I’ve just got back to Sydney after a month of travel and all of it was blooming brilliant. As you may have seen on the social medias I started September back in the UK for a Christening, hopped over to Ireland for a wedding, hung out with friends for a week in London and then ‘stopped over’ in Abu Dhabi and Dubai on the way back to Sydders. And I think at some point this was supposed to be a break but I totally forgot to take it.
I seem to have this blogger thing ingrained in me now. I rocked up to my friend’s wedding in a crazily quirky heritage castle in Ireland with my camera at the ready. I took sneaky Instagram Stories in the bathroom in my bridesmaid dress (not as odd as it sounds actually, the bathroom was worthy of a story!) and dragged both myself and hubby out of bed with raging hangovers the next day, insisting we get on the road and see more of the country.
If there’s an off switch for travel bloggers I don’t seem to be able to find it.
Freelance work doesn’t stop either. I had the same number of freelancing writing commitments in September as I do when I’m not travelling so inbetween walking the dog, tickling my nephew and eating all the junk in the UK I sat myself down to bust out articles about interior design trends and Sydney’s coolest co-working spaces. I didn’t hit all my deadlines I’ll admit – especially as I got a bit distracted by our wedding photos coming in and took trips down memory lane to parts of London I used to live in – but I made a concerted effort to keep up with everything whilst in the UK. I really did!
And then I went to the UAE and wowee was there a lot to see, eat, snap and share on social media! I was completely blown away by the scale and beauty of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and Justin and I had our faces blown off (twice!) by the fastest rollercoaster in the world in Abu Dhabi. Dubai had all the biggest, bestest, tallest, wettest things too and I went a little bit insane trying to take all the photos and write all the notes about ALL THE THINGS EVER.
For our 5 days in the UAE I put together an itinerary that would make the keenest travellers tired and then got all anxious about getting photographs that hadn’t been seen a million times before. I had to check myself when I nearly ruined our helicopter experience by spending the hour wait time you get before boarding manically praying for a window seat. I didn’t want to the embarrassing blogger who put their hand up and asked for the best seat to get pictures but I was also massively worried I’d be in the middle and wouldn’t be able to get anything usable out of it. In the end I was assigned a middle seat and Justin gallantly gave it up so I could have unobstructed views – we switched in the helicopter and it really wasn’t worth sweating about. (Seriously, Jayne, don’t ruin things by stressing.)
I guess what I’m saying is that though it may have seemed like I had a month off it definitely didn’t feel like it. But I’m certainly not complaining. I know I’m onto a good gig with this travel blogging malarkey and working holidays are part of the package. It might take me a little while to recover from the jet lag and junk food but you can be sure I’ll be back here in no time with lots of stories, advice and the odd selfie from this epic September.
Until then let me know where you’ve been recently…
Greeting from Taiwan and let me tell you it’s definitely a working holiday !
Can totally relate.
Taiwan – how lovely!! Enjoy the working holiday 🙂
As long as you’re enjoying yourself, and you do get *some* rest, it’s probably ok. I mean, you got into travel blogging because you enjoy seeing the sights, taking photos, writing about the whole experience… Of course it’s hard to shut that off!
Also, the helicopter ride…even if I wasn’t blogging about it, I’d be anxious about getting a window seat. And really, it’s a scenic flight, why is there even an option for a non-window seat?!
Haha this is so true! It’s actually super awkward as on every helicopter ride they weigh you before assigning seats in order to balance the aircraft and I always end up in the middle seat so I knew it was coming! We had a row of 4 in the back but it would be so much better with just 2 – then everyone wins. It’s not a cheap thing to do afterall!!
I didn’t realize you lived in Islington back in London. When I saw that photo of the 5 Guys, I was like, wait, that’s the 5 guys near where I live! It is the best area, and hope you enjoyed your visit back 🙂
Yes that’s my old hood! It was lovely to revisit although so much has changed over the years. The 5 guys is new but my old favourite Indian – Zaffrani – still have the same menu and staff, much to my delight!!! Still a fab place to live isn’t it 🙂
I think most bloggers have this problem. Once you start you just can’t stop and switch off. It just comes naturally! I managed to kind of do it on our summer break this year where we stayed in a beach hotel along the Turkish coast so I was kind of forced into relaxing for a few days. It still didn’t stop me from taking lots of pics and blogging about it though!