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| Blue Palace Resort & Spa, Greece. From Buzzfeed post below on swimming pools |
ON MY MIND
I think I have to come out of the closet. For so long I have been hiding it deep inside. It is not fair to you my dear readers. I have been in denial for so so long. I think I have come to terms with it now. I am one of them. No, not the 2%. No, not the 10% either. Definitely not the 47% any longer. I think I am an H.
A Hoarder. Oh Dear God, why did you make me this way? I was definitely born a hoarder, I did not become one. It must be from my childhood. My parents as kids went hungry under the Nazis in the Second World War. Oh oh, it is gettting deep now. I am telling you, my blogging is the best therapy for me, so…cathartic, it cleanses my soul! Where was I ? Oh yes, my parents. You would never meet two people so hell bent on saving for “you never know what the future holds, so you better have enough set aside to be ready, you do NOT want to go hungry”. You know, I heard this so often I used to tune it out. But it is ingrained in my pshyche. I am addicted to earning because, well, you never know, you just need to be “prepared”. Which is competely irrational and we all know it. But people do competely irrational things with their money and their miles/points you know! Thank God I do irrational things only with my miles/points:-) So, why this confession now? Well, I did it again. I swore sometime ago I would never see my miles/points balances go over 4 million ever again. And sitting in my Panera Bread hangout on Sunday morning (free coffee reward, still show five items in my loyalty card!) this number stared right in my face: 4,000,901. I could not believe it, it just snuck up on me. I am totally embarrassed of this number. Yes, you should burn burn fast. I should do the same. But….you know, you can never have enough lol! I certainly don’t have enough vacations obviously. And this blogging thing has complicated matters even more. So…it goes on. Again, I am NOT proud of this number. I would love to say I burned 4 million miles instead, believe me!!! Are you a hoarder? Please be out there, please tell me you understand my condition. I need some loving support or I will have to get a new therapist as she totally misdiagnosed me on this one. Maybe I can ask for a voucher from her?
In the interest of full disclosure, I do not hoard anything else, especially stuff. I have to brace myself I have to go to the mall tomorrow to buy a few things I need for my trip to Norway. I am scared of the mall, no terrified!
TBB proudly recommends to earn and burn. Do not become like TBB, he definitely has all sorts of issues to work on!
MILES/POINTS
Everything slows down in the weekend as most card pushing bloggers are fine tuning their affiliate links to attack everyone on Monday morning. I just had to slide that in;-)
For everyone who asked about the breakdown of my miles/points balances I just want to say that I am well diversified across many programs. Never ever put all your eggs in one basket is a very wise piece of advice!
TRAVEL
24 Amazing Pools You Neeed to Jump In Before You Die. From Buzzfeed. OH DEAR JESUS, I NEED A NEW MISSION IN LIFE, IS THIS IT? Ok bloggers, earn your cc app clicks. Any of these can be had with hotel points? (HT to TJ on Miles & Points)
The Strange Beauty of Salt Mines. From the Atlantic. This is one of the most visually stunning links I ever shared with you. MUST CLICK.
Mind-Blowing Smeared Sky Photography by Matt Molloy. From Bored Panda. Mind-blowing is an understatement!
22 Stunning Photos of the Beautiful World We Live in. From MustLook. WOW!!!!!
Would you Fly Inside a Plastic Bag? From Loyalty Lobby. This is a stunning pic! I have the exact same reaction as LL had. I am a very tolerant person but this religious thing is downright way too much even for moi, WTF!!!!!!
Life is Awesome. From theCHIVE.
ODDZ & ENDZ
10 Amazing Letters from US Presidents. From MentalFloss
10 Highly Guarded Vaults. From Listverse. KFC has one listed here, really?
Cat funny pics. From theCHIVE
If you like my blog please pass my blog link around to family/friends. You know I sure appreciate it!
George,
Thank you for creating this blog and keeping it current. My employer believes in finding the lowest cost flight and staying at the hotel nearest to the client, so I had thousands of points in 13 different programs but not enough in any one to do anything. That was 18 months ago, then I discovered FF blogs and credit cards. Now my wife believes I need an intervention.
Mark
I hear you, I can write a book about how easy it is to get sucked in. Interventions too, I certainly need one myself, the sooner the better:-)
Hey! That was an easy one. I haven’t looked at the other 23 pools, but the main one you posted is Blue Palace, an SPG Cat 6 property. I’d recognize that photo in my sleep! Only problem is it’s 20k points so a Starwood card signup only pays for one night. Though if you go Cash and Points, once you meet the spending requirement, you can get 3 Nights with a copayment of $540. Good drill… make it a bit tougher next time 🙂
-TMP 😉
That pool certainly looks stunning, even at 20k points per night. 3 nights at copay of $540 does not sound too bad. Certainly looks honeymoon worthy material!
Looks who’s advocating for credit cards now! -TMP 😉
Of course, she has a PhD:-)
I would recommend this blog to my friends and family, but as none of them are in on this hobby, I would then have to answer a dozen emails of “what the heck is this guy talking about?”
harvson3
Ok, I understand completely. Just have them only read the Travel section and the Oddz & Endz if they have time then. Thanks;-)
Time to get some friends that will appreciate this blog!
Yes, please all get some friends to like this blog so I can make Bent Offers crawl to me like bitches:-)
OnlineTravelReview had a lengthy “my latest App-o-rama” post
But it’s what the article DIDN’T contain that was most surprising….
Yeah, that was great sensible advice. Too bad most blog posts are puff pieces to pump affiliate links and nada else!
As a former flight attendant of 27 years (TWA) I wish I could of put almost all my passengers in a plastic bag.
ps I have seen weirder things on flights from JFK to “the Veeve”/ like a L1011 with 236 Hasidim bowing in unison for na hour as the sun rose crossing the Atlantic. The announcement that flight was “will the passenger who did NOT order a Kosher meal, please ring your flight attendant call bell.” and sooooo much more. Valium please
I love, no…LOVED your comment! Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment, glad to have you here!
>>>>>>>”will the passenger who did NOT order a Kosher meal, please ring your flight attendant call bell”
Ok, priceless comment again! Thank you also!
Is that a picture of the Bubble Boy on vacation?
Actually no this ain’t no boy. It’s a grown man doing this. It must be so awfully hot inside!
Jason Steele really needs to create a bidding market for his link-o-rama posts. Is TPG really the blogger willing to pay the most for this sort of linkfest?
I guess most bloggers just think outright plagiarizing is too much even for them?
39. Ties the all time record. I bet they did it on purpose to not hit 40. That was a dizzying amount of links, my eye sockets are feeling violated.
If it wasn’t for the Boston events I would go on a mega rant but…it seems so irrelevant now with so much more important things to ponder.
50-fucking-bukz will never come out of his freelancing panties. Scum of the travel world.
Hi,
I read your articles and found that they are very interesting.
All your posts have inspired me, I’m doing a website about travel,
I’d love to link to your website. you can visit my website over at: http://www.aroundvn.com
If possible, please contact me via e-mail:
haiauchamchi@gmail.com
Wish you a happy day and growing blog
Thanks!
well at least you have been able to saying it and admit it 🙂 first step. I noticed i was a hoarder a few years go but when we had to drastically sell the family home i learnt to bin stuff. it was hard but it had to be done