Seeing friends going away all the time taking pictures from around the world I feel kind of sad for myself. My true sightseeing experiences seemed to stop long time ago when I entered secondary school in Hong Kong. Thanks to my parents I had the luxury and opportunities to pretty much travel to half of the world when I was between the age of 4 and 12. I have been working for almost 23 years now since graduation from university, and as I look back to 1987 I have not had one true holiday trip that I can claim to be for exploring the world outside my home town of Toronto. Excluding the long weekend 3 day trips taken in Ontario and Quebec occasionally I have not really gone on any genuine vacationing trips. The last two trips to Hong Kong were for wedding and there was nothing to see in Hong Kong any way except a side trip to Japan for four days on my way back to Toronto from Hong Kong in 2003; the trip before that in 1998 to Whistler was actually for a paid for company conference and I decided to tag along a few more days after that to visit my clients and friends there in BC; the trip taken in 1992 to California was solely for attending my brother's wedding and I stayed behind for a few more days to spend with my long time high school classmate from La Salle. That is it and nothing else. I do not know how people can afford going away every year, because a trip outside North America for a fortnight can easily cost one to two months worth of income. Can I live on ten months worth of income?? I do not think so! I did try very hard to save a much as I could for seven years and plan for a semi retired life after age forty five, but of course that dream has been shattered completely. Income wise, even though I am not making as much as I did in the late 90's, but it is still a fairly good living, but cash flow wise it is still tight when I try to accumulate six months worth of fixed expanse amount as emergency fund. I wonder if I will ever get to travel around the world again when I am still healthy and able. Chances are slim, I think. Sad eh???