Brexit for Freelancers

If you, like me, are a UK citizen then the past week or so has been very interesting. You know, in the manner of the old curse; may you live in interesting times. I voted to remain and that put me in the (slight) minority. If you are a UK freelancer / remote worker who likes to travel then this has been a nerve wracking time. Here are a few of my thoughts on Brexit for freelancers.

Travel

For me, the number one issue is what will happen to my ability to travel. At the moment a British passport is amazing, it gets you in pretty much anywhere with limited hassle. On top of that is the right to move and live freely within the EU. Agi and I recently left Thailand and decided to try Europe for a while. Great timing!

What does the future look like? At the moment no one knows, which is a real bummer. In all likelihood nothing will change for the next 2 years at least. After that? I honestly don't believe British citizens will suddenly need visas to enter Europe. I expect we will retain the right to free movement and probably free residence.

If you can, now is a great time to get an Irish passport. Ireland is staying in the EU for sure so if you want to stay then that's a good option for you. My family are Irish but several generations back so it's not an option for me :( My mum is Scottish though so maybe Scotland can withdraw from the UK, rejoin the EU and offer Scottish passports. It's possible!

(Actually, Agi and I are getting married next year so I'm hoping I can ride the coattails of her Polish passport as a spouse.)

Money

Since the announcement of the referendum result the UK pound dropped to a 7 year low. Now, if you get paid in US dollars (which most Upwork users do) and live in the UK this is actually great news. Suddenly your dollars get you a lot more pounds, hooray!

If you live elsewhere and still use a UK bank account then now is a great time to get a bank account wherever you are. This is good advice anyway because withdrawing money from a UK bank account overseas incurs charges. It becomes especially good advice now as your pounds are worth so much less. Get a Polish, Argentinian, Thai or whatever bank account and transfer your money from Upwork, Paypal, wherever directly into it.

If you're constantly travelling then there's not a lot you can do. I know, I have travelled extensively and I wept when I looked at the ATM charges afterwards.

In the long run the pound will probably bounce back but it is worth it to take some action now.

Just a few thoughts on the situation for UK freelancers. Do you have any tips? Please let me know.

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.

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!

We've Worked in... Phuket

We are planning to leave Thailand in May so we decided to get out of Bangkok for our final weeks. We found a nice place in Phuket on AirBnB and decided to live the (sort of) island lifestyle for a while.  This is one of the things I love about having a non location specific job!

We've Worked in... Phuket

We came to Phuket with our friends Nick and Ging. Nick and I came to Phuket in 2011 and studied Muay Thai for a month. I had a fight at the end of our training as you can see here:

With a record of 1-0, I retired undefeated from Muay Thai. Not wanting to put that at risk and with absolutely no demand from fans to see me return to the ring I decided to try something new. Agi and I signed up for Crossfit at a new gym in Phuket called Unit 27.

Our new routine during our time in Phuket has been going to Morning Glory sessions, coming home and recovering then starting work. I have heard that doing a workout in the morning gives you energy for the rest of the day. That is not the case in my experience! I feel better for doing more exercise and I am happy to have done it but I generally feel knackered for the rest of the day.

During our time in Phuket we have had a revolving cast of guest stars. 3 different groups of friends came to catch up with us which has been amazing. Eating out and going to the beach has been a real treat. It makes it difficult to fit work in sometimes but it's totally worth it.

We have friends with a young kid so going out partying wasn't an option with them. What's the next best thing after raving? Dinosaur themed mini golf!

I wish we had done more of this sort of thing during our time in Thailand but I'm not complaining. We had a great time in Bangkok but I sometimes forgot that there are other places to go. Today we are leaving for a 4 day liveaboard diving trip in the Similan islands. After that we are going up north to Pai to spend our last few weeks in the mountains. Agi has been begging for mountains for months. Life is good.

Another great trip enabled by freelancing. Get in touch if you'd like to know more.