My Travel Bug

Image Credit: 'Wandering' by Hasna Lahmini

In the past couple of weeks since a friend of mine sent me this post about what it is to have the travel bug (in French, 'Le virus du voyage') I've been giving some thought as to why I travel, what I enjoy about it, and what this supposed bug is all about.

To start with, I haven't really considered myself a great traveler until only recently. I'm not sure if it's because I always meet people who have traveled more than I have while travelling, or if I just hadn't really thought about myself in this way - I mean by that I've just been thinking that traveling the way I have is a pretty normal thing to do. Checking my TripAdvisor Facebook app, I've traveled to 27 countries, about 17% of the world. You might know I spent 18 months traveling in Asia and over a year of that time trying out the digital nomad thing. I have also been on a few 1-2 month long trips before. The fact is my family and friends think of me as a great traveler. According to a recent survey, the average Briton has traveled to 7 countries. I'm not British, but I think I can agree I'm not average either, at least when it comes to travel.

So there, I'm a traveler.

There are several aspects of being a traveler I can write about, I'll spread that over a few different posts. I'd like to talk about the urge first, it's one way to talk about how it starts.

Travel bug is an interesting term in itself, taken literally it implies the traveler is not responsible for his wanting to wander, only the victim of a greater force at play, so strong it is compared with a disease or a virus. I don't think there is such a thing as not being entirely responsible for wanting to go travel, however the analogy is pretty good. It feels like a longing, wanting to drop everything and just go, seeing with my own eyes the landscape hiding beyond the horizon even though I intellectually know that the proverbial grass isn't actually any greener over there than it is here.

How did I catch this travel bug then? I'm not sure, but you could say I grew up in the right terrain: my parents left their own countries and traveled to different ones to live and work, I have too as a child, so I have an international background. I remember reading somewhere that children who grow up with an international background and travel are more likely to do the same as adults.

I've always loved reading, from the moment I learned I was reading 2-3 times more than school assignments asked for. I day dream a lot, and over think almost everything. My favourite books are science-fiction, fantasy, and travel journals - stories about exploring imagined worlds or our own. I know these things are related, without necessarily providing a specific reason.

I remember collecting post cards from various places as a teenager, they decorated the walls of my bedroom. I preferred them over posters of any movies or bands I liked. It may have started even earlier, though it makes me think of a story, probably the closest explanation I have right now.

When I was 15 years old, just before turning 16, I went to visit old friends of my parents in Long Island, near Oyster Bay if I remember correctly. They had two kids about my age I hadn't seen since I was 6 years old, before we moved to France. I didn't really have a good time during the trip. I was hanging out with the kids and their friends, it was ok but I don't remember really getting along with them. As a teenager, being part of the group is essential though, and I didn't really have anyone else to hang out with so I made efforts to be friendly.

Then something happened, I can't remember exactly what it was, but probably something barely interesting enough to make it in a daytime TV sitcom scenario. Something along the lines of being made the scapegoat for something that was said to someone and upset the whole group. Drama, shouting, and vague threats ensued, and basically it was made clear to me I was no longer welcome in the gang. Then on top of that I was told off be the father that night for not helping around the house (I was, or at least I thought I was) and had some weird speech about how I should be more sociable (again, I thought I was). He didn't let me call my parents after that when I asked, because it was too expensive.

Needless to say I was seriously upset. I went to my room, cried a while, I missed my friends and family back in France, and suddenly felt very far away from home. Then I thought about it all. I felt alone, and also like I was the only one I could count on to have anything else happen.

I wondered what I could do about it, what I wanted to do about it. I didn't want to be a victim of the situation.

I was only a few days away from the end of the trip, and I hadn't really seen anything of New York City, which was why I wanted to go in the first place. I had spent most of the time in Long Island so far. I looked at the train schedule, made a decision, and made a plan. I would get the hell out of that house and go visit Manhattan, I'd be solid and self-reliant, I didn't need any of those people. I didn't think exactly in those words, but thinking back they describe the way I was being pretty accurately. I spent the last few days of my trip taking an early train to Penn Station, about 90 minutes or so on the train, wander walking all around Manhattan, and taking a train back to Long Island at the end of the day.

I think that's the first time I experienced travelling on my own. It felt and still feels like a curious mix of contemplation, admiration and appreciation of my surroundings, feeling free, yet also melancholic.

These moments tend to be quite magical, and strangely they are also times my mind feels the quietest and most peaceful - particularly hours spent on a train or a bus watching the landscape go by, not thinking about much and thoroughly enjoying it. I always meet lots of great people while I travel though I'm not talking of these moments, I mean the times really spent alone.

It is also the traveler's feeling - at least mine - of being part of the world, seeing it with one's own eyes yet being somewhat separated from the societies and people traveled through, being some kind of sideline observer. It calms me, give me new perspectives, gives me new thoughts and ideas. I think Paul Theroux writes very well about this kind of feeling, I love his travel books. Sort of in this style Happy Isles of Oceania comes to mind.

I think this is what my traveling is about, craving and chasing these feelings and experiences, trying to maintain a balance between satisfying the travel bug without loosing myself to it entirely.

What do you want to do when you grow up?

Metal Beard from The Lego Movie, voiced by Nick Offerman

There are a few different things that inspired this post, starting with the fact that the title is one of my favourite questions, I think about it regularly, and I had a few conversations with people I met about this recently, and with my mom while she was visiting. She reminded me I wanted to be a bus driver or a helicopter pilot when I was a kid, which I remembered about.

Growing up is a funny notion. I remember as a child thinking about it as a definite state, somewhere I and everyone else gets to be, basically grown ups. Now I'm a old enough that my younger self would consider me a grown up, I realised growing up doesn't stop. It's not definitive. Actually I think the only definite next stage is death, and given I don't believe in any kind of after life right now is really the only time I have to play with.

I also enjoy the question particularly because it's formulated like a question for children, and for me at least, it sends me back thinking of that time, what I wanted to do without any of the considerations or information that can limit thinking, it allows me to make up new plans or revisit ideas and dreams I had in the past.

I finally caught up with the LEGO Movie last week and really enjoyed it. I used to play a lot of LEGO when I was a kid and really I loved the way they weaved the way people play with the toys directly in the plot. Without spoiling the movie, think of the way you can build by following the instructions, and then create and build models from scratch. There are a some fantastic characters as well, I loved Metal Beard pictured above because of the way he's built up creatively using all sorts of seemingly random parts to make a whole that looks pretty awesome.

The question came back to me as it does, and as I was reminded of playing LEGO as a kid, though the characters in the movie and the journey they go on also made me ponder a slightly different version I don't think about as often: 'Who do I want to be when I grow up?'

Thinking in the area of being rather than doing can provide a new perspective, I recommend trying it out. It's not rocket science, it just takes a bit of time and writing down the thoughts on paper or screen to get them out of your head. Neither questions are fixed, the answers evolve over time with new experiences, and there are no right answers either.

Being a traveller and a wanderer is something I've been cultivating these past few years, for example. I'm spending some time thinking of all this these days and jotting some notes down.

