Do Anything as Long as it Feels like an Adventure

Living out of a suitcase and constantly moving around the glove is a lifestyle that wouldn't suit many people. Combine that with your only home being a strange foreign country and I'm basically always living in total chaos and tackling the unknown.

After nearly 10 hours of straight work and more still to do, I snuck down to the beach to read a bit and watch the sunset.

I think a common phrase said within the bike racing community is, "this isn't a job for many could handle, but for those of us who can, we are the luckiest people in the world." 

I'm grateful and spoiled that I have a job where when I tell someone sitting next to me on a plane what I do, their eyes expand and they immediately tell me how jealous or lucky I am. Trust me, I know.

Who knows how long I'll do this for. I'm applying the advice of Neil Gaimon, "I tended to do anything as long as it felt like an adventure and stopped when it felt like work.”

Right now, Dubai feels just right. It's an adventure; it's strange; it's fascinating and I'll be happy to be back on the move come Monday and on to the next adventure. 

Quick Jaunt to Munich and Oktoberfest

Last week, I headed to Munich, Germany for two nights for work meetings. Because what would my life be without a few flights sprinkled throughout the week?! I haven't been to Munich in probably 15 years and didn't pay much attention to the fact Oktoberfest was set to begin while we were there. A quick early morning wake-up, tram to the train station, train to the airport and then two flights got me to Munich.

It took basically all day (this is my own fault because I only want to fly SkyTeam, which always means a connection through Amsterdam), so a quick shower and I was in a cab to dinner. It was a big work dinner at a pretty traditional German place where nearly everything was breaded and fried. At that point in the evening, I was still making good decisions and went with the steak tartar with a side salad (and some fries). It was great catching up with people I hadn't seen in months.

With all the famous Munich beer houses right around the corner, about a dozen of us decided we needed to hit the Oktoberfest night life. I walked into Hofbrau and agreed with a coworked that we would only have a glass of wine. Before I could say anything, a round of these were delivered to the table:

I had that moment where I knew drinking one would be a bad idea for so many reasons, but then the side of me that loves an adventure spoke up and won. I cheered and drank with the group and loved every moment of it. I knew the experience and memory would be worth it....until I had my cab ride back to the airport. Forty-five minutes later, I was crawling into bed at nearly 2am with a full day of meetings staring me down. 

I think I look pretty decent for only a few hours of sleep. The next day was spent in meetings from 8am until 5:30pm. It wasn't too bad and in hindsight, I'd do it all over again. I skipped going out that evening, basically because I needed sleep and I couldn't fathom another Oktoberfest night. Apparently, I'm getting too old...and the whole gluten-free thing is a huge downer at a beer festival.

Instead, I went to the hotel restaurant and caught up on work and emails while eating alone. I assume other people who travel frequently feel this way, but I have absolutely no issues with eating alone. I typically take a book or my laptop and still enjoy. I had been in meetings all day and traveled the whole previous day, so I was behind on work. I would rather get caught up over a glass of wine and a steak with salad and go to bed knowing everything was taken care of than having a sense of anxiety and unfinished business.

The next day, I flew back home (of course via Amsterdam) and managed to get home early enough to enjoy a lovely evening out in Gent dining al fresco. Soon the Belgian rain will start and these warm days will be a distant memory.

Glimpse At My Recent Offices

The title of this blog is the Global Office for a reason. My office is changing daily and could be anything from my apartment, a hotel, a press room, a train, a plane or a car. I could even have all of those in the same day. This also means my backpack is my life line. I have it designed so if I'm abandoned on the side of the road in a foreign country (which would feasibly happen), I can survive for a few days. Power chargers, spare batteries, sim cards, snacks, laptop, Ipad, extra phones, extra headphones, etc. I have it all in there and it weighs nearly a tonne.

Here are a few "offices" over the past month with a few words of explanation: 

At my neighborhood bar in Gent. I was fighting with my Garmin and it was taking hours to get all the right maps on their (I have to switch installed countries several times a year). This meant a glass of wine was needed to proceed.

In the middle of Poland where Internet wasn't always great. We found a cafe with super strong WiFi and got cranking before the race finished. This is a fairly normal habit if the race doesn't have a press room (or doesn't have WiFi at the press room...?!?!)

Team bus. Another frequent location for me to work while I'm waiting for the race to finish. This place is plush, so no complaints. I typically am tethering from my phone when I work here.

The hotel room bed is one of my favorite offices. Rarely, rarely, rarely do I turn on the TV. I think some event had happened in the US and I actually had CNN, so I followed the news as I worked on a race report and stayed up to date on bike racing via TweetDeck.

This looks more like my typical hotel rooms. They aren't usually super fancy, more barebones. Sometimes we are even in dorm rooms (so wish I had taken a photo of the dorm room in Australia!)

And finally home. I know it looks super cluttered and crazy, but I'm rarely here. I love looking at all the photos on the corkboard above and all the paper on the right are the bills and paperwork that I MUST deal with before leaving on the road again.