My Sabbatical » Planning

See the World For Even Less

Scott — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:21:45 +0000

Source: RussBowling at flickr

In my last post, See the World for $5,000, I outlined a 6 month trip to less travelled places in Asia that would run about $4,400 as an extremely cheap way to see the world.

I then realized I have enough air miles to fly for free. So my budget actually works out to:

Lodging – $300
Food – $120
Travel – $75
Internet/Phone – $30
TOTAL – $525 per month reasonable budget

SUBTOTAL FOR SIX MONTHS – $3,150

Plus plan ticket to get there – $0

TOTAL FOR SIX MONTHS – $3,150

Now I realize not everyone has a lot of frequent flyer miles for a trip like this. But with a book such as Chris Guillebeau’s “Frequent Flyer Master“, you might be able to get plenty of miles just by applying for a few credit card offers.

This leaves a lot of leg room for more luxuries on the trip. Being $1,850 below the $5,000 target budget,indeed one can double the average nightly cost of lodging to $20 per night, and still be under $5,000 for six months. That seems like a sensible place to splurge, since for an extra few dollars one can get hot water, air conditioning, television, or WiFi Internet. Although these things often come at the lower priced places too.

Note: Purchasing Chris’ book through that link earns sabbatical.me a bit of revenue, to help fund my next sabbatical. Thank you in advance.

Things to Know About Europe Before You Go

Scott — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 23:50:27 +0000

Source: kevindooley at flickr

Many North Americans have dreams of “traveling to Europe”. For some it’s a romantic tour through Italy, and for others its relaxing at a vineyard in the South of France. We all know someone who has been to Paris and loved it, or backpacked through Europe as a young adult. I’m not saying it’s everyone’s dream – it doesn’t have to be – but if you gave 100 people $1 million and asked them to list everything they were going to do, a large percentage would include a trip to Europe on the list.

So if you are planning a trip to Europe for the first time, here’s what you need to know before you go:

1. Don’t Try to Do Too Much

If you arrive in Paris for a one week vacation, you might be tempted to do multiple things in each day. You might think since the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomph, shopping along the Champs D’Elysee, and the Notre Dame cathedral are within a short walk and/or subway ride of each other, you can try to do all that in a single day. To which I say, what’s the point? If you go to Paris for only a week, you’re going to miss out on a lot of good stuff. Don’t try to do too much and enjoy doing less.

2. Don’t Try to Travel Too Much

The other temptation, related to the first, is that you think you can see several cities in a single trip too. Heck, you can fly into London, take the train to Paris, fly down to Nice, drive over to Monaco, do an afternoon in Italy, take the train back to Cannes, end up in Barcelona… and end up seeing nothing of all those great cities. Pick a city (or two) and enjoy your time.

3. They Speak English, But You Should Try to Learn

It’s the stereotypical tourist story, played out on The Amazing Race every once and a while: a couple finds themselves in a taxi, dealing with a non English speaking driver. After some frustration in communication, they exclaim “I don’t understand why doesn’t he speak English?!?” Don’t be like that. In my experience, most people in Europe who deal with tourists speak English. But you will occasionally encounter someone who does not. Bring your patience, make a good humored attempt at trying to communicate, but don’t allow yourself to get frustrated if they can’t understand you. Smile more. Like everything in life, look at it as a learning opportunity. And even if they DO speak English, try to speak a little of the local language (when ordering in a restaurant perhaps). Uno agua fria, por favor. It goes a long way to not being one of “those” types of tourists.

4. Plan, But Don’t Over-Plan

There is such a thing as overplanning. And with the internet and all the great information in guidebooks, it can be very easy to plan your trip down to the last detail. Identify in advance things that are important to you, so that you be sure to get them in. For example, The Louvre and most other European museums are closed on Tuesdays, and so that might be a good day to go to Versailles instead. But Versailles will be busier on Tuesday than a Wednesday as a result. Allow yourself to discover some really neat things naturally. It’s not until you get to Paris that you discover the great vendors and stalls along the river, books, paintings, and antiques – and what a beautiful walk that is on a sunny day. And in fact, each bridge across the river has it’s own history and unique design. Leave time to discover.

