Niall Doherty 1 Suddenly inundated with freelance leads, five this week alone, two calls with prospective clients this morning. This after two months with next to nothing. As a friend told me last week, it pays to be patient. “Business is a social game,” he said. “The person with the most relationships, with the highest quality relationships, …
1 Spanish lesson with a guy in Venezuela, via Skype. Forty minutes we talk. He’s a trained engineer, but inflation is so out of control there that he’s better off teaching Spanish online, pulling in $800/month compared to $50/month for his average countryman. He’s doing a run to the Colombian border this weekend, can buy …
1 Three words: freedom of expression. Been thinking a lot about that recently. Why not tell that guy you like his shirt? Why not bop along to the music in your ears while walking down the street? Why not tell that girl she looks cute? What consequences do we fear? Most of them aren’t real. …
1 Been planning out my days and weeks more thoroughly on the calendar, and it’s giving me huge peace of mind. Can see very clearly now if I have time to take on more client projects, and having full days blocked out for different activities makes me way more focused and productive. Not sure why …
1 A little before 8am at Hotel Casa 400. I’m laying in bed, she’s in the bathroom, getting ready for the day. She’s listening to some comedy show on her phone, in a language I don’t understand. And she’s laughing. I love that laugh. I love when she’s happy. She deserves to be happy. I’m …
1 We’re standing around chatting under a tarp, alongside a truck that’s been around Africa, when Savannah’s voice asks if we’d like to hold the snake. Sure enough, when we turn, there she is wielding a copper-colored creature that must be five feet long. And the answer is yes. 2 Keeping an eye on them …
1 A year since I arrived in Amsterdam. Things haven’t worked out how I envisioned – haven’t reached my financial goals and I’ll be leaving soon – but I can’t be mad. It’s been a good year. Lived in a nice apartment in my favorite city, befriended some great people, and spent most of my …
1 Feeling a bit stuck with the apartment situation here in Amsterdam. Subletting is illegal, so I can’t do the AirBnB thing when I’m out of town and earn €80-100 a night. I could give up the apartment, hit the road for a month, then try rent anew when I return, but I doubt I’d …
1 Sometimes I flash back to my life nomadic. This morning the hum of a passing fly returned me to a sun-drenched road in the north of Spain with my thumb out, a golden field behind me, unknown adventures ahead. Sometimes a scene will come to mind and it’ll take me a minute to place it. …
1 Working on my latest finance report. Things are getting more complex lately with VAT and bills and taxes. The price of staying in one place. I’m cutting it quite close money-wise, don’t have much of a buffer, little room for error. But I’ll make it work, figure something out. I’m good at that. 2 …