We've Worked in... Italy

Another week, another big race for Agi. This time the North Face Lavaredo Skyrace in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy. Agi and her friend wanted to run this race so we were off to Italy!

We've Worked in... Italy

We started in Poland where we were staying with our friends. We drove from Poland into Germany, south through Germany, across a small sliver of Austria and finally into Italy. I had never been to Austria before and the scenery around Innsbruck was some of the most amazing I have ever seen; sweeping valleys and rugged peaks. Among the hills we could see gorgeous little churches that almost looked too perfect to be real.

Coming into Italy we started climbing up into the mountains and the gorgeous scenery continued. We arrived in Cortina D'Ampezzo after a mere 15 hours driving. The town is located in a valley so there are amazing views in every direction. We were staying in a lovely apartment in a traditional alpine style house. The views from the balcony were amazing.

Agi and I did some work when we arrived to make up for the day we lost on the road but we were tired so it was just triage. The next day we woke up and started work. Our friends walked with their kids down to the local bakery and brought back fresh pastries and coffee. It's a hard knock life.

In the afternoon we all went to Falzarego Pass and took the cable car up the mountain. You can see the view at the top of this post. I have never seen views quite like it. The mountain peaks are stark rock which look like fantasy fortresses built into the hills. The valleys are lush green forests and meadows. The weather was astonishing with bright blue skies and brilliant sunshine. Agi and I walked down the mountain with our friends' daughter. I got sunburned but it was a lovely afternoon.

Agi and her friend ran the Cortina Skyrace in the evening, a 25km trail run through the mountains. They had a great time and completed the race in 3h28m, just beating the 3h30m cut off time. I was exhausted after our long walk in the afternoon and Aga went to run a half marathon!

The next morning was more work before taking the kids to the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the afternoon. We went for another fantastic walk along the valley. We took tons of pictures. It's hard to take a bad photo in this region so I don't know how to choose amongst them! I will share one m0re panorama:

Another great trip enabled by freelancing. Get in touch if you would like to know how to have more trips like this.

Home Again, Home Again

As I have mentioned, we left Thailand recently. We have been visiting friends and family in the UK. Working freelance is great because we can be flexible with our hours and make time to see people.

We have been staying with my parents in the South West of England. They live in a wonderful little country town surrounded by fields and farms. As we have been out of the UK for about 2 years Agi and I have been experiencing the English countryside with fresh eyes. Everything is so green and fresh.

Unlike Thailand, it's possible to go for a walk here without sweating profusely. We have been taking advantage of this fact by going for walks in the afternoons. It's been a while since I went walking in the English countryside and I'd forgotten that cows like to chase you. I went walking one afternoon, happily listening to a podcast. I couldn't hear anything, but something made me turn around to see bout 20 cows running across the field towards me. I picked up the pace and jumped over the stile. I took a photo of the crowd that gathered. I think a zombie infestation wouldn't be dissimilar.

We mentioned our walks to our parents' 80 year old neighbour and he invited us on one of his walks. Just a short, 6 mile one; not like his "real walks". He does 10 miles every Sunday!

Being freelancers we could take the morning off so we went out with my dad and our neighbour. It was a fantastic walk. The area is truly beautiful. One place in particular struck me as something out of an Enid Blyton book. There was a small valley carpeted with buttercups. A small river snaked across the meadow with a beautiful wooden footbridge across it. I didn't take a photo because I'm an idiot. Agi made a friend though:

One of the reasons we have come back to Europe is because both of us want to be closer to our parents. Yesterday they wanted to go for a walk at the coast with me. Again, freelancing to the rescue! I could easily put my work on hold and go for a walk with the folks. We went to a nearby beach and had a walk with the dog followed by coffee and cake at a cafe on the cliffs. You can see a photo at the top of this article. Lovely!

All of this flexibility is enabled by freelancing. Get in touch if you'd like to know how to make your transition to freelancing.