5. Hairdryers, Irons, and Electricity

Over the years, my number one difficulty with overseas travel has been electricity. It’s surprisingly difficult to recharge phones, laptops, and cameras. And next to impossible to get North American hairdryers and straightening irons working. I’ve bought a half-dozen transformers, converters and plugs over the years. They break really easily. And I’ve burnt out a laptop cable in the process.

So now, I purchase the European cables for things I need. I have a European cable for my laptop. And my wife has a European hair dryer and straightening iron. It just makes everything easier.

6. You’ll Need Lots of Money

No matter how much I bring, I spend more. Things are just more expensive there. And it’s so easy to say, “We’re on vacation in Barcelona, we should have a nice dinner tonight”. Leave some money in your bank account, and bring your ATM card. Most ATM machines work. A small number do not, but you should have no problem finding ones that do. For some reason, my Canadian bank kept freezing my account. Once a week for our seven week trip I found myself on the phone trying to get it unfrozen. There seems to be no way around that, other than to complain bitterly and perhaps blog about it.

7. Take Public Transit

Don’t be afraid to step on the subway. Most European cities have very nice subways systems that will take you almost anywhere – better than Toronto’s for sure. No need to take expensive taxis everywhere you go. Take the subway. It’s also an adventure. I’ve taken the train from the CDG airport into downtown. Many cities (Hong Kong, Paris, and London for example) have fast, comfortable, cheap, transit from the airport.

8. Those Touristy Double Decker Tour Buses Are Worth It

Whenever I visit a city for the first time, the first thing I do is take a double-decker tour. So for $25, you can spend an entire day being driven around the new city and see pretty much everything there is to see. Some have guides announcing the sites, many are tape recorded. Many allow you to get off and get on later in the day (“hop on, hop off”). For the majority of the week, you’re on your own to explore. But let a tour guide lead you the first day. And from there, you can see what you want to go back to, and what you don’t.

We did La Sagrada Familia from a tour bus stop, and knew fairly quickly it was nice but 30 minutes was about enough to see it. Can you imagine if we had planned a whole afternoon just to see that?

9. Internet Phone Places

Don’t try calling home from your hotel, and don’t buy a phone card. Find an Internet cafe that has phone service. For just pennies per minute, you can call back home. I used this when calling my bank and dealing with them for 30 minutes at a time. I bet my mother got tired of me calling (not that she ever would). Seriously, don’t get ripped off calling home.

10. Use a Travel Agent Sometimes

When we were trying to get to Ibiza from Javea, going to the web site showed that the boat tickets were sold out. I also had difficulty dealing with the web sites that were in Spanish. It was confusing, and I knew I was going to make a mistake. On a whim, I walked into a local travel agency in Javea, just off the beach, and the guy called a friend, and got us tickets on the boat that was sold out. Later, when we wanted to go back to Nerja, he got us into a hotel for one night that advertised “minimum 3 night stay” on its web site. It wasn’t that he was a miracle worker, it was that he was experienced and spoke the language. Could I have called the hotel and asked in English if I could stay only one night? Perhaps. But I wouldn’t have thought to.

That’s not a comprehensive list I guess. But it should take some of the fear of going to Europe. Above all, allow yourself to have fun.

Travel Plans for 2010 and Beyond

Scott — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:13:55 +0000

Source: pattyequalsawesome at flickr

In life, many folks smarter than me say that it is important to always have a goal. And I firmly believe that. The subtitle of this blog is “Six Months in a Warm Locale”, that is my goal. Everything I do every day should move me a step or a centimeter or a micrometer closer to that goal. But not every day goes like that, but that is life anyways.

I feel (down in my soul!) the roller coaster has left the station, and has begun its long slow ascent up that first big hill. As 2010 approaches this week, 2010 is looking to be an interesting year for my wife and me.

Our current plan is that we won’t be able to get back to Spain until October or November 2010. That’s kinda sad for me, since it will be the longest time without a vacation for me personally in my whole life. But you have to sacrifice to win. And so 18 months without a vacation is a sacrifice, and not a huge one at that. But of all the times to not be traveling, this week where the airports are in lock down is a good time to stay put right?

In between now and then, I have time to implement my plan. I have a lot of ideas and not a lot of time, so I have to be selective about the ones I pursue, get help when required, and focus my limited energies on things that will move me the farthest towards my goal.

