Preparing for departure

Well hello everybody - welcome to the Josem 2017 travel blog - this year Ruth and I are off to Portugal and Spain.


We have to get out of this cold weather and we're off on a driving holiday through Portugal & Spain.

We're very excited to have used the services of our travel agent, Belinda Gallenti of Travelinsights - Belinda guided us through previous exploits, and when you're on a good thing... well... we stick to them.

We have hired a car and have agreed to pay the exorbitant fee for picking up in Portugal and returning it in Spain.  I'm told we could have actually purchased a car in Portugal, and sold it in Spain, and instead of paying car rental fees, could have paid registration, insurance, duty, and capital gains tax (assuming we made a profit).  But we went with Belinda's recommendation and it should be soooo simple.  I'll let you know as we get to that part in our trip.

You may well be wondering why the F$%# would I put myself through this blogging caper all over again when I complained about it during last year's (http://josem2016travel.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/melbourne-departure.html) travel blog.

The sad fact is I had many readers of my blog who enjoyed following our travels and when they heard that Ruth and I are off again, they implored me (well suggested it anyway) that I repeat the effort.

So... here t'is.  Our daughter and beau are looking after the cats at home, and we're hoping they won't run too many parties while we're away.

One little difference this year - I am raising money for my favourite charity - The Ping-Pong-A-Thon See https://www.pingpongathon.com/page/cause

The charity has seven partner organisations they support to eradicate human trafficking, and particularly child exploitation.

I have a fundraiser page https://theglobalpong.raisely.com/julianjosem - I hope my readers can find their way to the page and be generous to fight this scourge on humanity.

The fun part of the fundraiser is to play ping pong as part of the "Global Pong".  Here I am getting in some practice before I depart.


Wow... look at that balance.  And yes... I'm rugged up because I'm still in Melbourne... It's been soooo cold.

Portugal... here we come!

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