Life has changed again...When I wrote my last blog post called Everything Has Changed, I had no idea what was around the corner. At the time, we’d just moved away from our sleepy Tongan island and returned to fast paced Australia to try out a whole new way of life. We’d bought a bus house to live in, so we could keep our nomad spirit alive and wake up in a new place every few days. We’d gone back to school. And we were preparing to start a new business. Now less than two months later, our tiny home on wheels is parked indefinitely, all non-essential travel in Australia is banned, and we've rented a studio apartment under a friend's house. School has been cancelled. And our new business collapsed just moments after it launched out of the starting gate with boundless, … [Read more...] about How Three Years On An Island Prepared Me For Life After A Pandemic
Nomad Living
Everything Has Changed: New Home, New Life
Life after the islandImagine you spend three years living in a parallel universe, on an 18 hectare tropical island with about 25 people. There are no roads. No vehicles. No TVs. The internet only works well when the wind is blowing in the right direction, so you spend more time talking to the people who are around you than the ones who are not. In this magical place, you are never exposed to advertising. So you’re never being told you’ll be prettier, healthier, happier, richer and more successful if you just use this miracle product you can buy for $49.95. Even if you can’t afford it — because while you were tucked away on that island the world invented some thing called “After Pay.” It’s a place where your power runs on sunshine so you do, too. Where you wake with the birds … [Read more...] about Everything Has Changed: New Home, New Life
My Only Regret
There’s not much about 2019 that’s gone to plan. And I’m not just talking about getting bitten by that snake in Bali in April... or the half day I "accidentally" spent in a Champagne cafe in London because when I walked past it at 11am on my way to somewhere else, I just had to go in and then never wanted to leave…No, I’m talking about the fact that there are mince pies in the supermarket and Christmas trees popping up in shop windows which is a ridiculous but undeniable sign that 2019 is reaching its end. And I haven’t achieved half of the things I set out to do this year. So it’s around about now I realise I’ve been so busy in my bubble doing my thing, wandering through 16 countries and getting myself into trouble, that I haven’t stopped to take a breath and connect with all … [Read more...] about My Only Regret
Life Offline: What Happens When A Country Loses Internet For 2 Weeks
The Day The Internet DiedHave you ever wondered what would happen if the internet suddenly disappeared from your life? Can you imagine the chaos that might unfold if your entire country was cut off from the rest of the world? And not just for hours or days, but entire weeks? That’s exactly what happened to us on Sunday January 20th in the Kingdom of Tonga when the underwater fibre optic communications cable from Fiji was suddenly disconnected. Sundays in Tonga are my favourite day of the week. It’s actually illegal to work on Sundays. Tongans are devout Christians so Sundays are reserved for church and family and the only thing you’re allowed to do is kai, lotu and mohe: Eat, Pray, Sleep. I’m not religious myself, but this is probably the thing I love most about living in … [Read more...] about Life Offline: What Happens When A Country Loses Internet For 2 Weeks
Why I Don’t Have A Purpose
Welcome to the Magic of Everything — a love letter to all my failures and a celebration of everything that’s wrong with me. Because for most of my life I knew there must be something seriously wrong with me. I just didn't know how to "do" life like everyone else. I’m a full-time Aussie, part-time Frenchie, and at the time of writing I spend most of the year living on a tiny off-grid island in the South Pacific. The rest of the year I wander the world slowly, following my odd-shaped nose. I've been living nomadically since 2001, moving between 40 different jobs in 13 countries and travelling through almost 50 others. All my life I’ve been restless, insatiably curious, jumping from one thing to the next. I'm a professional quitter... A girl who struggles to finish anything she … [Read more...] about Why I Don’t Have A Purpose