I don't have any more answers for now, though I did come across this ad for Kona Brewing, I enjoyed the idea, particularly the last line:

Travels with my mom

My mom has been visiting Asia for the first time, it's already coming to her last couple of days here so I thought I'd write something about it. Three of her children have spent some time in Asia in the past few years, she has been dreaming of coming, we have been talking about this trip for a little while, so I invited. May seemed a good time as there was two easily workable public holidays in a row where I thought I could take some time off as well.

My brother Morgan and his wife, who have lived in Laos, apparently told her she would experience a culture shock, though I suspected otherwise. You see my mom is so accepting of just about everything and everyone that I didn't think she could easily be shocked by much.

Of course Singapore first is pretty easy, it's all super modern and organised. Mom met all my friends and we spent time sampling a bunch of local foods. We have had some amazing dinners, nice walks around town, and she has been spending time amazed at the size and number of malls, she's trying to get her head around why they are so many shopping malls with the same brand name shops. I gave up trying to understand that a while ago, it's not particularly my forte.

Next we went to Bali, and stayed a few days in Ubud. I thought she would be interested in the crunchy granola way of life over there, we hung out at the Yoga Barn and she even went for the Sunday morning Ecstatic Dance session, also one of the main weekly expat social gatherings apparently. A day visiting temples, time walking around Ubud and rice paddies, touristy Balinese dance show, trying various organic and/or vegetarian cafés, we had a lovely time. We ended the trip in style spending the last night in Seminyak, with lovely sunset cocktails at the W.

After that we spent a few days in Siem Reap, Cambodia, to visit the Angkor temples. A friend highly recommended a guide and I'm glad to say he was exceptional. If ever you plan to visit the Angkor temples, a good guide is recommended and he was fantastic. He was passionate about the history of his country, the architecture and stories about the temples, he knew the ways in and around the temples that most tourists and guides don't use to avoid the crowds, and every time I thought I was getting bored of seeing temples he would surprise me and keep things fascinating; this could be with a story about Cambodia, a specific feature in a temple, a walk in the forest to arrive at our destination, etc. We also had fabulous food, and he organised a couple of experiences off the beaten tourist tracks, like a visit to a Buddhist monastery on a hill overlooking a lake for sunrise chants and a blessing.

It has been great to spend this time and share these moments with my mom, as well as sharing my love for travel and discovering new places, people, and food with her. It's very different from seeing the family over a Christmas holiday for example. At times it was a bit strange to spend so much time with my mom as an adult, though also special given we talked about stuff I often had no idea about, like stories from her youth, old friends of hers, her parents, etc. I can only recommend you do something a little bit different with one or both of your parents at some point, something that pulls you both our of your usual comfort zones, I'm sure you'll find out brand new stuff you couldn't imagine about your parents, and probably about yourself as well.

New experiences: Patron of the arts

Image credit: Sue Beatrice

I came across a few of artist Sue Beatrice's pocket watch sculptures online via an article online with some photos, and found them really beautiful. Susan specialises in creating Earth-friendly pieces of art exclusively made with natural or recycled elements.

As I understand it, most of her work using natural elements tends be ephemeral, such as with these sand or pumpkin sculptures:

Sand Sculpt USA - NY Aquarium sand sculpture on Coney Island 

And then there are the recycled pieces, this is from her Facebook Page, All Natural Arts:

"All Natural Arts is a celebration of nature in the form of jewelry and other fun and whimsical items. Using sea glass, stones and other natural elements as well as vintage watches, jewelry pieces, and found objects to create one of a kind treasures for you to enjoy or to give as gifts."

This kind of intricate miniature sculpture also happens to be one of my favourite forms of arts, I find them really fascinating. I think the minutiae, skill level, and intricacy involved are mind-blowing.

In this style, there are some really nice pieces in V&A Museum collection in London (miniature ivory sculptures in particular, if memory serves), and the most incredible I've seen are all in the Imperial Palace Museum in Taipei. Their collection is extensive, for example this insanely detailed sculpture carved into a 1 1/2 inch long olive pit:

So in the spirit of doing either random or simply trying on new things to keep life interesting, on impulse I contacted Susan to find out more about her work. After exchanging a few emails and finding out how she creates these kinds of unique pieces on commission, and thinking to myself I've never done anything like this, I commissioned a pocket watch sculpture for myself.

I'm looking forward to seeing the results and of course will share them with you once I have it!

Book review: Belle de Neige

Image Credit: Ellen Wallace

I just finished reading Belle de Neige and thoroughly enjoyed it. I came across this story quite randomly while checking out what was going on vice.com, read a few of the blog posts, decided to buy the book and devoured it in a couple of evenings. I think it's actually the first time I write a book review on here - mostly lazily copied over from the Amazon review I posted anyways.

I always love crazy stories of the underbelly kind, like Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, or David Koenig's Mouse Tales, and this one is no exception. Life beyond the dronish grayscale cookie cutter lives some are still told is the right way to do things holds so many more fascinating colours and flavours; usually for the best, though sadly sometimes for the worst.

It's a delightfully written story of this kind Belle takes the us on, managing a delicate yet surprisingly well balanced act of bittersweet memories, elated dreameries, gutter elegance, and barking in the face of danger madness.

It made me think about my nephew Keanu quite a lot, reading the epilogue reminding me I can barely read lyrics of or listen to Pink Floyd anymore. Even though it was one of my very favourite bands, I well up almost every time I hear or think about the band now.

It made me think of the travel worlds I've been part of and their underbellies; populated with different variety of interesting locals, backpackers, holidaymakers, scuba divers, tropical island bums, freelancing nomads, and random weirdoes around Asia, parts of South America, and Tanzania. I think I've been one or all of those types at one points or another.

I hadn't thought of it in a long time, but now I'm also thinking I should learn to ski. I've only really been skiing once, when I was like 10 years old for a 3 week school trip so it doesn't even count by now. I wonder if I could be any good / enjoy it.

Sure, we're probably not talking about high brow literary prizes here, but it spoke to me, made me laugh, and moved me. If you like any of those things in life or at least in a book, I highly recommend you take a peek in the world of the Chalet Bitch.

Belle de Neige mérite son nom, unique et magnifique, tout comme un simple flocon.

Belated summary of 2013 and hello 2014

The famous Singapore Chilli Crab! The kind of reason for a few of my extra kilos.

I obviously haven't been writing much of anything here last year, though I did write about a few things I wanted to achieve in 2013 so coming up to April 2014, it's about time I write an update.

1. Context

I talked about consolidation, and I feel that was definitely done. I wasn't sure what it meant then, still not exactly sure what it means now, but I feel like it was a good to time to stop and take stock, which is done now.

I installed a few things to turn my spacious living room into an awesome cinema room - new HD projector and sweet speakers. My flat has become the main hangout for friends, and many chilled movie nights. It's nice to have a place to call my own again, I've been enjoying the creature comforts of home. I've made a great group of friends and a bunch more acquaintances to hang out with.

