Eva Wong

I'm an idiot. I've been so for eight months...

2009-07-31T22:24:00.003+01:00

I had this plan, this plan to save a huge amount of money over three years so I can take eighteen+ months off to go travel round the world. I had a goal of seventeen grand (was originally fourteen) but seventeen grand over three years of roughly 450 put away each month. At first it wasn't so bad, then couple months rolled on and it was getting pretty tough, few more months on and I just got myself into a depressive state and yet I managed to keep believing this was the only way for what I think would be an awesome time of my life.

I then had some advice from Helin to go down a freelance route where I can save bucket load of money in a short amount of time. Which means I could cut my monthly savings (and spend more) then work my ass off for six to seven months as a freelancer before going on to travel round the world.

At first the thought eased me. Cutting my monthly saving means I can buy some new cloths and get a new pair of shoes as currently I have a pair with holes the size you can fit your hand through. I was delighted at these thoughts of extra money but I had to understand the drawbacks of being a freelancer. Sorting through all the dreadful paperwork but most importantly, leaving people I enjoy working with. Now I'm a people person and I love my work because of the people I work with. And lately I’ve been feeling bad of how I’ve been treating my mates, because I’ve been frustrated with saving money my friends have been getting the raw end of me. I'm such an idiot.

Anyway this American dude starts giving some real sound advice as I poured all the details about my plans, he pointed out the obvious that I’ve been ignoring for the past several months; I was unhappy while I’m saving. This guy is from New York; I'll call him Dirty Uncle Leo, as he likes to refer to himself. As he continued to talk, I really started to listen and it was repeating in my head until bing! I suddenly realized how much of an idiot I've been for the past several months.

So basically to end this, my plans have now changed to...
Be happy. I will still travel round the world, but I’m gona do it at my own pace instead of doing it all in one go. Hell I don’t even know if I would like to take a year or more out and travel like a hardcore hippy. So I’m gona do little tasters, go around Europe for a bit, then start making bigger plans and go further, maybe move abroad, work there while I travel around that continent... yeah...

So I'm gona go and buy that camera I’ve been meaning to get for months and book that holiday to see my friend in Prague and look at going to enjoy my winter in Sweden.

My world has suddenly changed and I feel much happier.
Thanks Helin, and thank you Dirty Uncle Leo.

Trying for a come back, lets see how long this will last.

2009-07-19T11:15:00.002+01:00

I should really beat myself for not keeping this blog in good order, well i don't feel guilty, in fact i feel way much better having such a huge gap of doing nothing. Chill out time is over however and i had difficulty finding the enthusiasm i once had, so I've been feeling low the past few weeks. This is where a good ol' mate will do ya good, after having a lovely chat with my best mate, she quickly put me back onto the track where i almost lost my grip on. Well just got to figure out what i want to say next time but for now, i have nothing interesting to say.

... Maybe i should mention a book i recently bought First-Time Around the World by Rough Guides. Good stuff. I also bought a world map and eyeing over the new STA Travel site, coming from a Designer myself, i'm well impressed with the graphics and ease of use, good job peeps! and I've decided to go for a compact digital camera over an SLR which i will explain later.

Top Gear - Vietnam special

2009-02-10T21:06:00.014Z

Traveling has constantly been on my mind, influencing everything i do that even my friends have recommended me to watch the special episode of Top Gear. It was aired weeks ago and i missed my chance on BBC iPlayer. But nothing can escape the claws of Google. I don't have many favorite programs on TV but i do enjoy the occasional episode of Top Gear and i was looking forward to this as it was about Vietnam, East Asia.

Top Gear season 12 Episode 8 vietnam special

I started to think... rent a motorcycle for a week or two... travel up and down the coast of Vietnam... armed with my trusty DLSR... yeeeeah :]

'Oh sweaty hairy butt! this sucks!' to air fist pumping 'Yeah!'

2009-02-09T20:44:00.006Z

Yep, I've been a little low the past week hence why i haven't blogged recently. The daunting heavy thoughts of saving heaps of money and sacrificing lots of luxuries for three long years has really bummed me out. I always knew about the task at hand but this suddenly hit me like a big hairy butt sitting on my face. This. Seriously. Sucked. I tried to inspire myself by reading a bit about Chiang Dao Nest, a place recommended by a fellow colleague at work but unfortunately for this moment it didn't work. So i decided to sulk and Stumbled across the internet wasting my time...

An hour and twenty seven minutes later...

I've just had a chat with a friend who's currently on his travels with his fiance and i got to say its cheered me right up! Chris, my friend you're thousands of miles away and yet you still put a smile on this sloppy face :] Thanks ol' pal!

Chris is... well he's a great buddy! He looked after me when i started in AKQA and essentially i was his little munchkin apprentice and thanks to him i settled into work very well. I returned back to Chris and Lauren's blog of their adventures in New Zealand and also looking through some wonderful picturesque photos they've taken and I'm BACK! *fist pumps air* Inspired as ever!

