still kinda proud of how much I manage to save on my tickets in comparison - though it's not as much as it used to be. I seem to be getting worse at it. Maybe it's the times more so than me. The uncertainty affects supply and demand also. Supply's a bit more hesitant, and demand grows - I'm far from the only one booking things half a year in advance whenst whenever possible now.
Ever since I realized I'd have to cancel this flight I've been entertaining the thought of booking another one. Of just delaying the trip a bit, and getting in a weekend instead of an almost full week, but as it is maybe that wouldn't be so wise. We'll see. How fast I heal. The alternative's open. Flying's fast and free...
It's the second time I've tried for this particular trip though.
They say third time's the charm, but it's also costly. The rental car fortunately doesn't cost a thing to cancel - up till within half an hour of retrieval no less, but the airlines aren't so accommodating.
I book most of my tickets with Norwegian, who fortunately do reimburse taxes and government fees even on low-fare tickets if you need to cancel - which covers quite a bit if you manage to get those tickets cheap. Yet I booked my return trip with RyanAir this time since Norwegian were all too expensive, and they don't reimburse a thing.
Well they do, but they take a 20 EUR service fee for it, and so if the potential repayment is lower it doesn't go through. Their ticket for this trip cost roughly 22 EUR, so that's that.
Compare that to the Norwegian equivalent of maybe 60-70 EUR on this particular return trip... I wonder which one would've paid off most in this case. If I'd have taken this flight of course it would've been better with the cheaper RyanAir alternative. As I didn't, though, I wonder if I could've been reimbursed more than the price difference between said two tickets...
And then I have a hotel booked for one night, which can't be canceled but can fortunately be postponed, so I think I'll try that for October, and I had bought temporary insurance for the deductible on the rental car via ERV, which they fortunately obliged to change the date on when I changed my booking earlier, but won't repay if I cancel entirely... so that's gone.
All small costs you may say, if all I'm dealing with are but remaining bits and pieces of ticket payments and cheap insurance extras, but costs do amount, and my finances are in a precarious state these days.
I've started Mystery Shopping a bit to make up for it.
The company I'm with isn't doing so well, sales decrease still, so for the duration of summer at least I'll be working just one day a week there, after by which time company finances will hopefully have recouped and all goes back to normal. If it doesn't I need to start considering my options...
so all costs matter, and especially now.
Though I've always made it a point - I'd say it's one of my greatest strengths even - to not waste money unnecessarily, it seems I've been getting careless the last couple of years, as I've grown used to having a steady income to back up what I may occasionally squander.
Last summer I think I booked at least four RyanAir flights that I later cancelled - though they were incredibly cheap then. Two were for a similar early Spring flight that just ended up being to stressful to take, even if I could have.
Two of them I ended up replacing with tickets from Norwegian, since the flight times were just unmanageable.
I did catch one, yet had to take in at a hotel the night before the flight in order to be at the airport in time, since public transport from home wasn't available that early in the morning, and taxi would've been expensive. That flight still ended up cheaper than it would've been with Norwegian, hotel included, though it was a hassle to get up that early anyway and the hotel was hot and noisy and I barely managed to sleep at all.
The ticket prices have increased since, though.
Last year I could've booked four of their tickets for the price of one this-year ticket, so basically I just squandered the same amount again.
I paid twice for this one thing I forgot about the expiration date for last year too, and earlier this spring I actually bought an additional train ticket one day just because I had a bad headache and wanted to leave earlier...
Get it together my dude! This isn't you!
On the one hand it does feel freeing when you're able to adjust plans on the go, and not let your freedom be limited by arbitrary expenses.
But on the other I'd rather plan well in advance and not lose a thing.
I'd rather be prepared for everything.
I'd rather be of such impeccable health and reason there's never a need to change these things. So ultimately I could plan and book at leisure, and live life fully and without measure.
No cost is arbitrary either. Nothing is arbitrary. Plan or no plan. There's just less stress and disappointment involved if you have things under control.
Since that Tuesday morning detailed above I planned to take this week day by day anyhow, and if I felt well enough maybe I'd attempt another trip, but not book anything in advance! If flight prices had risen too much for it to be worth it when the weekend came then so be it. That'd be it then.
I don't know if they did - I haven't checked on prices since - but I still have a sniffle and a cough, and I'm tired, so it probably wouldn't have been a good call to go anywhere regardless. This most definitely is no ordinary cold.
I did get a work day in this Friday, I've been finally getting a little sun this weekend, and I'll be hopefully heading in to the office tomorrow too, if I'm feeling no worse than I am today, I'm getting there...
It would've been nice to get a glimpse of the summerplace this early on - it's a late Spring this year and I hear there's plenty of snow left too - but at least I'm saving on those unused car rental costs. Hopefully I'll be driving up with my parents in just a few weeks, and we'll have plenty of time to spare there then, both to work the land and fare well with good buddy A. Fingers crossed all things go according to plan this time!!!
The prospect of moving this aforementioned trip up one week again has been on my mind too, but I feel I'd jinx the trip that comes after if I do.
That's a big one too. A 30th Birthday special with an adopted cousin, to the country where he was born, for a six day tour of all that Poland has to offer - including Wroclaw, which is apparently known as Poland's Venice.
It can't be built on a sunken city too can it? Assume there's just lots of water.
Coincidentally my cousin's apparently currently sick now as well, and his mom had a stroke a few days ago. They're not doing so well.
Hope we're all recouped and strong until the next trip. The real one. The first and foremost for this season. Our immune systems also stronger thanks to this, ready for whatever that venture may throw at us. Finna be early mornings... possibly late nights... and hopefully lots of fun.
This one... maybe it was all just a fever dream after all.