Hungry Planet

The closure of 2014 sees me wrapping up one very major part of my life. I have written about this before so you can go back to my article about Stacked Cakes to see why I am wrapping up the cake business. This past weekend I finalised my very last paid cake order. So after more than five years, thousands of kilos of chocolate and icing, hundreds and hundreds of cakes, many happy clients, the odd unhappy client (you can’t please them all), a case of tendonitis, many laughs, a few cake disasters and the odd tear shed I am finally done! Now to work out what of my copious amounts of cake equipment I will keep for hobby purposes and what I need to sell, it’s going to be a big job.

So apart from that I am currently on countdown. To what you may ask? Well I have seven working days left before the Christmas break and whilst I am very excited to be heading to the coast with the family over the holidays I am also looking forward to a change of jobs in the new year.

It isn’t as much a change of the actual job I do, I will still be a travel agent. It is more a change of location. I currently commute around 180kms a day and to be honest it is too far and has worn me down. So when a position become available at Queanbeyan City Travel and Cruise which is a 17 minute drive from my house I jumped at the opportunity.

Although the actual job of selling travel is the same, I do need to psyche myself up for a change of pace. My current agency is pretty slow paced. We sell travel but we are not going to be winning any top sellers awards any time soon. Queanbeyan City Travel and Cruise on the other hand are a top selling agency for many travel suppliers. Every year they take out the top awards in the industry so I know that I need to gear up to be busy.

It’s quite exciting really. I have worked in busy agencies before and there is such a different vibe. The consultants really motivate and play off each other. The reps are always offering incentives to sell. Achievement awards always come with prizes that predominantly consist of travel and although it is a more stressful job you feel productive and energised.

My new office and new boss, ever the winners of major travel sales awards

I will admit I have been cruising by the last few years and it has been starting to get to me. When I left the travel industry I had no intention of ever returning. I had been burned by working in management for bosses who had no apparent people skills or thought for their staff. After a year of making cakes for a living I did miss travel but wasn’t ready to go back to a high pressure role. So I went back to the store I started in the industry at as it was a known quantity to me. I can’t complain about the lack of stress in my life, it is nice but it is also demotivating to have long periods of boredom. I am ready to join the real world again.

It also means I can keep running my home based agency in my little town of Bungendore which I currently do after hours. It doesn’t generate a tonne of business but it is a little extra income and it is nice assisting the local folk with their travels. My Bungendore Travel website is currently getting a major overhaul by my genius web designer hubby, it is so modern I am not sure the town of Bungendore are ready for it but it will be going ahead in the next few weeks.

So new things for the new year is always fun to look forward to and I will continue bringing you food and travel adventures through 2015 with the blog. I hope my readers have a lovely Christmas and exciting plans for 2015 to look forward to and if you don’t have exciting plans, something that lights a fire under you bum get some cause you only live once.