So in that vein, I have started this week on my best idea. No, I’m not going to be a life coach, or a money coach, or putting a 10-part course together on how you can escape your own rat race and break free from the dark grey cube. (Well, never say never I guess. But that doesn’t appeal to me at the current time.) But it does involve doing what I do best, doing what I like to do, and through that helping other people pursue their dreams and passions.

But first I have to help myself. I’ll certainly post here in the next week or two when I’m ready to make the big announcement. Stay tuned here or at HireScott for details.

The Pros and Cons of Booking Travel Online

Scott — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:34:31 +0000

Source: ?o??ƒx™ at flickr

Online travel really exploded in the past 10 years. Whereas it used to be quite common to use a travel agent to book vacations and trips, nowadays most people manage their own travel plans to the point where the travel agency business is feeling the financial strain. The Internet has changed up many a business model, and travel has certainly been affected in a big way.

But perhaps the pendulum has swung too far? Is it possible there will soon be demand for someone who is an expert at managing complex travel arrangements again, and people would be willing to pay a small premium for that? It’s certainly an interesting thought.

Let’s look at the pros and cons of online travel as it exists today.

Pros #1: Cheaper

It’s certainly easier than ever to get the best price. There are online travel sites that monitor a particular route and email you when the price drops (Bing Travel). There are online travel sites that compare all the major airlines to find the best price (Expedia). There are last minute sites (Travelocity Last Minute Deals). Sites that specialize in packaged vacations (TripCentral). Sites that allow airlines and others to underbid each other for your business (PriceLine). There are a lot of options for the traveller trying to save money, and they get better every year.

It’s fair to say the single largest benefit to online travel booking has been how much easier it is to get a good price. Consumers have never before had so many options when it comes to getting the best price on travel.

Cons #1: Lack of Service

So you finally find the deal you want. The price is right, the time of the flight, the length of connections in between. You’re very happy and you are ready to buy. So you click buy. “We’re sorry. The flight you selected is no longer available.” Huh? The search page says one thing, and the purchase page says something else. Time to keep looking.

Or do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with the choices? Too many flights, none of them perfect. One leaves way too early in the morning. The other has a long layover at a distant connection point. Another costs 3 times as much as the other two. There are times when you need an expert to sort through the 20 different options and pick the best one, perhaps one you hadn’t even thought of.

The reason the prices are better online is because there are no humans (other than you) involved in booking the trip. They don’t want you calling to speak to an agent if you can get the information yourself. For 95% of the time, this is fine because you don’t need to talk to a human to get what you need. But what about the 5% of the time?

Pros #2: Organizing Your Itinerary

If you book all your travel – flights, hotels, rental cars, and attraction tickets – in one place, then sites such as Expedia have tools to help you organize and view your itinerary. These make it quite convenient to print out confirmation numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and everything you need before flying out on your trip. You can even log into the web site mid-trip to check on the rest of your trip.

Recently, sites such as TripIt have been created that allow you to organize all your itineraries across multiple sites and services. TripIt is an innovative new service that even allows you to add events to your trip itinerary that were not booked online for a truly consoldated trip plan. So you can organize your whole entire trip in one place. Some of these places have iPhone and Blackberry applications so that you can take your itinerary with you when you travel, which is extremely convenient.

Cons #2: Too Many Moving Parts

I recently went on a trip that had 2 round-trip flights on two different airlines, 10 hotel bookings, a train ride, and a 5-week car rental. Now we had tried to print off all the various confirmation numbers, maps, and contact information in advance. But it took a LOT of work to book all that. And I was absolutely paranoid that I must have forgotten something. Even with TripIt, the actual bookings were on 5 different web sites. And TripIt, as cool as it was, didn’t handle some of the smaller confirmation emails.

In the end, I booked an absolutely horrible hotel in Madrid and had to change hotels without a refund. Would a Madrid expert have been able to warn me to stay away from that area? I also accidentally booked a hotel in Barcelona for the night when I wasn’t in that city yet – again no refunds. A costly mistake.

I think it gets easy for a trip to have too many moving parts. And it would be nice to have an expert who can make sure all the i’s are dotted for you.

Are there any other pros and cons to online travel? Leave a comment.

When To Get Away: During Good Times or Bad Times?