I threw a couple of big parties, Halloween in particular was pretty insane - over 60 people there and the cops came round to shut it down. Some of the Singaporeans there couldn't believe it, they'd never seen a house party like that (I don't think they'd ever attended a cool house party before). I dressed as a Bavarian beer maid and was serving beer to guests poured out of big fake breasts - corny but great fun. Sweetly decadent, at least by Singapore standards anyways.

I exceeded my money saving target for last year which is pretty cool, and I didn't have to particularly deprive myself of anything which is cool too. On the other hand I mostly failed at any kind health improvements or weight loss, I kept on my line of eating & drinking too much while not exercising much. I'll come back to that.

Work-wise it has been a really interesting year, learned a lot about business in Asia, won an Effie award, won a big piece of new business, learned to work on new industry categories, etc.

Now it's probably time for some change after a relatively quiet year - not sure what yet, I'll keep in touch when there are new news on that front.

2. New things to learn and new places to go

I said it was about time I learned how to drive. I've been saying that for a while, and I'll keep saying it for a while longer... The progress has been feeble. I signed for driving school back in August 2013. Found out it takes about 2 months in advance to book anything. I've booked to take my basic theory test twice, and didn't study at all. The third time was this morning and I didn't go. I was reading a more interesting book about yeast biology over the weekend. I might actually bother with the drivers license the day I actually really need it. 

About yeast biology, my main new thing from last year is home brewing beer. I'm having a blast doing that, I've progressed and I can make a pretty decent drinkable brew now. I want to get better at it and I've been investing in a few bits and pieces. I brewed my latest batch a week ago, which is going to be a vanilla bourbon oatmeal stout. It's already pretty tasty, the vanilla is soaking in there for another week before I bottle it up. I've also joined a group of home brewers in Singapore to learn from other people, bought a few books, and I'm participating in a beer tasting workshop at the moment.

I did an Arduino weekend workshop last year, so that idea was done as well. I got the whole basic kit and played around with it a little. It was a really interesting (and geeky) weekend and I'm glad I learned more about it, though I haven't done much with it since.

My little brother's birthday back in the South of France was awesome - fantastic party of fun debauchery wit the whole family. I didn't go visit many places in the area, I spent more time with the family and a little time helping my sister with her vines. She ended up being the first winemaker in France to crowd-fund a portion of the money she needed to get started, she even got some local press out of it I tasted her first wines over Christmas and they're really good - very proud of her.

Less travels last year but I still had an awesome time for cherry blossom in Japan, joined a fantastic party with loads of locals, foreigners, travellers, and expats for a huge Hanami (cherry blossom viewing party, basically getting trashed in the park under the cherry trees - crucial tradition in Japan) in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo. I also visited my friend Simon in Sabah, Borneo for a weekend, and did some business travelling round Southeast Asia. I also went to Bali and the Gili Islands for a few days, which was pretty sweet.

3. All fun, not so much practice

This last thing I'd mentioned was this silly idea to exercise. I went running a few times after I wrote it, and a few more times about mid-way through the year, but that's about it.

More craft beer bars have been opening in Singapore, I'm brewing the stuff myself, and the food here is just too good and varied to not indulge. I've made some awesome restaurant discoveries in all sorts of styles and cuisines, from close to fine dining to street food and tiny hole in the wall type places.

I did go to a few concerts, and a few more this year as well which is cool - the best thing is to spot some awesome musicians that Singaporeans wouldn't necessarily know about, in which tickets are generally cheap. I went to see Steve Vai a few weeks ago - one of  the best gigs I've been to in a very long time. 

Gaming we did occasionally with some friends, the odd board game night a few times last year which was cool.

Altogether pretty cool year in 2013, I've learned to appreciate Singapore and discover some cool things beneath the surface. Onwards and upwards for this year!

Beersphere Singapore Redux - Christmas edition

The second time I visited Singapore, and with the outstanding help of Simon, we organised the first ever Beersphere Singapore - a casual meetup of linked minded planners and interesting people working in the advertising and marketing industries over some beers. That was a great success, as I remember it about 40 to 50 people showed up and it was great fun!

Now I've been living and working in Singapore for over a year I've been thinking of organising a similar type of event - with the added advantage that I've discovered some excellent craft beer watering holes like the Old Empire which turns out to be the perfect location for a new Beersphere event: it's relaxed, not too far out of the centre, quiet enough for loud people to have conversations, open enough to walk around and mingle with new people, and they have an outstanding selection of craft beers!

Please join us for a few end of year / Christmas beverages, some gossip about the advertising industry, and plannery talk with people at the Old Empire on Thursday 5th December from 7:30pm onwards!

It's at Valleypoint Mall on River Valley Road. Please confirm on either Eventbrite or Facebook, so we have a fair idea of the numbers for the bar owners!

Thanks and see you there!

My sister's vineyard: Les Arabesques

My sister Saskia is creating her own vineyard, launching her own wine domain. I went to visit my family in the South of France a couple of months ago and got to visit her new vine plots as well as help her a little bit. It is a very exciting project, I'm obviously proud of my sister for starting up her own business and I'm also looking forward to trying out her wines!

Her vineyard is in the Southwest of France region of Roussillon, at the foothills of the Pyrénées, by the Mediterranean Sea and the Spanish border, the closest large town is Perpignan. It is beautiful region producing some great wines.

Her project has been accepted and endorsed by both her bank for a business loan, and the French Chamber of Agriculture, where she managed to received the highest levels of government grants given to young people setting up on the strength of her business plan, which is also very exciting.

She is on the last final rounds in terms of her financing in order to make sure the project can fully take off and she has sufficient cash flow for her upcoming harvest, and also to raise some awareness and interest in her wines she has a crowdfunding project going on at the moment.

She needs help for the final stretch, please have a look at the project and video - if you are inspired and interested, please participate in the project. That could be by participating financially of course, and also by spreading the news and sending the link to any wine lovers you know, via your social networks.

Link here, please have a look and share the news!

http://www.mymajorcompany.com/projects/les-arabesques#home

Hello 2013

The Colour of Consolidation

We're already a week into the new year, I don't typically do much of this though I thought it would be good to have a think and write about what this year should be about. I don't exactly take this as resolutions just because I don't think I'd ever stick to any kind of resolutions - maybe it's just semantics, I prefer the idea of creating what this year is about. I saw my friend Adam does it this way so I'm kind of just copying him, really.

1. Context

Of course you never know when life will throw a curve ball, which is also part of the reason why I'm saying it's different from just resolutions, I think of it as creating some kind of context for my life this year.

This year for me is about consolidation, that's the theme I've come up with. I don't think it sounds super sexy or exciting though it does right for me now and the word has come back to mind a few times as I was thinking about the year ahead.

I checked a few definitions and came across this one I like:

consolidation - combining into a solid mass; the act of combining into an integral whole

It's part of the reason I stopped travelling full time, I wanted to take a break, regroup and enjoy some simple creature comforts as well as think about what comes next. To which my cynical voice may well be whispering that Singapore is a fine choice of a place for that... I'm not exactly certain what I'd be combining this year, mostly myself in a way. I like the idea of spending time pulling together my experiences of the past few years into an integral whole, whatever that may be.

It's also material, I definitely intend to save money this year and I have a goal set for that. It is a worthwhile one and slightly challenging, without being impossible or sacrificing much in other areas over the course of the year.

