Voice of the DBA

Tag: vacation

  • Flying Halfway Around the World to Australia

    I leave tonight for Australia. I was in London 3 days ago, so this will complete my halfway around the world trip when I time travel tomorrow and skip Tuesday. I’ll arrive in Sydney on Wednesday morning.

    I am very lucky and I appreciate the chance to go back down under for work. I have a few seminars I’d delivering with fellow Redgaters, MVPs, industry experts, and Octopus Deploy engineers. I’ll be busy these days:

    That’s next week, but I’m heading down early to recharge a bit. My wife is traveling with me to Sydney, where we’ll spend a few days later this week. She’s never been to that city, and I have literally been there for about 53 hours. We’re looking forward to some sightseeing, hiking around, and enjoying the Australian hospitality.

    We’ll also take a few days in Brisbane before I go to work, checking out the Gold Coast and seeing a few friends. I’m looking forward to going back, as I enjoyed 4 days there before the pandemic.

    This should be a good break from work before a busy week. I’ll be lightly blogging a few things, but mostly enjoying this break on the other side of the world.

  • Starting a Wild Stretch of Travel

    Today starts a wild stretch of travel for me. I land in London today, having left the US after coaching the final volleyball tournament of the season yesterday. I’ll spend the week in London for the Redgate Summit, with a quick trip to the office for a day to see some colleagues. I return home Friday and then leave Monday for Australia.

    That doesn’t sound too crazy, but I’ll be back in London the first week of June and on the road most of the time until then. My schedule:

    • Apr 15-19 – London
    • Apr 19-22 – Denver
    • Apr 22-May 10 – Australia
    • May 10-May 13 – Denver
    • May 14-20 – New York
    • May 20-28 – Denver
    • May 28-30 – Chicago
    • May 30-Jun 1 – Denver
    • Jun 1 – June 15 – UK and EU

    Then I’m home. At least I think I’m home for a few weeks. Nothing planned yet, but things might change.

    It’s not all work. My wife and I will take about 8 days to of holiday in AUS, and another 6 in the EU. The NY trip is to see my daughter graduate college.

    Overall, it’s a wild time, it will be hard, but also very exciting.

    My plan is to rest regularly and work out regularly, likely with walking and biking so I’m not overloading myself, but not sitting still either. I’ll be looking to drink water and eat lots of salads and proteins as well, trying to limit the carbs, though I’m sure I’ll indulge a few times. I’m also packing lots of vitamins to try and keep myself healthy through this stretch.

    Hopefully I don’t drop any balls along the way.

    BTW, think this thing will get from Denver to the UK?

  • When Are Your Breaks?

    As I work through 2024, I found myself doing a little more vacation planning this year than in previous ones. In 2022 I traveled quite a bit, but my wife went with me often. We went to Europe 5 times that year and added quite a few vacation days around my work trips. My wife thought that was a great year.

    Last year, 2023, was different. I traveled more (36 trips), with most of them being short. When I traveled that much, I wanted to end trips quickly and get back home. I learned that was too many, and also too disruptive for life. I got behind on things I needed to do at home, my wife went with me less because many trips were all work, and I lacked energy from the pace of moving all over the world.

    As a result, my boss and I are more closely watching my travel schedule, and I’m consciously working to ensure I take some breaks between trips. Part of that is doing some planning. So far this has me reducing the number of trips (10 in H1), but also including 3 good-sized vacations away from work during that time.

    Note: don’t feel too sorry for my travel load. I’ll get a holiday each in the US, Europe, and Australia.

    I know a lot of people like to schedule their vacations at similar times each year. The end-of-year holidays are often a time when many people travel, but I know some people who take time every June, others every August, often corresponding with school breaks for children, family reunions, or some other event.

    When do you like to take your vacation? Are you a many-long-weekends-through-the-year person? Do you go on one long trip a year? Love holidays to get away or stay home and work because work is quiet?

    I don’t know if it matters, but I’m always interested in what others do and why. I prefer more, shorter vacations, but convince me why your long trip is better. Tell me the amazing things/places you’ve done/seen. Maybe I’ll get some ideas for a future trip.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • More Vacation

    It’s getting close to the end of the year, and I’m trying to take off a few days here and there to close out the year. It’s been a long year, and I don’t want to leave any behind if I can avoid it. It’s always good to get away from work, and I have worked on accepting that view.

    This week I’m back in New York to visit my daughter again and see some of the last few volleyball matches I’ll see her play.

    See you next week.