Scott — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:22:33 +0000

Source: James Jordan at flickr

For most people, life after school begins immediately with a job, and other than a week or two of vacation per year, there is often no breaks or downtime for 45 years or so until you retire. Sure, some people take maternity or parental leave, but given the significant milestone of having and caring for a baby, that’s not really a true break from things.

So if you’ve made the decision to take 3, 6 or 12 months off work as a sabbatical, recognize it is unusual for most people. Some people call it a once in a lifetime opportunity, but I prefer not to think of it like that.

So when is the best time to take this break? Should you take it when the economy is really hot, when your employer is growing and hiring, when times are good and income is up? Or should you take it when the market is slow, people are being let go or hiring is frozen, and in general you know its going to be a tough year?

In my view, the best time to go away is during the slower periods in business. There’s an old saying: make hay while the sun shines. Basically, take maximum advantage when times are good, work overtime, save up as much as you can, and work on positioning yourself so your reach your full potential.

There may be some risk in taking significant time off (especially if you have a full time job and an employer to keep happy), but generally even the employer would prefer the temporary cost savings of having you absent during a tough year versus the loss of opportunity and revenue during a booming year. Your employer might think things will be better in a few months, and in the mean time they don’t have to pay you but they have the safety and security of knowing you will be coming back. It’s a win-win for most companies.

The company I work for has selectively offered extended unpaid vacation time to a certain group of staff members. They know that many people would like to take some time off to go visit distant family, more than just a week or two, and it allows them to retain those people instead of them quitting and have to retrain new people. This is particularly aimed at students and part-time staff members in this case.

Do you have a different opinion of when the best time to take a sabbatical is? Maybe any time is the best time? Let me know in the comments.

Are Round the World Plane Tickets a Good Value?

Travel Fundamentals: Electricity

Scott — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:46:27 +0000

Source: Quasimondo at flickr

When I think back to European or Asian vacations past, my biggest problem has consistently been with electricity. Laptops need to be recharged, as do digital cameras, MP3 players, toothbrushes and cell phones. For the fairer sex, there are hair dryers and straightening irons that need to work. For many of us, these electrical devices have been treading on the border between need-to-have and want-to-have.

You can’t simply ignore the problem either. Being caught without a working camera, or hair dryer, is the kind of thing that can put a damper on the first few days of your trip. And you can end up spending more than you planned on new devices, or expensive electrical solutions bought in desperation.

There are two main problems you may face :

different voltages / frequency
different plug sizes

If your electrical device can handle the higher voltage (and devices such as laptops do generally handle 120V-220V – check the label) , then all you need is an adapter. An adapter changes the plug type from the North American A and B types, to the European C and F sizes. Or the United Kingdom G type.

To solve the voltage problem, you generally need either a transformer, or to purchase a power cable (brick) compatible with your device.

I personally have not had much success with adapters. Even if I know my device can handle the voltage, whatever adapaters I have on hand don’t seem to work. On my last trip, I had two adapters on hand, and neither allowed my device to draw power or enough power for a full charge.

Transformers are hit and miss sometimes as well. If you are not paying attention, you can find yourself purchasing a 50 watt transformer from a retail outlet. 50 watts is enough to recharge a digital camera, but not enough to run a laptop on, or sometimes more importantly, a hair dryer. If you think about it, 50 watts is not even enough to power a single standard 60 watt light bulb. I don’t know why they sell these small transformers, but they do.

The other type of transformer I’ve seen is a 2000 watt model. This is usually sufficient for most uses. On a recent vacation however, using this transformer too much caused damage to my devices. We had an electric toothbrush that refused to recharge after only a week or two. Even my laptop power-brick was damaged beyond repair – the laptop was fine however. So I don’t understand what went wrong except that the transformer is not for regular use.

What I ended up doing is purchasing a Universal Power Supply for about 30 Euros. This cable had a European-sized plug (type C) on one end, and plugged directly into my laptop. It came with dozens of plugs to fit any type of laptop. And was adjustable for Amps.

This power supply also had a USB charger built in, so I was able to charge my MP3 player (and any USB-compatible device) without a seperate power supply. After that experience, I will never go the old transformer route again.

My wife ended up having to buy a new 220V hair dryer after many frustrating experiences trying to get hers to work. 1800 watts is a lot of power to need.

