Bad Start to The Year? Relax.. It’s Not The End of The World

So, did anyone start 2014 with some awesomeness? Lucky you guys! Me not. I can say that I had a bad start to the year. Yup, that is true! If you had a bad start, read my story below. I hope your year started better than mine.

I missed two flights already this year! The first one was my flight from Jakarta to Bali. I can’t remember why I thought my flight was scheduled for Jan 25 and not Jan 23. So on Jan 23, I was on the way to meet a friend of mine, because I had a craft related project to talk about. That was almost 1 pm and I was curious about my electronic ticket, I needed to prepare it for the 25. When I scrolled down my e-mails to find the e-ticket and finally found it and opened the email attachment, I saw the date was Jan 23 and the flight was at 4pm-ish.

I was in the middle of Jakarta’s traffic and hadn’t really packed anything. It was impossible to go back to my house, pack my stuff and go to the airport! I would definetely miss the plane! It was also impossible to go to Bali without bringing anything except my wallet and my umbrella (I dont think I would have been able to arrive on time). Doh! This was the first time in my life that I made a mistake about the date of a flight.

I broke my Sony NEX-5 camera (and I was really sad about it!). No I didn’t accidentaly dropped it somewhere. I just accidently left my camera in a plastic bag that was unfortunately full of water. I was so stupid, because I was feeling really cold after driving motorbike in the the rain, I decided to ride quickly, because I was only a hot shower ride away from home. I definitely forgot to unpack and sort out my stuff, which was probably wet (or slightly wet) because the heavy rain. Instead I left it all ‘underwater.’

Oh, I told you earlier that I missed two flights, right? You read about the first one. Ready to hear the second one? So, I stayed at my friends house in Ubud. I decided to get an early morning flight, because it was the cheapest option. It was around Rp350,000 for a one way ticket from Bali to Yogyakarta. The flight was at 7.45 am. I did a fast calculation about time. Ok, I needed to be at the airport around 6.45 am, so I needed to leave my friends house at 5.45 am at the latest (Ubud to the airport is around one hour). I don’t have a problem waking up early in the morning if I have to. So on that day, I woke up around 5 am, got ready, said goodbye to my friend. At 5.20 am I was already on my bike and ready to drive to the airport. Everything was on schedule. I had already arranged to get the motorbike guy to meet me at the airport for 6.30 am to pick up the bike. And… Guess what? After probably 400 metres, I realised I had a flat tire. Yes, my bikes back tire was completly fucked. Flat! Oh well.. What can I do except pop in to my friend house and say hello again, because everything is closed at 5:20 am.

When I finally arrived in Yogyakarta after the flat tire drama, I felt quite relieved to be back to a place that I called home. After five peaceful days in Yogyakarta, on Valentine’s Day, I woke up with a big surprise! Yogyakarta coated in ash! Yes, literally! It was so difficult to go anywhere (especially if you ride a motorbike, a car would probably have been better) because the visibility was really bad. We had to wear masks to prevent the volcanic ash going into our lungs. We also had to wear glasses to cover up our eyes. It was not really comfortable. Last but not least, we needed to repeatedly clean our house and there is still ash everywhere.

Thats a pretty bad start to the year, isnt it? I am proud of myself that I was able to get through all those bad moments without lots of tears! I believe that things are getting better and there will be a lot of awesomeness happening this year! Besides those unlucky moments, I feel lucky and so grateful to be one of the finalist for Indonesia Skyscanner Bloscars Travel Award 2014. Read here to know more about it! I already have several trips scheduled for the upcoming months, which is great and I can’t wait to share all the stories with you!