With work, I'm a few months in a new job and new environment, there are a lot of opportunities, one of them being to improve or hone certain aspects of being a planner, and it looks like I have some excellent people to learn from on the planning side of life at Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore which is brilliant. Missing working in a team was also one of the reasons I chose to look for a full time job again and I'm lucky to work with some amazing people.

We'll see what else consolidation might mean as a context for the year as we go.

2. New things to learn and new places to go

The next point is questioning what I am going to learn this year. I'm not talking about trivia, information, or work stuff. I mean a useful and/or interesting activity or skill of some kind. In 2010 2011 I learned scuba-diving, and in 2012 I learned Thai massage.

I've pretty much sorted the main thing to learn this year and it fits in the consolidation theme: driving. I'm 33, it's about time I learn how to drive - I have no idea how to. It's never been of major interest but I know it's useful and as time went by I always had something better to do with my money than invest in learning how to drive. I'm pretty sure one days it'll come in handy so I might as well get that done.

I might try out a few other things as well though not sure what, could be salsa dancing, tinkering with an Arduino board and simple electronics, or figurine painting. I'll keep in touch and write about any of these if they happen.

Now it's not because I say the theme is consolidation that I'm not going to travel at all, so of course there should be new places to go to and explore, plus I'll also be traveling for business (which I don't necessarily consider exploring). Given I'm back in an office I'm switching to different travel styles to fit shorter lengths of available time, and also looking forward to hosting friends and travellers here in Singapore.

My little brother Morgan is turning 30 this year so I'm going to France and I want to go to a few new places around where my family lives in the South west around Perpignan. Nothing crazy, just a few places I haven't been. That could be Montpellier, Ceret, Andorra, Figueiras, maybe going on the Little Yellow Train up the Pyrenees. Other places I'm looking at visiting this year include Java (Jakarta, Borobodur, and Bromo National Park in particular), and I'm looking at a short trip to Japan for the Cherry Blossom. In addition, perhaps a few weekends to nearby places like Malacca or the Cameron Highlands.

3. A bit of practice, a bit of fun

To finish this off and I guess closer to the classic kind of new year resolutions, I've been in Singapore for now 4 months and I indulged a little too much in fine beers / booze and food while settling at a new office job so I started putting on some weight. I've decided to start the year with some exercise and healthier eating. I went running three times since last week (to put that in context the last time I went for a run was at least three years ago) so a bit of regular exercise, I'm eating more healthy and I'm cutting down on beer and Doritos / crisps in particular (my main weakness in the foods that are bad for you though taste oh so amazing department). My plan is to lose about 10kg in the next three months.

The game I'm playing with beer is I'm only allowed if I'm at a good bar offering craft beers and/or a micro-brewery AND I can't offer or suggest going to these places in the first place, I have to be invited. We'll see how that goes, not sure how long I'll play.

Next on line is I've learned foot massage last year and it needs some practice so I can improve, I have a couple of ideas on that front though still working it out.

Now on fun, I've just been realising there are some pretty cool concerts coming up and I haven't been to any big concerts in ages. Among artists I'd like to go see and upcoming in Singapore: Norah Jones, Santana, Deep Purple, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Journey, etc. Some of those are pretty pricy so I probably wont go to all of them though at least some. Let's say at least 3 big concerts this year and more live music in general. I'll also look out for shows, plays, and musicals.

Next I want to get back into some table top gaming; board games and perhaps role playing games if I find people up for that. Good news is I met some people up for occasional board game nights, I've already had a couple last year, bought myself Zombies, Small World, and I'm very excited about Democracy coming up that I've helped fund on Kickstarter - it looks amazing, looking forward to trying it out.

I think that's about it for now and we'll see what else happens! Happy New Year everyone!

Good bye 2012

Right now looking back at it I think 2012 has been a weird year for me, certainly not bad, a lot has happened and it has been pretty emotional.

I've moved around quite a bit, though this year mostly plane rides rather than extensive overland travelling. It looks like I even topped last year in terms of distance: 38,250km vs. 36,765km in 2011.

I started the year with my parents in Perpignan and shortly after the new year went to Toulouse for surgery to remove sinus polyps. Nothing dangerous, just needed taking care of and one of the points was for me to be in good scuba diving shape. In the end I only went diving once this year.

After catching up with family in Toulouse and recovering from the surgery, I wandered further up North to Orléans, Paris, Beaune, and London to catch up with good friends, some I hadn't seen since before leaving for Asia a year before. I hadn't seen my friend Steve since his wedding a few years back and they had a son just born, and I also spent time with my godson Marcus who was only 3 months old at the time. I kept working on freelance projects on the way.

By the end of February I was ready to make my way back to Asia with plans to keep up the digital nomad lifestyle. I flew over to the Maldives to see my brother and sister in law, and the following day his son passed away. My nephew Keanu passing away definitely had a huge impact, I wrote about it in my blog already if you're interested in having more details.

I stuck to my plan and wanted to spend more time with my brother so I flew back to the Maldives after the funeral. Aside from the tragedy, the unexpected return trip to France shortly after some relatively expensive medical treatments made a serious dent in my finances (I would be reimbursed, thanks to France healthcare system, though much later) and I didn't really feel like staying by myself traveling so I changed my original plans of staying in Sri Lanka after the Malvides, only stayed for a night and then went to see my little brother Morgan in Laos via Bangkok. That was a long trip but I wasn't in a hurry and it was much cheaper this way. I also had a good time on the overnight train from Bangkok to Nong Khai, it was nice to be on the backpacker trail again.

I got back on a proper working schedule in Vientiane and it was also lovely to spend time with my niece Anahi. I managed to get some work including a pretty large project after a few weeks and moved on to Chiang Mai in Thailand where I spent a lot of time working and then a couple of weeks learning traditional Thai massage and foot massage. It's at that time I started questioning what I was doing and whether I really wanted to keep traveling and working the way I was. I particularly was starting to miss having a group of friends to hang out with (which I had in 2011 but not so much at that time in Thailand) and people to work with collaboratively. I also seriously considered a very interesting opportunity to go volunteer for a project in Kenya for a few months, which would have been doing marketing strategy for a recently setup NGO Foundation relating to travel and tourism.

I flew over to Hong Kong for my Birthday and to spend time with my friend James. While I turned 33 this year, we regressed to teenage-hood, played a lot of video games (I blame the release of Diablo 3), and went out drinking, mostly in Sai Kung. I also bought a brand new laptop, new 15" MacBook Pro model - not the retina display though.

I decided to start looking around for a full time job somewhere in Asia. After 18 months of traveling out of a backpack, Keanu passing away, and spending time with friends in Hong Kong I thought it would be nice to take a break from traveling and have a place to call home again. I contacted people I knew in the advertising industry and after a few phone interviews was offered an opportunity in Singapore to start working for Saatchi & Saatchi. I realise now I hadn't even written in my blog about it since I moved in September.

