4 days in the Garden City…how lucky are we! This year’s World Veterinary Congress was held a stone’s throw away from Hong Kong and many of our friends from Hong Kong were also able to attend so we knew we were in for a fun week. What we hadn’t expected was the level of fun. I have not laughed so hard in a long time. I feel that when likeminded people are together it is easy to relax and the conversation flows. We are all vets so we never run out of stuff to talk about and yes, it may be mainly work related, but it reminds us that we are all in this wonderful yet stressful profession together, and thus never truly alone even if it may feel that way sometimes.
Not having set days off and working weekends sometimes (and I say only sometimes) pays off. I was randomly given 5 days off in a row – Monday to Friday without even having requested it. At the time I was only working 14 shifts a month and my boss did not insist I work a particular number per week, so in the month of July I felt like I was given a little mini-holiday for free and when there is an opportunity to travel or explore, I am hard pressed to give it up. After arriving back from Bali only 5 days previously I felt a little overwhelmed at the thought of another international trip so myself and Chris settled on Macau.
We have been trying to get to Bali for at least 2 years, but Indonesia is a large country. We have always wanted to include Komodo National Park, which gets a bit difficult, as flights from Hong Kong into Bali and on to Flores never match up, so a day is needed on either side for travel. This year we finally got our asses into gear and booked a 10-day trip. A month before we were set to travel, myself and Chris decided to get married, we planned our wedding around this holiday and made it our ‘honeymoon’.