Living Consciously

Scott — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:33:37 +0000

Source: (nutmeg) at flickr

It is sometimes said that the difference between someone who has a goal but doesn’t achieve it, and someone who has a goal and achieves it, is focus. Being consciously aware of everything you do, everything you spend your time and money on, and not just letting it slip through your fingers like sand.

Even a goal like mine – spending 6 months a year in a warm locale – requires daily focus to make sure what I am doing is allowing me to stay on track to the goal.

When I find myself with the opportunity to buy a new sexy gadget, before I pull my wallet out I ask myself how is buying this going to help me achieve my goal? If not, will not buying this help me achieve my goal? More often than not, not buying something is more likely to help me achieve my goal in the form of saving money.

Does this mean I don’t buy anything? No. Today I bought a soft drink and potato chips from the variety store that cost me $4. But I did that consciously. Is it going to help me achieve my goal? No. Is it going to hurt me in achieving my goal? No. It’s not about removing all personal pleasures from your life, although some people do that.

When I spend a night on the computer, and find myself surfing mindless web sites, I have to ask myself how this is helping me as well. Again, more often than not it isn’t. And so I stop my mindless surfing and write a blog post, or work on my book, or read a book instead.

Financially, you need to make some sacrafices. Downsizing your lifestyle is a big step. Selling the house you can’t afford, staying away from new cars, doing your best to reduce your regular monthly expenses like cell phone bills, credit card interest, subscriptions, gym memberships, and such. Those are the big brush strokes – saving you hundreds or perhaps thousands of dollars a month. Having your life burdened with payments such that every penny you make goes out the door as soon as you make it is a surefire way to failure in achieving your goals. So you make sacrafices to win.

But its not just important to stop digging holes for yourself – you need to start building ladders. Being conscious about what you are doing on a daily basis is about making a plan to get from A to B, and implementing that plan daily.

If you come home from work and decide to spend the night watching television, you are not making progress to your goal. I’m not saying you need to spend every waking moment thinking about this and working on it, but you need to do ONE THING once per day. As you make your plan to achieve a big goal, identify what it is you always need to be doing to get you there faster. Do you need to be building your business? Do you need to be researching locations?

Whatever it is, do at least one thing per day to achieve it.

No related posts.

How Long Can You Stay in One Place?

Scott — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:24:46 +0000

Source: hjl from flickr

Imagine that everything is planned for your trip. You have some money saved, you’ve picked a nice sunny spot, plane tickets are booked, a villa on the Mediterranean is rented, and you are all ready to go. One of the easiest thing to overlook is rules around visitor visas. You may want to go to Europe for six months, but what will happen when you show up at the border?

In an ideal world, you can just travel anywhere and everywhere without preapproval or restrictions. But in the real world, there are borders, passport controls, and there are visa requirements. It turns out that countries are actually pretty particular about who crosses their borders (who knew!).

For the EU, the rule is that you can visit for a maximum of 90 days in any 6 month period on a regular visitor visa.

What this means that if show up at the border expecting to go there for 6 consecutive months, you will only be allowed in for 3 (or might just be turned around on the next flight back home). Also, you cannot just leave Europe for a day and expect the 3 month clock to restart.

For many countries, you do not need to apply for this 3 month visa in advance – you just show up at the border. Other countries need to apply for a Schengen visa which is good for the EU region. For many people, 3 months is plenty of time. But for a true sabbatical, you are going to need longer than that. So how can you stay in a place for longer than 3 months? Luckily, there is a visa for that too.

EU countries also have a long stay visitor visa for visiting longer than 3 months.

As you would expect, the requirements to obtain this visa are a lot more complex than just a regular visitor visa. You generally have to apply for this visa before you’ve booked plane tickets or made any other financial commitment to travel. This process could take quite a long time to get approved – 8 to 10 weeks is their estimate. Besides the basic documents applying for the visa, you also have to submit a police report stating your criminal record (or hopefully lack thereof). The country you are visiting will also want some financial documents showing that you can be self-sufficient for the period you are staying in their country and will not require governmental support. You also need to include details of where you are staying, like including a copy of the rental agreement, and indicate that you will not work while in their country. And even promise to get medical insurance once you arrive.