So here I am in Singapore on the last day of the year. It's raining and has been since this morning which doesn't bode extremely well for fireworks tonight. Employed full time again, for a large network advertising agency on big clients, and it seems to be going well. In particular I'm happy and feel lucky to be working with some really great people here. I found a great flat and I have a guest room, if we're friends you're welcome to visit any time you want, keep in touch. The last time I had my own place I was 22 and it was a tiny studio in Paris, I've been sharing all the time I lived in London. In addition to trying out all the foods available in Singapore, I'm back behind a desk and working a lot, so of course I've started putting on weight.

So there you go, I think that's about it for 2012. 8 months more wandering, 4 months back in more or less normal routine life. I travelled to some new places, completed a seriously hot wing challenge, tried some fantastic new wines, experienced the death of a loved close family member, stayed one of the most gorgeous paradise islands in the world, saw a dead dolphin and more live ones, learned some new stuff like massage, took care of some health stuff, caught up with friends and family including time spent with little ones, didn't watch much of the Olympics, watched TV series (Another run of The West Wing I am finishing now) and movies (The Avengers!), played a lot of Diablo 3, got a new job, a new home, and the world didn't end according to the Mayan calendar.

Not too bad for 365 days.

I have to think up what 2013 is going to be about beyond the work routine or else I feel I'll get bored fairly quickly. I've been giving it some thought, I'm not too sure just yet.

I want to thank my close family and my friends for their love, hospitality, and generosity. Thank you Mom, Dad, Morgan, Saskia, Bjorn, Justine, Manuel, Violette, Sandro, Alba, Helios, Antonio, JB, Jo,  James, Adam, Sangita, Graham, Abby, Elo, Seb, Simon, Steve, and many more, I'm sure I'm forgetting people. All my wandering wouldn't have been possible without you.

I also want to thank all my new colleagues and friends in Singapore who have warmly welcomed me here and with whom it is a pleasure to work or hang out with: JP, Sarah, Sabine, Paul, Mel, Stella, Ruth, Kamal, Marvin, Jason, Lionel, JD, Andy, Aishah, Thomas, Steph, Max, and some more.

That's about it for 2012. Bring on 2013.

Have you completed the Planner Survey yet?

The 2012 Planner Survey has been live for a few weeks now so it's about time I post about it. If you haven't heard about it, it's an excellent initiative started by Heather to find out more about the worldwide planning community, originally for interesting information such as our salary levels and the types of agencies planners work at, and over the years going into more questions about planners varied backgrounds. It's a project I love given I always love meeting planners from around the world and learn new things from them, may it be professionally or from the wide variety of other stuff planners are interested in, whatever that might be.

I started helping out with the survey data last year, and this year is going into new directions offering new initiatives for planners to interact with each other directly via Skype, book recommendations, and while traveling with a dedicated private network on Tripping.com. if you're a planner and haven't completed the survey yet, I highly recommend it. The more planners do that, the richer the information we can gather and share back with the whole community.

Heather tell us more in this intro video:



You can go ahead and fill the 2012 Planner Survey here: http://bit.ly/RiTTSt

Check Heather's blog if you aren't signed to the email newsletter to get Planner Survey news every year: http://illchangeyourlife.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/the-planner-survey-is-live/

You can also read the 2011 Planner Survey results here: http://www.slideshare.net/hklefevre/the-planner-survey-2011

Planners Worldwide is now live, come and join!

As Heather Lefevre wrote about a few months ago, there are a few projects in the works for this year's Planner Survey, in particular I have been working with Tripping.com to create a dedicated network for planners and associated types traveling to connect and meet like minded planners, basically like a Couchsurfing for planners. We had started with a group on the Couchsurfing though we didn't feel it had the features we were looking for, and then we found out about Tripping which looked perfect for what we had in mind.

Tripping was launched in 2009 and as they put it well, it is "a global community of travelers who believe in making the world a better place through cultural exchange." Via the website, people can either search for like-minded people and rooms in over 175 countries, and the site also aggregates rooms available on websites such as Roomorama or AirBnB, it's like a mix between Couchsurfing and Kayak. The site also integrates dedicated Networks either in partnership with companies, organisations,  or groups of people that have common interests. The Networks have a number of features that were perfect for our idea and so here we are!

We are now live so that's left is for planners to join - just click this link and you can easily register by connecting with your Facebook account. There will be mention of this in this year's planner survey though in the meantime if you come across this, please check out the site and sign up! The more planners from everywhere join, the better. We will also be working on developing the content and perhaps update the logo (anyone feeling inspired to take this on?) so I'm also starting to look for people who would be up getting involved in growing the network and keeping it alive. I will be writing some more about this, but for now I'm thinking to have a few planners from different parts of the world and writing dedicated posts on the network for all members, and once it has started it would also be great to gather stories and experiences from planners using the network as well. Please get in touch with me if you might be up for it, let's talk.

I'll be looking forward to seeing you on the Planners Worldwide Tripping network and please spread the word to the planners and strategists you know!

Now certified in Thai massage & Foot Reflexology

 

I've just completed two massage courses in the past couple of weeks and now have my certifications! It is the first time I have a certification awarded by the Thai Ministry of Education. It's good to learn new stuff and this is the kind of practical training I probably enjoy the most. It was great timing as well given ti is low season here and at most were about three students for four teachers or more at any time, I can certainly recommend The School of Massage for Health here in Chiang Mai if ever you're interested in learning. It's not a big school or a factory like some of the others which I enjoyed as well. Given we were few students we really had a a lot of time with the teachers to learn ask questions and practice a lot.

I passed the Foundation Traditional Thai Massage course with an A. Being in Chiang Mai, I learned the local Northern style Thai massage, which is supposedly a little more relaxed than the Southern Wat Pho Bangkok style, though I have read a few things online about it and the differences sound minimal. Given my teachers also told me the Northern style is different but not that much (Same same but different, as it were) it might simply be a North vs. South thing going on in the country. I was talking to a friend yesterday who surprised me by saying he'd had conversations with people who had visited Thailand several times and had no idea there was such a thing as traditional Thai massage, they firmly believed anything massage related was only to do with prostitution or happy endings. Obviously while those things exist for sure, my courses had nothing to do with it, and Thailand has a big traditions in massage that are a part of their traditional medicine.

Given we were praying to the guy every morning, I looked it up, and the person considered the founder and spiritual leader of traditional Thai massage is Shivago Komarpaj, whom according to Buddhist tradition was the Buddha's personal physician over 2,500 years ago. The basics for traditional Thai massage involves a lot of yoga-like stretching and pressure points based on the Sen lines in the Human body. The Sen lines are a Thai traditional medicine thing, maybe based on though different from the Chinese traditional medicine meridian lines. Beyond the Buddhist tradition, Wikipedia tells me the current forms of Thai massage are most probably a blend of influences from India, China, and other parts of Southeast Asia that were more or less put together around the 19th Century.

Doctor Father founder of Thai Massage, Shivago Komarpaj. Nice beard.

