What I'm Doing Now
I'm currently sat in Un Lugar Café, a cool little coffee spot in Las Palmas that almost exclusively attracts the remote worker crowd.
Looking around, there are about 30 people and everyone has a laptop. The guy to my right is working on two, but everyone else has accepted that they're mere mortal humans.
Just after Xmas I started to get a strong urge to be somewhere else – a feeling captured perfectly by the German word Fernweh (the pain of not being far away). Not being one for making slow decisions in such matters, a few days later I found myself on a little adventure in the Canary islands.
The Canary islands have always interested me as a potential remote work destination for several reasons: the year-round good weather, the fact that the 8 main islands are close enough to hop between by boat, and that there's everything from city vibes in Las Palmas and Santa Cruz to quiet, relaxing retreat spots like Teguise and Maspalomas.
It's great being out here with just a small number of priorities. Between keeping fit, pushing along my impressively bad Español, and progressing my own projects, I have almost nothing else distracting me and that's an amazing feeling.
This sort of balance is something I've wanted for a while, so instead of returning home, I've decided to carry on. It'd be great if I can entirely avoid the British winter, but it has a habit of waiting for me.
On reflection, it occurs to me that German lacks an important word I hereby wish to coin: Anderswoweh – the pain of imagining being anywhere else.
If anyone happens to be wandering around the archipelago over the next few months, let me know – let's hang out! PS: If you want some travel inspiration, I'm sharing all the cool things I find.