leaving on a jet plane

As you might have noticed I've been rather absent from the blogging world the past few months. So what's been going on in my world recently. We spent Christmas in Germany with hubby's family this year which was different but really nice. As I've mentioned other years, Germans have their big celebration on the 24th. They also eat different food depending on which part of Germany they are from. It's not like in Ireland where pretty much everyone eats turkey! We ate the fish, carp, this year on the 24th and then had turkey on the 25th. Basically there was a lot of food and eating but that's probably the same wherever you are!

At the end of December we flew to Dublin and spent around ten days there which was also really great. It ended up being a jam-packed visit which often happens when I try to fit in meeting relations, various friend groups and of course as much family time as I can. My sister and I have birthdays quite close so we had a joint party at a local tapas bar which worked out well and was fun!

January and February are generally my least favourite months and the weather here has been pretty miserable lately; rainy, dark and cold. But the good news is that I've got a lot of traveling come up.

Last weekend I went to Amsterdam (and I found it very cool that I only needed to pop on a train) to meet a good Canadian friend who I hadn't seen in two years. It was so great catching up!

And next week I am off to Australia with my family to visit my brother for over two weeks! It will be my second time in Oz but first time in Perth. And we'll also be going to Bali which should be amazing. Years ago I spent nearly a full year living and traveling around Thailand, Australia and New Zealand with a really good friend. She ended up meeting her future husband on that trip and she now lives in Sydney. We skype and whatsapp but don't get to see each other often due to the crazy distance but she is going to come to Bali to while I'm there, so I'm really excited about that too!

And at Easter the hubby and I are going to Ireland for a family wedding which will also be fun. So a lot of traveling and trips!

It's been really good actually keeping busy to take my mind off the stress of the previous months of fertility treatments. We plan on doing another round of IVF but probably not until April after all the trips. I still dread the thought of going through it all again to be honest but I hope that by that time I will be physically and mentally strong enough to face it again! In the meantime I'm just going to try to enjoy my travels.

I'm just not so keen on the long haul flight! We'll be traveling for 23 hours. I've bought one of those travel pillows and loads of new books so hopefully the time won't pass by too slowly!

Any tips on how to survive long distance flights?