In the first course I learned many different points and lines to manipulate with the person laying on their back, massaging feet, legs, chest, stomach, arms, shoulders, neck, and head. With everything covered I can perform a massage over two hours long - probably close to three in total. A fair warning: if ever you ask for a massage over an hour long, there's a good chance you'll be in for some of the more adventurous stretching positions so be ready. And that's not even involving the more advanced levels with the more extreme lying on your stomach positions (and someone sticking their knees and elbow in your back while stretching your arms in weird positions). It's all for good health, and it's also worth knowing that it is supposed to stretch but not to hurt - unless you enjoy that kind of thing - so if you have a traditional Thai massage, they should ask you how you prefer the pressure, and if it hurts it's not right so don't hesitate telling them.

I enjoyed the first course, had time for another and chose foot reflexology massage which definitely holds its own origins in Chinese traditional medicine rather than a purely Thai heritage. Who doesn't like a foot massage, and it's fairly easy to do, not needing a big mat or a table or anything. I really enjoyed this, and it's pretty interesting to learn all the reflex points and areas for both feet and hands. So I'm trained to perform a foot massage that can easily last up to 90 minutes, and can even add up to 30-45 minutes on a hands massage. I was mainly tought by Teacher Pattana who has 20 years experience in teaching Thai massage so she knows her stuff - the other teachers stepped in for occasional practicing on someone else, and they would all give me different tips and pointers which is great. Everyone develops their own style of massage once the basics of all the positions mastered. On the reflexology side, I have charts with all all the areas and more specifically learned about 26 points for each foot, areas to massage the feet in certain ways for various ailments. I have no idea if it works and it's not supposed to replace seeing a doctor if you need one, but it's all very interesting in any case. I passed the test with an A+ and all the teachers told me I was really good, I just need some more practice now so I'll be giving some massage to friends in Hong Kong!

Google's Project Re: Brief. It's like Inception for Advertising

I hadn't yet heard of Google's project Re: Brief and came across the full version documentary that was released a couple of days ago. Cheers to Ben for the link. I watched it this afternoon, here are some thoughts about it. For info, this video is a project initiated by Google to bring several advertising people who created iconic ads out of retirement and bring them on with young teams with the intention to use their experience and insights for new digital media advertising. The video director is Doug Pray who also created the excellent Art & Copy documentary.

The four original ads and their art directors and copywriters are:
Harvey Gabor - Coca Cola 'Hilltop' or I'd like to buy the world a Coke song
Amil Gargano - Volvo 'Drive It like you Hate It'
Howie Cohen & Bob Pasqualina - Alka Seltzer 'I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing'
Paula Green - Avis 'We Try Harder' their copy platform and brand positioning

Firstly it's very "meta" to such extent I think the ultimate person targeted for this video is basically Abed from Community (or an advertising equivalent if such a person exists). It's a documentary that is an advert from Google for Google, featuring advertising people, talking about advertising and working on new adverts for other brands and overall celebrating advertising for advertising people. It's like Inception for advertising. An ad inside an ad inside an ad. It's certainly heavy on advertising and technology geekiness and the main audience is most certainly that: people who work in marketing and advertising. Which makes perfect sense as that's who Google sells their ad technologies and platforms to. 

It is an excellent idea from Google to promote themselves and by the end of it they're probably the brand coming out with the most original idea of all the ones covered, well obviously given none of the other ones would have come to life otherwise. I recommend watching it if you're in this business or if you're interested in finding out about the inner workings of advertising - I'd also recommend watching Morgan Spurlock's brilliant The Greatest Movie Ever Sold if you haven't seen it, just for some counter-balance on the advertising theme.

[There are probably some spoilers following and given it's a geeky advertising documentary, these are geeky advertising thoughts]

The subtitle is 'A Film about Re-imagining Advertising' and that part I was kind of disappointed about, because they don't actually re-imagine anything about advertising. On the contrary, they focus on the heart of the ideas and concepts that the iconic ads they had made in the 60's and 70's were about, regardless of digital media and online display advertising. Which is great, and I think that's how things should be - but it's not really re-imagining anything. It's a good sub-title in that it helped make me want to watch the hour long documentary, though not as strongly as 'from the director of Art & Copy and the makers of these famous old ads for Coke, Avis, Alka-Seltzer, and Volvo'. They start on a premise that they want to rethink online display advertising because it hasn't really changed in 15 years but I don't feel there's any progress from that particular perspective by the end of the movie - after all the format of TV ads haven't changed that much either and there is nothing wrong with them (or is there? There are no direct stats as for online banners). Maybe they'll bring out some results from the campaigns later..? They are focusing on narrative, storytelling, and extensive technology for thei ads. That is no different from the celebrated campaigns these days; I haven't really followed Cannes this year yet but let's say Old Spice for an easy relatively recent reference. 

I was disappointed by the lack of current context in terms of media consumption habits for the audiences brands are trying to reach in advertising. There were a few mentions in terms of media that struck me: Cohen and Pasqualina (I think it was Cohen's comment) say: "Three [TV] Networks, when you put it on, everybody saw it". In the following scene Amil Gargano says about the Volvo ads: "When you ran an ad like that in a full page bleed in Life magazine [...] it jumped off the page." 

While these creatives are rightly focusing on the concepts and ideas for the ads, their experience of their success seems interestingly tied to media and the media context of the time they were ran. There was a lot of mentions in the film of very complex technologies and the huge amount of things you could do with them though almost no mention of the people these online ads are trying to reach and their behaviour, only mentions of the technology available. There are hundreds of TV networks in the US alone, over a trillion websites people can visit, people surf the web and multi-task across different devices like using their laptop or iPad while watching TV, the print industry is dying right now, many magazines are closing down, etc. I am doubtful a full page ad in Life magazine has the same impact today than it had in 1962. 

Or does it? 

I wouldn't know, the last time I bought a magazine was at least 2 years ago. The film is about re-imagining these classic ad ideas and expanding them using complicated digital technologies for advertising which is great and they are or at least seem to be great digital executions, but not really anything about the premise of innovating on online or mobile display ads. They talk about interactive banners on mobile and tablets in the film, I have never clicked on a banner with my mobile phone or iPod Touch - I don't know if many people do.

My best guess as to the intention is to inspire more brands to take risks with digital advertising as well as storytelling. Again, I'd be really curious to see results from these campaigns. Effectiveness and proof - if at all possible - is what might encourage more brands to go in these directions, because they are business decisions first. If there is no conclusive proof, I wouldn't be surprised if many marketing directors choose to keep investing in what they know or feel works: TV advertising and online search ads for example, and reserve these kinds of neat digital media cross-media shiny things for a day they'll have extra budgets to play around with...

All that aside, the ideas and executions they came up with for Coke, Volvo, Avis, and Alka Seltzer are really lovely, and I thought the most interesting common denominator - aside perhaps from Ralph - is that they are about real people and real stories enabled and/or with nifty technology. Coke in particular given people played and had a direct experience with the interactive Coke machines was probably the one that really stood out for me. Volvo and the 3 million miles car seems full of lovely stories though Honda also had a similar activity with someone completing one million miles with their Honda Accord last year.