As you can see, the long stay visas can be time consuming and tricky to apply for. They simply want to be sure that you do not end up staying in their country beyond your approved time, as a way of avoiding the proper immigration process. It can be daunting, and you may want to consider using an immigration expert for the first time to make sure you don’t get delayed or rejected for some basic error on the forms.

The other thing about an EU long stay visa is that it only applies to one country. So if you get a long stay visa from Spain, you still can only visit other parts of Europe within the first 90 days on a regular visitor visa.

All of these regulations may want to make you think twice about taking a vacation of more than 3 months in Europe. It certainly makes spending 6 months a year there sound daunting. (Maybe it’s easier after the 2nd or 3rd time.) You may want to consider arranging your sabbatical so that you only spend 3 months in Europe, and at least 3 months outside of the EU zone. I hear South America is nice.

Setting a Date

Scott — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:59:42 +0000

Source: misat0 from flickr

Taking a sabbatical and getting married share a lot in common.

You start by deciding to do it.
At the time you make a decision, you might not even know all the details, but that’s ok because everyone who does it doesn’t know all the details on Day 1.
You decide on a budget, and it can be as small or as big as you like as long as your dreams match the budget.
Whatever you initially budget, you’ll probably need a little more.
You set a date far enough in the future to plan and pay for it, but not too far. Usually 1 year in advance is sufficient.
Certain things need to be decided early on, and many more things are not finalized til the month before you leave.

OK, maybe the list of similarities is not that long. But marriage and a sabbatical are often similar in the amount of money they cost, and the amount of planning required to pull them off. Yet it seems like at least half the population has no trouble envisioning a $30,000 wedding but only a small number can envision a 6-month or 1-year sabbatical for the same budget.

Here’s how my wife and I decided we needed to change our life to include a sabbtical.

It was a “dam breaking” type moment. One day, a friend of hers from work passed away – at work. A couple of weeks later, another friend passed away on the commuter train to work. A short time after that, a close friend died from a long illness. Within the span of 2 months, a number of people “our age” were gone.

“Let’s go on a long vacation. 3 months, 6 months, something long.”

“OK.”

And from that moment the resolve to do it was like steel. A short time later my wife told her work that she would be needing extra time off on top of her vacation days, and I started dropping hints at mine that I was looking at more time away too.

When the time actually came to submit the paperwork and get the approvals, months later, all the people who needed to approve it saw it coming and had accepted it. In the process of making their plans, they knew that we would not be around to work on X Y Z projects, and those were assigned to others. The approval was the easiest part.

That fire, to travel, to work abroad, to leave the life we’ve known for 20 years and go try something new, has not been squelched by our recent trip. We’re planning again. Not right away, but in a year or two. We’re planning our next “wedding”. Anyone can do this. Even you.

Two Months? What Happened to Six?

Scott — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:22:27 +0000

Source: pouwerkerk at flickr

The last couple of posts talked about how, in planning a relatively short 2 month trip to Spain, I was hoping to jettison a bit of baggage here at home and break a few roots. Well, for 2 months you don’t really sell all your stuff, sell your home, and put everything in storage, do you?

Well, no.

Even I know that. If this was “it”, if we knew the travel bug within us would be satisfied once and for all, I’d just pay the mortgage and have family or friends check on our place from time to time. It’s all just for a short holiday.

Mind you, this time is going to be by far the longest holiday we’ve taken. I think our honeymoon was something like 17 days – and since then we’ve only taken 1 or 2 week trips. Mostly 1. Or less.

I look at this at the trial run. Before taking the car out on the 24-hour Le Mans circuit, I want to run it around the track a few times to work the kinks out. This also serves as a way to clear my head, think, plan, prepare to act. Do I want to try working remotely full time? Find a cheap locale (cheap-er at least), sun, pool, laptop with wireless. Spend my days learning to salsa dance, learning to cook, learning to speak Spanish. And do a little web programming or write books, or blog. Two or three hours a day of work, 12 hours a day of living.

Is that the goal? Can that be done? Certainly a lot of people do it. Even in Canada, I see a lot of people sitting with their laptops in Starbucks in the middle of the day. By the way, that’s not an attractive life for me – seems isolated and boring. But then again, I’ll be having my laptop with me pool side.

So two months is a start. Baby steps. Then when we get back, the clock starts its countdown til we can do it again. Perhaps for six months. Perhaps for good.