January 13, 2020

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Being fully personable and transparent with my community is what I am all about, which is why I will be posting a monthly blog series discussing my life so far and my journey to become a successful remote web designer.

What I have been doing:

Since my last Life Update, I have been doing some exciting travel and generally just enjoying myself over the Christmas Break. I started off flying to the UK in early December with a stopover at Singapore.

I arrived in Singapore in the late afternoon, fortunately, leaving the airport was very straight forward and was able to collect my suitcase without any major hassles. The Changi Airport has a great feature of 24-hour luggage storage which I took advantage over. The storage came to S$15 for 24 hours, which I thought was good value for retaining my sanity not having to lug it around on public transport.

Working as a remote website designer has it's perks - Singapore Cloud Forest — Singapore Garden By The Bay’s Cloud Forest

I stayed at Cube Boutique Capsule Hostel in Chinatown in my time in Singapore. It was a really great hostel for a solo traveller and I loved being able to break up my journey in a new city. The location of the hostel also made it really easy to explore and try some of the delicious street hawkers Singapore is famous for!

My second day in Singapore saw me complete nearly 30,000 steps! I left my backpack at the hostel reception as I was flying out that night and spend the day seeing the amazing city. I caught the Metro towards the Bay where I walked around the waterfront, visited the Marina Bay observation deck, and the lovely Gardens by the Bay including entry to the Flower Dome, Cloud Forest and Floral Fantasy.

Working as a remote Website Designer enjoying a day off in Singapores Floral Fantasy — Floral Fantasy smelt even more amazing than it looked!

That evening I headed back to the hostel common area which doubled as a co-working space to get some work done before heading to the airport to pick up my suitcase. My flight wasn’t until 1:00am so I made sure I spent some time exploring the Singapore Changi Airport including a swim in the pool! Changi, you are amazing!

Taking the morning off working on my personal graphic design project to enjoy Singapore amazing Cloud Forest — Singapore Cloud Forest is a dream! (And airconditioned)

Working on some personal Graphic design work websites in a hostel co-working space in Singapore — Working on some website work in my hostel co-working common area

A few days in London > travelling Switzerland

With Joe still at work before Christmas, I wanted to fulfil one of my 2019 Goals before Christmas: see snow! I flew on a 10-day return trip to Switzerland, flying into Basel and exploring, Luzern, Lauterbrunnen, Murren, Zermatt and Interlaken.

During this time I struggled with being away from Joe and my business, with a few enquiries coming in that I could not deal with until I was home.

Taking a day off as a remote website designer to visit Luzern, Switzerland.

Took a day away from building websites to explore Luzern, Sitzerland

Landing in Basel with a new website enquiry!

Where I stayed:

Hyve Hostel Basel – Good for getting some work done in their co-working space. They also had a communal kitchen which took the sting out of Switzerland food prices! From Basel I took a day trip to Luzern, which was also amazing and super pretty!

Valley Hostel Lauterbrunnen – In a cute little village, I found Valley Hostel super central and easy to make friends in. I had my first snow experience in Lauterbrunnen and even took the cable car and train up to the little village of Murren.

Hotel Alfa Zermatt – One place I have always wanted to see since I first found out it existed was the Matterhorn, located in the Swiss village of Zermatt! Zermatt was very cold but insanely beautiful! I visited the Gronergrat while I was there who’s train ride has serious Polar Express vibes!

Balmers Hostel Interlaken – My last night before heading back to Basel airport the next day. While quite tired from my trip, I did head out to go for a long walk and enjoy some ice skating!

Back in London for Christmas

I enjoyed another amazing winter Christmas here in the UK and brought in New Years thinking about the kind of impact I wanted to make in my web design business in 2020.