Not so snow angel

2009-02-02T14:26:00.014Z

I'm sure you will find on this day, everyone will mention about the white fluff. Well its hard to miss, it's everywhere! I attempted to make it into work this morning, i walked for about five minutes then tripped on what seems to be a hole (i wasn't sure what it was, it was completely covered in snow) anyway i did a flat on face plant in the snow, after a muffled sigh i rolled around to get back up. I looked down at my imprint and it looked like a failed attempt to make a snow angel. I walked back home.

I wish I'd taken photos of my accident but i wasn't prepared to go back out into the snow. Pretty isn't it.

DSLR Dilemma

2009-02-01T00:49:00.007Z

At work i sit in between two male designers, ones a senior designer, Jamen and looks like 'V' from the film V for Vendetta and the others an associate designer, Tom who's recently joined AKQA and he looks... well... er... ginger. I'm fond of them both and enjoy their company at work. Recently i've caught a glimpse of their photos on each others monitors and I'm friggin impressed, literally blown away with the quality of their photographic skills. They also speak a lot of geeky camera jargon i don't understand but its pretty obvious they're both into their photography.

Sitting in between these two chaps have got me thinking and now I'm in a dilemma choosing between a Digital SLR or a Digital SLR Compact. Originally i was planning to buy a Compact DSLR for my travels, like the Canon Powershot G10. Its a powerful enough camera to take nice photos and i could possibly attach lenses for decent special effects, but what's so great is how compact and lightweight it is. Now that my eyes have been exposed to beautiful photography between Jamen and Tom's photos, its almost making me regret my decision of planning to purchase a compact DSLR. Because I'm only going to travel once i want to capture my experience the best i can without having to do much editing or photoshoping. So now im thinking of buying a full on DSLR, compared to the compact version, a DSLR is heavier and very clunky to travel with but it opens out to a range of lenses which captures the most unique of photos, a DSLR also avoids having so much noise in its photo where as a compact usually does.

I came across this

and this video which gave me ideas on creating some photographic time-lapse projects while i travel, on those days i wont have much to do i can escape for a little while with a book and some music and relax in one place as i leave my camera to do all the work or i can walk around the city capturing the buzz of it all. Yet again depending on what type of camera i get, it will effect the quality of the shots...

I'm going to bounce and bombard the two with questions like a ping pong ball, since it's their fault for exposing my eyes to such amazing photography and forcing me into this dilemma.

Animaniacs - Nations Of The World

2009-01-31T22:02:00.005Z

Travel plan phase one

2009-01-31T19:13:00.001Z

Honesty when i first thought about traveling i didn't have a clear idea of what to do. I didn't take or do well in geography at school. You can point anywhere on the global map and nine times out of ten i would get it wrong and yes i can really be that stupid. Anyway, after many months of pondering and faffing about i came across these main issues. They're in no particular order

1. Where to go in the world
2. How long will i go for
3. How much money i need
4. When to go
5. What to do when I'm out there

The best way i found to understand what i wanted to do was just do my research and gather as much information about traveling. Over time i noticed all the information started to mold into something i can see and understand and that's when i jumped in and started sculpting it into a travel plan.

So to begin with I browsed the internet generally checking out travel sites like STA Travel and Lonely Planet, it's full of useful information and links which was starting to give me vague ideas of what i could do. I then moved onto travel blogs and read about travelers experiences, i found lots of tips and tricks of the trade and even more links through reading these blogs. Sometimes when i find researching on the internet a little too distracting (like checking out your Facebook and watching YouTube videos) i went out into a local STA Travel branch and cleared the selves of free brochures (some of these you can download from their website) These were great as they cover a lot of the issues and also giving a thorough overview of each continent and i could scribble down notes and highlight interesting snippets of information. But the most exciting part was asking people about traveling like where they've been, how much things cost, what they did etc.. it was really fun as some shown me photos and videos, sharing funny stories, getting personal recommendations, sharing their travel blog address, crowding around a screen and looking at the map together. Its surprising what you can discover about a person and they just become that much more interesting plus you have a new friend!

Now i have this massive mold of information floating about in my head that I'm slowly gathered over the months, there's still lots of questions i needed to ask but i felt comfortable enough to start planning. This is when i started sculpting my travel plan.

1. Where to go in the world
Would be handy to have big sexy map of the world and a box full of pins. initially I'm thinking to start from the UK and fly to East Asia, traveling around Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, then off to Australia, checking out the east coast and then New Zealand, San Francisco, Vancouver in Canada and then back to the UK. Then depending on circumstance, I'm thinking about making a quick tour around europe.

2. How long will i go for
Well if I'm going to travel around the globe i might as well stay and absorb as much of it as i can. I'm definitely thinking of lasting twelve months and hoping to last out another six months on top if i can. My plan at the moment is to check out East Asia over six months, then Australia over a month (hopefully two) then visit New zealand for a few weeks and San francisco for one week then (depending on outside circumstances) stay in Vancouver, Canada for roughly 3 months. The extra option of the additional six months I'm keeping completely open but i would like to travel around europe for just over a month.