Avis was interestingly the only of the four brands who rejected the first idea and they told them what they wanted and the team went and created something to match. As Paula Green says: "It was a very important learning meeting because in saying what [the client] thought, she outlined a lot of stuff that we didn't know". Or in different words from Morgan Spurlock after his pitch meeting with POM Wonderful in The Greatest Movie Ever Sold: "Then basically they told me what they wanted me to pitch". A reminder of how important it is to get as much information and the right kind of information out of clients for a brief.

Tell me what you think of the film if you watch it!

Meanwhile in Chiang Mai...

The moat surrounding Chiang Mai Old Town

As I am soon leaving and just realised I have arrived here almost six weeks ago, it might be about time I write something about Chiang Mai. Where has that time gone and what the hell have I been up to?

It breaks down pretty easily actually given I chose to come to Chiang Mai for some of the same reasons so many expats and retirees land here and settle, which is to say living is cheap, weather is good, people are friendly, it's a good size town with lots of great restaurants but not too big or crazy like Bangkok, good Internet connections, etc. For me in addition to the fact that it's cheap to hang around here, I hadn't been to the North of Thailand, it's not too far from Vientiane where I was before, and I needed better Internet connection as I had a lot of work coming up. 

I spent two days cycling around to visit rooms when I arrived (I'd researched a bunch of areas and potential studio apartments to rent by the month beforehand). Once I found a good room, I spent the best of the four following weeks working full on. And now in the past 10 days I've been taking massage classes (I'll keep that for a separate post). That's about it. I haven't left town, didn't go visit anywhere in the region. I've not really been in the mood for much sightseeing or visiting the countryside lately and I'm keeping my money to buy a new laptop which is really needed, mine is over 4 years old and dying, I was just waiting for the new MacBook Pros to be announced.

Chiang Mai is a nice town, as I said it attracts a lot of foreigners: tourists of course, many retirees, expats, travelers and working nomads. I've talked about it with some people I randomly met and this place seems to have this effect on many people that they never want to leave once they arrive. I, on the other hand, am looking forward to leaving next week. I'm still ambivalent about Thailand, as I thought when I visited quickly last year, I don't have strong feelings for the country either way and aside from rational reasons (cheap, warm weather, friendly people) I don't feel the same way as many people who are drawn here and love it so much. Context is key as usual and one thing I'm starting to really miss are good friends. I've met some nice and interesting people here and there but not really made any friends. I might come back, I might not, we'll see. For me it's mostly been convenient to stay here for a while and I don't regret it though I'm really looking forward to catching up with friends in Hong Kong soon. I don't have many photos as I still don't have a camera since I lost my last one in Malaysia last year and only have my crappy iPod Touch for photos right now, I'll get a new one soon.

One of the many temples in Chiang Mai, if you're into Buddhist temples, this is a town for you.

A few highlights of my stay in Chiang Mai:

• Having my own place. Sometimes when you're traveling these kinds of thngs matters and after staying with friends and family for the past few months it has been nice having a place to call home, as well as small luxuries like a desk, a fridge and a kettle
• Being invited for a night of Muay Thai fighting, which I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would, had a really good evening. An American Texan girl was fighting that night and I saw her open invite on a CM Facebook group, met with a cool bunch of people. Jenny won her fight by the 2nd round. I learned Thai people traditionally try to place points winning high kicks or throw downs and don't use punches that much. Meanwhile if Farangs fight they go for overpowering punches and trying to KO their opponent - in this case successfully
• Trying out restaurants in Chiang Mai, there are loads of great ones, both Thai and International
• Meeting up with an old friend from France who moved here and I hadn't seen in a very long time. If you read French he maintains a good website with a lot of great recommendations for Thailand and surrounding countries
• Learning Thai massage, I'll write more about this soon.

Trying out for some kind of artistic photo...

A year into being a wandering planner

Hitchhiking in Malaysia last year (hadn't hitchhiked since I was about 16. Lots of fun!

It has been almost a year now since I've officially transitioned into being a digital nomad, working and traveling on the way. I remember a year ago I had just left from three fantastic weeks on the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia and got sick arriving in Kuala Lumpur with a mean tonsillitis. I was at the end of my travel budget and seriously needed to figure out what was next, being ill I couldn't do much so I took it as a good opportunity to mull things over.

I could see three main options:

1. Come back to Europe and look for a new full time job (most likely as a planner in another agency)
2. Stay in Asia and look for a full time in one of the main business city platforms (Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong). Similarly Australia was another option in the same style
3. Go freelance full time, and while at it do it remotely and keep wandering.

I had no particular desire to come back to London or anywhere in Europe where I'd be likely to get a full time job. I enjoyed the tropical weather and wanted more of it (still do). The other point is I felt I'd already experienced the agency life and maybe this is/was too cynical but I thought any other big city, office job would be more of the same thing, just a different flavour, and I wouldn't be happy with it for long. The next thought was that it would then be the same question of going down a road I've already traveled whether I was in London, Paris, Shanghai, or Singapore. 

The real exciting challenge was certainly doing my own thing and choosing to carve a path rather than walk one. I'll admit I had the idea in the back of my mind, I was already set up as a sole trader in the UK given I'd done some extra freelance work the previous year and I'd made sure I had everything ready if I chose to go that way. Based on that I took the plunge, did a quick return trip to Hong Kong where I had started my trip and had left my laptop with one of my best mates James. I picked up my laptop, had some fun in HK for a few days and then went to back to the Perhentian Islands. I made good friends there, I wanted to keep scuba diving, and I thought if I was successful at working by the beach then I could definitely work anywhere. The first chapter of my travels was complete and a a new one had begun.

A year into being a professional wandering planner I can tell you the experience so far has been mind-blowing and amazing. A few things about my experience of becoming a digital nomad:

First, it's damn tough. 

You'll need high doses of discipline and self-confidence with a side of stubbornness. Nobody is watching after you, you're responsible for your own work, revenue, AND you may well be in a physical environment with many distractions, where everything is telling to just go and sit on the beach, forget about work. And I'm working online, so a LOT of distractions going on there too. If you don't think you can focus and shut out the distractions, this lifestyle might not be for you. By the way, it's not an innate thing, I believe everyone can do it with more or less training and practice. For having a lot of freedom, I give up on a lot of certainty. I've been through several times of seriously worrying about where the next job was going to come from, not having any idea if or how much money I'd be earning next month or the following, not having enough work or finance visibility to plan my next traveling moves in advance, cutting down on treats, beers, or activities to save money, wondering if I'm doing the right thing or if I'm good enough for it, etc. Mind going berserk and I have to keep managing it, telling those thoughts to shut the fuck up and keep doing my new business contacts. That's important: quiet down the thoughts in your mind and look at real world actions, those determine your success - not your thoughts and feelings. In the beginning I had no idea if it would work at all, just going by the sheer conviction others have done it so I could too (and I have a good professional background, I know a few people, and I know what I'm doing job wise).

It does get easier though of course life also throws some curve balls, it's all part of the ride. There are ways to alleviate some of the uncertainty and I'm working on that now. To start with, unlike me, you may want to start working and traveling with your savings, rather than spend it all and then start thinking about earning some more...

Second, it's truly amazing. Words barely express how awesome it is.