We've Worked in... Pai

Part 3 of our grand farewell tour of Thailand. We went south to Phuket for a month, then our SCUBA trip, and after that we took ourselves up north. Neither Agi nor I had ever been to Pai in Northern Thailand but we constantly heard nice things about it. Was it as nice as people say?

We've Worked in... Pai

After our diving trip we flew up to Chiang Mai and stayed there for a couple of days. If you are ever there you should go to Blue Diamond The Breakfast Club. We went there for breakfast twice and dinner once. Their breakfast food is amazing and they have a range of baked goods, pastries and cakes with vegan and gluten free options. (There are also meat based options for carnivores like me).

From Chiang Mai we took the bus up to Pai. The road twists up and down through the hills and 762 sharp turns. I rarely get motion sickness but this journey almost got me. The views are great if you can concentrate on them!

Don't let this deter you though because Pai is a lovely town. When we arrived we went to the guesthouse we booked online. Agi really wanted a swimming pool and we had chosen our guesthouse for that reason. It turned out though that the swimming pool was actually 2.5km away on the other side of town and guests had access for free. Always read the small print!

The guesthouse owner was very understanding and helped us find replacement accommodation. We moved over to The Countryside Resort on the edge of town. It was absolutely beautiful; small houses spread out and surrounded by fields. They gave us a 20% discount because we wanted to stay for 3 weeks which was a great result. The cute little houses had sunroofs on top and most importantly, there was a swimming pool!

I don't know why Pai started to become popular but it is a major destination for backpackers. As a result two things have happened, one good and one bad depending on your point of view:

1. Most aspects of traditional Thai life have disappeared.
2. The town is small but has a ridiculous number of options for food and drink.

I have read some blogs that criticise the place but we loved our time in Pai. We were staying a little distance outside of the town which meant that it was very quiet. I get the impression that the bars in town get very busy and noisy in the evening. We rented a scooter so we could nip into town when we were hungry and then head back out to our quiet country residence! Lasagne, curry, noodles, whatever you want, it's there.

On a few days we went riding around the countryside on our scooter. The views were wonderful. Our accommodation had an open seating area where we worked most of the time. It was really nice to be surrounded by nature. On a few calls clients commented that it sounded like I was in a forest they could hear so many birds.

A few times we went to Fluid Swimming Pool (the pool we could have had access to with our original guest house!). We went there at 9am when it opened and we had the whole thing to ourselves. We would do some lengths and then work in their cafe for the rest of the day. They do really great coffee and sandwiches. Working there was a hell of a lot better than working in a factory or warehouse like I used to!

Pai was a lovely place to spend a few weeks. Another great trip enabled by freelancing. Get in touch if you'd like to know more.

Our First Proper Holiday

Part 2 of our grand farewell tour of Thailand. I've talked a lot about how we travel and work. I wrote a post about what it's really like. Agi and I feel that we don't miss out on anything by working while we travel. However, we both felt that we needed to take a real break. We decided to do a 4 day liveaboard diving trip in the Similan Islands. We booked our diving trip with Khao Lak Scuba Adventures. The company was recommended by one of Agi's friends and they were amazing. At the end of our month in Phuket they picked us up and took us to their centre in Khao Lak. After picking up our diving equipment we got on board Manta Queen 1.

We were given a briefing and met our shipmates. We would be spending our trip with people from England, Sweden, France, Germany, Ukraine and America. A nice multicultural mix. The boat left dock and while we slept the captain took us out to the Similan Islands. We woke up in the morning to see small islands out of our cabin window.

We had told our clients that we would not be available for the duration of our trip so we felt free to relax and enjoy. The next 4 days were amazing. Our routine was:

• Wake up and have coffee
• Dive
• Eat breakfast
• Relax for 2 hours
• Dive
• Eat lunch
• Relax for 2 hours
• Dive
• Eat a snack
• Relax for 2 hours
• Dive
• Eat dinner
• Relax until bed time

Nice!