3. How much money i need
This question is like finding the holy grail, i need to do more research into daily costs per place i stay. I noticed that staying in East Asia is significantly cheaper than Australia (which is why i decided to stay there longer) I might be completely wrong but I'm looking at £600 per month in East Asia and around £1500 per month for australia, £1000 a month for New Zealand, £300 in San Francisco and £1000 month for Canada then £1000 a month around europe. So that adds up to £11,900 *faints* Thats not including the round the world flight ticket which is another £2000 which brings the total to £13,900 *dies*

4. When to go
Well its a good idea i roughed out how much i need because then i can figure how much i have to save and that will decide when i'll go. I rounded up the figure to £14,000 and broken it down into three years (i can get a discount card if i travel under the age of 26) that accounts to saving £400 a month *faints*
So in three/four years i need to save £350/400 per month to do what i want to do *sweats*

5. What to do when i'm out there
I have a huge list of exciting things to do thanks to research, but mostly i'd like to go Scuba Diving in Thailand and Australia, check out the temples Angkor in Cambodia, Sky dive in New Zealand, tour around San Francisco and hopefully, if my family moves to Canada, spend some time with the family there. Im keeping a keen ear of peoples recommendations, noting what to see and do etc... But i'm also considering volunteering in East Asia and work in Australia and Canada to make the money stretch a little more so i can travel longer.

So there it is, my rough travel plan. Gold isn't it. Well i still have a lot more to take into consideration and many more questions i need to ask, but i will leave that for another post. My fingers are hurting.

Brain farts of happiness

2009-01-30T20:09:00.001Z

I've recently been ill and i don't often catch a cold and to prove i'm almost invincible i haven't visited a doctor for years. The last time I've visited a doctor was to remove my tonsils when i was a kid. I think removing my tonsils helped protect me from catching any colds or viruses lingering around you dirty people. Anyway, i caught a cold and i was trapped in bed, coughing, heaving, sneezing, nose running, sweating, headaches, dribbling... just all round suffering. I was left trapped in bed and the only thing keeping me company was my thoughts. I had a good long conversation with myself over a course of four days. That's many hours of thinking and brain farting.

Like my previous post, i was reflecting on my life and where i'm at and as a result i felt happier, even in my sorry state of suffering. In my head i was looking through a list of people I've met over the years while at the same time having flashbacks of momentary embarrassing moments. i realized i love a lot of people and i'm such a lucky bum for having all these great relationships, really enjoying my day to day life because of these amazingly funny and loving bunch.

i couldn't help but smile.

What do you want to do if you was my age?

2009-01-29T22:02:00.008Z

Firstly i like to admit writing is not a strong skill of mine, in fact its the weakest. I've never kept a diary and i avoided blogging. So why have i decided to start blogging after all this time avoiding to do so? Well I've been doing a lot of thinking recently, well more like reflecting. Here's a quick over view of the past five years;
5. Finished college, best two years of my life, i blossomed and met my best friend. 4. University. Met awesome students from around the world. Inspired by people. 3. University. Worked in Subway Sandwiches and smelt entirely of Pizza. 2. University. Bum... actually have to find a job!... London looks nice 1. Moved to Canterbury and worked in London. Wasted my year traveling back and forth.

It was very academic and being the goody two shoes i kept my head down and studied my way through University even though it was intensely dull at times. I joined an exhibition in London with help from my university and luckily i got spotted by someone from AKQA where i now work today. So that was it really, i studied, did well, got job, its awesome and London life is buzzing... now what? Well every year i subconsciously set myself a goal like milestones set along an imaginary path. Let see what we have;
i. Achieve academic qualifications - check
ii. Move to the capital - Check
iii. Work in a company i actually want to work at - Big fat check!
iv. If found work, concentrate on advancing your career - Check
v. Settle down - Che... whoa whoa whoa

*presses rewind button*

Settle down? usually people in their late thirties settle down and i'm twenty two, i still got a good decade and a half before i even think of placing my feet up. 'So what shall i do?' i reflected on myself. I needed a new milestone to distract my subconsciousness from drifting afar. So i asked a load of people the same question but rephrased it to 'What do you want to do if you was my age?' I got answers ranging from 'Don't waste your money on booze, save your money' to 'I'd bugger off and go traveling' and that's what i've been doing; I'm saving money to go traveling.

When it comes to traveling there is a lot to think about and a lot has been passing through my mind. So thought i'd document some of these thought trails and hope it'll be an interesting read.

Finally... or Beginningly...

2009-01-28T23:30:00.000Z

Being a Designer can be a pain up the designers own bum. Its fine designing for other people as you can understand and represent them in a way the designer see best fit. But when it comes to a Designer working on their own stuff such as setting up this page, it can be a real bummer. Like a butt plug when you need to do a big poo. Every time i come to redesign my online portfolio i face the 'Blank Page' dilemma where i just sit there staring at the screen for several hours or falling for any distractions like looking at other people's portfolios.

I could have just stuck to the template and then accept with what i got and start blogging but knowing it will niggle at me like the devil standing on my left shoulder poking at me with its trident spear, i spent an hour choosing the colours for this page and now I'm quite happy with the results. A nice simple blog.

I can now concentrate on blogging.