Of course when I'm just casually talking about what I do, I don't mention the above points. Yeah, I work on a tropical beach, it's pretty damn fucking awesome. Throughout last summer when I started I was working in a resort lobby in my bathing suit. I didn't wear any kind of footwear for about 3 months while on the island. If I'm not working on a project and I'm done with my new business contacts, I can close my laptop and stop working - I can go for a walk, I can go diving, I can go to the cinema, go shopping, have a nap, sleep in, write a blog post, whatever I fancy. That said I'm rarely completely switched off work, gotta keep those new business contacts up and that pipeline full. If I don't have any work on, I don't need to stay at a desk pretending to work. If I have work on, I can manage the delivery schedule with the clients in order to give myself free time. Equally, I can work 16 hours or 12 days straight because the project is urgent and I can. I can take time to work on personal side projects. I get  to visit brilliant new places around the world and meet excellent new people. I can set time aside to learn new things and have new experiences. 

Some of you might be interested in what I've actually been doing behind my laptop. I'm mostly working directly with SMEs and startups these days:

• I spend a lot of time looking for work and keeping in contact with friends and professional acquaintances. 'Out of sight, out of mind' is pretty true so I make extra efforts to keep in touch (and I like keeping in touch anyways, I think it's really important)
• I developed marketing, brand strategy and promotional tactics for a Kenya / US based Luxury African safari tour operator intending to develop a brand and service selling directly to people rather than competing on costs only with wholesale tour operators
• I worked on the launch strategy of a new Facebook social game of a small game development studio based in Hong Kong - really interesting stuff to get into
• I devised a brand and B2B strategy for a new mobile company in Nigeria who have secured one of the few mobile banking licenses recently granted by the government. Very interesting piece of work.
• I worked on two pitches (fairly large banking and energy clients) for an agency in Trinidad & Tobago. First pitch was won, still waiting on news for the second
• I developed marketing plans / strategies, brand or business advice for a bunch of startups, in the US, in Australia, in Europe, Singapore, and working on very different industries (film production, travel & tourism, education, etc).

I've also started on a bunch of personal projects and ideas though haven't achieved much with any of them so far. That said there is one I'll be talking about soon and is pretty exciting. Last year, I joined Heather's team to help with crunching data for the Planner Survey. This year, we are working on the idea of an online network for planners (widest sense of the term) to meet up in different countries while traveling, may it be for couchsurfing or having coffee. Heather had announced this as a Couchsurfing.org group but we're looking on a new platform right now and we'll be announcing it soon for a sort of soft launch until the Planner Survey later this year.

Meet my little niece, Anahì

 After The Maldives and the unexpected return trip to France for Keanu's funeral, I was unfortunately pretty broke so I asked my brother Morgan if I could come and stay at his place the time for me to get back to work, back on my feet financially and I also wanted to spend more time with the family and see my baby niece again. Morgan, his partner Virginie and their daughter Anahì live in Vientiane, Laos, where I also spent time last year, so I hopped on a flight to Sri Lanka from Male, stayed a night (sadly, I really want to experience it properly but I'll leave it for another time), flew to Bangkok in the morning and then straight on to the overnight train to Laos - where it was great to meet and hang out with random fellow travelers over drinks in the bar car. Back in backpacker land!

It was really great to hang out with my little niece who changed so much over the past year, she's 2 1/2 years old and lots of talking going on now. She's also in her 'Terrible Two' phase, saying no a lot and I turned out to be the aim of a lot of it. She would take quite a few opportunities to remind me of the things that I wasn't allowed to do according to her: "Willem, you no! You can't go to the nursery school!" or "Willem you can't go to the restaurant with us, no!" All the while waggling her finger at me and looking all serious. I'd just smile and tell her that's ok, I'm working on my computer and wasn't thinking of going to the nursery school anyways.

There were a couple of things in particular that I thought were amazing. One, I had her play with my iPod Touch and she loved taking videos - actually what she really really loved was watching herself afterwards. Over and over again, of course. It might partly given she's at the phase developing self-awareness - She knows she's her and she's Anahì but still talking about herself at the 3rd person; there is no "I" just yet. It might also be partly because she's a girl and enjoys looking at herself (Did I just say that? Must've been someone else) which she'd maybe take after my sister Saskia who looooves her own reflection. Anyways it's really fascinating to see a kid at that particular stage of development - I don't have children as you may know so it's not something I experience very often.



The second point was with of all this digital technology and in particular photos everywhere, how does it have an influence on the development of memory for children (and everyone else, actually)? So for example, I'd be working on my laptop and Anahì comes to me:

"You working..?"
"Yes" *smiling*
"Writing email?"
"Well, yeah I guess that's what it can be summed up to..."
"Photos..?" *cutey begging voice*

So I'd stop working for a bit and we'd go through photos on my laptop, Facebook mostly. I don't know about you, but I don't remember a single thing from when I was her age. I certainly couldn't name and identify on photos pretty much every single member of close family, extended family and close family friends like she could, every time, without fail. Even people she'd only met once. I think it's incredible. At her age, I also didn't have near as many photos all over the place to look at, so I'm wondering if all our digital content is having a particular impact on memories, perhaps re-enforcing them given we have so many more mementos of past moments than we had before. Or is it the opposite and we'll be forgetting more because there is not need to remember, like with phone numbers?

This is my bro Morgan. Just to prove how much life goes on and on, down and up, and again; the day after Keanu's funeral he learned his partner Virginie is pregnant - so massive congrats, he's going to be a daddy again! Life is mental. They are also moving back to France and he's planning a very exciting new business, starting up a food truck - I've started helping on the plan, more on that some other time.

He had another excellent story  happen while I was there. He teaches at a nursery school and tutors a few kids from the French school (where Virginie teaches).  Anyways, he was with this 9 year old and going over his history lesson. A sentence said that very little precise information about the Gauls was found because it was undecipherable, so most of the records of their culture come from the Romans. The kid didn't understand and asks Morgan about what the word "undecipherable" means. Morgan explains, but the kids looks even more confused. He says "But I don't understand how we wouldn't find their records, why don't they just look it up on Wikipedia or something?" Morgan explained how the Internet was really not old, that wasn't even around when he was a kid so it certainly wasn't when the Romans were. The kid just couldn't believe it, or fathom it, it's taken a stretch of imagination on his part to think about a world without the Internet.

We kind of know intellectually that whole new generations are born with this tech around and it's natural to them but really when you have kind of experience you only get the faintest glimpse of how it actually is for them and it's pretty crazy to try and comprehend. On top of that, I think the education system and curriculums need to change and adapt fast, or else may well have a lot more confused kids like that!

All in all I spent 6 weeks in Vientiane. No sightseeing, just working and enjoying the family, reading, tropical heat and all that. The experience of freelancing, working remotely and not having work when you need it is pretty damn tough, it takes a lot to keep going - certainly a lot of confidence verging on considerable stubbornness and belief that it's possible. And then I also had a moment with my bro and Anahì, sitting on steps looking at the Mekong, enjoying the sunshine while sipping on a banana and mango fruit shake. And those magical moments make it all a worthwhile hundreds of time over. Thanks again for everything bro, love you!