The diving was excellent and we saw tons of things: barracuda, mantis shrimp, grouper, reef sharks, moray eels. There were 3 highlights:

• On a night dive I saw another diver shining a light on something. I went over to see what was happening. All of a sudden, a lobster came running over the coral towards me. I have seen lobster in tanks in shops and hiding in crevices while diving but I had never seen one free swimming before. It was amazing, it looked like an insectoid horse galloping across the coral!

• We spent most of our time on the boat but on one day they dropped us off at one of the islands so we could climb up to the view point for a look around. Tourist boats come every day from the mainland but they don't arrive until mid morning so we had the island to ourselves. The view from the top of the hill was spectacular, the photo is at the top of this post. The beach was one of the most amazing I have ever seen:

• Perhaps the main highlight was the first dive on which we saw Manta Rays. We had been told to look out for them so everyone was constantly scanning the area. We heard a diver banging on their tank which usually signifies something worth seeing. I looked to my left and saw a dark shape emerging out of the blue. The Manta was about 4m across and swam slowly towards me before angling upwards and swimming directly over my head. I saw its silhouette against the sun shining down through the water. After that, 2 more Mantas appeared and the 3 of them swam around us for the duration of the dive. Spectacular!

This was our first proper holiday since freelancing. We did no work whatsoever and loved it. How do you spend your holidays while freelancing? Get in touch and give me some tips!

Freelance is the Future

I have been advocating the freelance lifestyle on this blog for some time. I am genuinely happy with my work as a freelancer and I think a lot of other people would be happy as freelancers. I also advocate freelancing in person and if we meet and talk you'll find out! I wanted to share a few stories about friends who have recently made the transition to freelancing and what their experience has been like. (All names changed to protect the innocent).

Steve

I met Steve in my Thai class in Bangkok. Steve is a web developer and had been working for a web agency in Bangkok for a couple of years. A couple of months ago Steve messaged me. He had just been told he was probably going to be made redundant because the company was bankrupt. On top of that his girlfriend had recently become pregnant so he was understandably nervous! He knew I was a freelancer and wanted to talk to me about what it was like.

We met up for a beer and discussed the freelancing lifestyle, how to get clients and what rates to charge. He was a bit worried about how long it would take for him to ramp up his business as babies are not inclined to wait while their fathers get their finances in order!

I recently met up with Steve again and was delighted to hear that he was happier than he'd ever been at work. In his own words he'll "never go back". Steve had teamed up with his colleague and formed a partnership. They got in touch with all the contacts they had made and found a few clients who wanted to work with them. Steve is now working half the hours that he used to and making the same money. He is also at home to help his girlfriend and he can't wait to spend lots of time with his baby when it arrives.

Paula

Paula and I have been friends since high school. Paula is a graphic designer by day and an artist by night. She worked for years in very high pressure work environments and was always super stressed. Last year she quit her job and decided to start working freelance.  She wanted to earn enough by freelancing 50% of the week that she could afford to spend the other 50% focusing on her art.

I met up with Paula last weekend and she looked happier than I had seen her in a long time. She had used the contacts she made during her salaried career to pick up 2 big businesses as regular clients. These 2 clients pay her well enough that she can work half her time and create art the rest of the time. She is renting a studio where she goes on days that her clients don't have work for her. She seems extremely happy and I am glad to see my friend looking relaxed and healthy.

What's Your Point?

Freelancing is awesome!

In seriousness, I think this is demonstrative of the world we live in now. The opportunities for freelancing are many and the flexibility enables people to have more control over their lives. The 2 examples here were enabled by contacts made during a salaried career, and that is definitely an advantage. That said, contacts of any kind are beneficial. My main takeaway is to focus on talking to people and making more contacts. You never know where your next opportunity may come from.

If you would like to know more about getting started freelancing get in touch.