Working Nomad

Here is a thought. How about we buy a boat, not a very expensive one, but decent enough to house 10 or 12 people.

On this boat we would install wireless satillite broadband and solar powered energy for our laptops. There would be some office and recreation space.

With laptops and backpacks we would set off to some of the most exotic locations and drop anchor for a few weeks before moving off again, perhaps following the summer season.

So all I need is a dozen willing working nomads, a boat, a RYA sailing qualification and a generous corporate sponsor.

Hi from a very wet and windy Sydney. I have arrived from a somewhat sunnier Auckland and plan to be here until tomorrow before heading up the coast to meet my family who are flying in from the UK.

I have actually been to Sydney before. Stayed in the dingy Kings Cross area where I am not in a hurry to get back to. I was having a discussion last night about Sydney compared to Melbourne - people generally are split on which they prefer (tourists).

I think if I were to live in either it would be Sydney. The big draw for me would be the possibility of living somewhere like Manley, a happening suburb with an ocean beach. I don’t like Bondi I’m afraid!

As a tourist destination I think I prefer Melbourne though. I really enjoyed strolling around the streets and taking it all in where as Sydney seems more business like.

So despite the showers and grey clouds I am off to Manly as there is surf and the water temperature is considerably higher than the air

Today I sold my car to a very dear 85 year old man and now back in the hands of public transport. I sold my little car for $250 which is just under half of what I paid so it proved a good investment. It was certainly cheaper than renting or buses!

So now I am on my way home via Auckland, Sydney and Hong Kong with some bits in between to fill. One of the biggest expenses of being a Working Nomad is travel so I am always keen to keep things down!

So using a combination of travel options I am able to fly to Auckland for less than NZ$ 100 from Christchurch, my flight to Sydney was just over NZ$ 160 and I have managed to book a first class train seat from Sydney to Port Macquire for a mere AU$ 60 which in incredible for such a long journey!

I was under the impression that train journeys in Australia were expensive but not so on this route. I am meeting one of my sisters and my Mother in Port Macquire as they are over for a couple of weeks. We are staying in a rented house that will be a nice change from dorms!

Yea I have been in dorms now over three months and I am looking forward to having my own space again. You kind of get used to dorms after a while but I am back in a hotel now and enjoying such delights of not having to creep around quietly at night and climbing into upper bunks!

I am currently looking at the cheapest way to get from Australia to the UK by air. The cheapest flight in the month of April that I have found (one way) is GBP 414 from Sydney to London Heathrow with Eitihad Airways based in the Middle East.

So with the introduction of no-frills http://www.oasishongkong.com/"that flys Hong Kong to London it should be possible to beat this fare. I am currently looking at this flight route…

Brisbane > Darwin (Jetstar)
Darwin > Singapore (Tiger)
Singapore > Macau (Tiger)
Macau > Hong Kong (1 hour ferry transfer)
Hong Kong > London (Oasis Air)

I have a rough figure of GBP 330.00 so far that will give me optional time in Singapore and Macau / HK which I have yet to visit and would like to explore.

This is the early stages of my research and I am not even sure about the Visa situation for Macau / HK and whether I would need a Chinese visa.

I had thought about going home via the Americas but cannot find any reasonably priced flights across the Pacific. It will be cheaper for me to fly from Europe.

Of course it would be much less hassle to fly Qantas or BA straight through but where would be the fun in that?

So I was enjoying running the Ipswich Town site as a hobby and quite happy with it’s popularity. The only marketing I did was to post in a couple of ITFC forums and to ask for relevant backlinks. I did not understand search engines at this time and only sort backlinks so people would follow them, not search engine spiders!

So early in 2002 I decided to create a website hosting company. I set up a reseller account with fasthosts.co.uk and then attempted to resell domain slots. I spent quite a bit of time designing the site (sorry cannot remember the domain name, will post it if it comes back to me!) but nothing promoting it. I still did not understand search engine marketing!

My problem was that website hosting is hugely competitive and I offered no unique selling point. I never got any traffic from search engines despite submitting the site. I had no backlinks to the site apart from my existing (non-relevant) site!

Basically the project was a disaster and with no one signing up after a number of months I pulled the plug on the site. A lesson was learnt though and this helped me seek a niche area to exploit which I did quite successfully in my next web project (which ultimately failed) . To be continued in part three.