Not As You Planned It

Planning and organising is always the most exciting aspect of any new venture. Whether starting a business, going on holiday, moving house or getting married, the planning is the best part. Why?

Everything and anything is possible when planning. Nothing can go wrong in the actual planning, expectations are built during planning but never left unfulfilled. Take holidays as an example.



Planning a holiday is lots of reading of guide books, brochures and websites, choosing destinations, transport, accommodation, activities, food…According to all of the pictures in the brochures and on line every beach is the best in the world with the whitest sand and the most amazing panoramic vista, and only the world’s most attractive people in the skimpiest of swimwear frequent this beach. This beach is now a “must see” part of your itinerary.



Hotels are always the most spacious and opulently decorated with the friendliest staff. Food is always the most decadent and an example of the finest cuisine, regardless of the restaurant.



It is only when the holiday starts that expectations and dreams will be left unfulfilled, the flight will be longer than expected, the weather will be slightly overcast on the days set aside to go to the beach, which at the time of year you have chosen appears to have more seaweed than models.



The food never looks the same as it did in the picture, and definitely does not taste as exquisite as you imagined, and not matter where you stand in the hotel room or what angle to position your camera there is no way you can make your allocated room look anywhere near as spacious as their website led you to believe. In fact the room will be so small that you will be left wondering how a professional photographer ever fit in the room to take the photo in the first place.



In the planning of your holiday no one ever got sick with 48hours of the most violent gastro you have ever seen. In the planning everyone in your travel group stayed friends, in fact the relationships were made even stronger as a result of the shared experience. In reality you end up in fights over the bartered cost of local taxi service, when it was close enough (for some people) to have just walked.



Moving house is the same. In the plans the removalist arrives on time, everything is packed and delivered to the right address, on the right day and without any damage. In reality the packing is not quiet complete when the removalists finally arrive, there are some belongings that just wont fit into a box no matter how many angles you try – and you try them all…more than once. On arrival at your new address there will be damage and it will always be items that were irreplaceable or completely impractical to repair.



Inexplicably, despite being in an unofficial drought, the heavens open just as the removalists start unpacking, so everything you own is now wet. And where did those three steps come from.



When you signed the mortgage/lease you could have sworn the front yard was completely level so removalist could get easy access to the front door. Now there are three blessed steps up from the driveway to the front porch. The removalists now want to charge you more for the extra workload. The way they manoeuvred the fridge up the steps means you are pretty sure it will need to be re-gassed. Despite your careful measuring of each of the rooms, none of your existing furniture fits properly, particularly the couch which won’t even fit through the door into the lounge because of the width of the passageway. Having just paid your deposit/bond there is no money available for a new couch. The couch now sits on the back veranda and the outdoor setting comes inside so there is something to sit on while watching TV. The TV of course now has reception issues which appears to only affect the channels you want to watch, and never has any problems with the infomercial channels.





The plan is to buy a new couch by the end of the month. But as we know, everything is better in the planning phase…