sabbatical Tag

    BE INSPIRED, Wellness / 14.10.2015

    Inspired by our recent experiences of attending a Greek cooking class on the island of Poros and touring Florence in a vintage Fiat 500, our quest to inspire people to #LiveWithLess has evolved to a little more than us simply telling everyone we meet to read James Wallman's Stuffocation (which you really, really should). Before departing on our journey, we created our Wanderlist (our version of a travel bucket list) and recently looked at it and noticed how many worthy-of-their-own-limelight experiences were on it; featuring both experiences we've been dying to do for years, and amazing recommendations from our community, that we hadn't even thought of. As a result, we have created a series of graphics that illustrate what you can get...

    BE INSPIRED, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Featured, Wellness / 31.08.2015

    After being gone exactly 6 months, I feel it necessary we share the uglier side of our trip. Browsing through our blog posts and Instagram feed, it seems like we're having the time of our lives. And don't get me wrong – we are. It's bloody amazing. But it's not all ice-creams in the sun and pretty landscapes. Noooooo. So far, I think we've tallied 135 toilets scrubbed, 250 kilos of cow dung spread, 2 tons of rocks shovelled, 60 metres of pathway laid, 57 beds made, and I cannot even remember how many wine glasses we've polished. You see, to come from the luxuries we left behind in Johannesburg, to the brutal truth of volunteer work, we are now on the opposite end...

    Denmark / 29.07.2015

    Ok, ok, we're going to come right out and say it. Copenhagen is exactly what you think it is. It's beautiful, charming, design-focused, filled with Neoclassical architecture, and its many streets, bridges and alleys are astutely arranged to be bike-friendly. It's also the one city we've both been dying to see since, well, we can remember, so this was a special trip. We arrived in the city two days before my 30th birthday, giving us enough time to familiarize ourselves with the hot spots (and our hostel, where we ended up counting down to the end of my twenties the next day). Our friend Ant flew in from London to join the celebrations, and once all three of us had a...

    Norway / 22.07.2015

    We went on the most scenic road trip in the world. Bold statement – yes. A little biased towards this Nordic wonderland – definitely. Enough footage to prove it – we'll let you be the judge. Having arrived in Bergen with no plans or expectations, we somehow managed to meet a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend who was kind enough to play hostess. We received a personalized tour of the cobbled city streets, a very comfortable bed belonging to a beautiful aspiring 13yr old blogger, and an evening involving a silent concert in front of the Lille Lungegårdsvann, as part of the annual Bergen International Festival. It was the perfect start to this leg of our journey. Thanks again Kat, Maria, Max and Martina. After a quick trip to...

    BE INSPIRED, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Featured, Love, Wellness / 11.07.2015

    Before embarking on our journey, we created our Wanderlist. It's our list of wishes and needs, and the reasons why we quit our jobs in the first place. It's a list we worked on together, and decided to use as a guide for our sabbatical. Most recently, we decided to tick off number 37: "go unplugged for a month". After nearly 15 years of daily digital interactions, we saw it as therapy (and an experiment) to go one solid month without social media, blogging, fancy applications, or the Internet. We allowed ourselves to stay 100% in each moment, and use tech only for creation i.e. cameras for photo taking, iPad for eBook reading and note taking, and our laptop for illustration,...

    Creativity, Wellness / 03.04.2015

    It's not often you find a company that just gets you. There's goosebumps in the beginning, and you always find ways to impress each other. There's small amounts of compromise, and hardly any fighting. Conversations flow, and there's no complaints when you haven't shaved (um, not that that's ever happened). You get excited every time you see it, and it gives you enough space to enjoy "me time". It's not often you find a company that also stands for something. One that places its people ahead of its profits, and makes long hours feel short. A company whose leaders are "one of us," and whose openness to change and experimentation come with wider arms than that of a Wandering Albatross' wingspan. This was the...

    BE INSPIRED, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Featured, Love / 19.03.2015

    It's been 3 weeks since we left sunny South Africa, and based on popular beliefs, new habits should have formed by now. The get-up-early-to-get-cracking-with-the-day routine of everyday life should be all but a distant memory. On the contrary, we are on a very strict schedule - those who know me will understand my need for structure (and my love for schedules). Sure, we're no longer waking up to an annoying alarm, but rather allowing our natural sleep cycle to function on its own; and leaving our house doesn't involve long, painful sessions in the morning traffic; but our get-up-early-and-get-to-work habit definitely hasn't gone anywhere. When planning our journey, we spent a lot of time referencing the Godfather of creative sabbaticals, and the...

    BE INSPIRED, Creativity, Wellness / 13.03.2015

    Leading up to our departure, we obviously had to get rid of, *ahem, throw away and sell* a lot of our stuff. When crossing borders, every last gram is precious. With a baggage allowance of 30kg each, and hand luggage allowance of 7kg each, Steve and I were faced with quite a feat - how to compress and diminish our entire lives into 74kg. That’s like one person. An average height, average weight human that needed to eat all our belongings, and hop on-board with us. Phew. For those of you who know me well, I am a little bit of a clothing collector…ok ok, clothing hoarder. I own(ed) 7 watches, multiple pairs of boots, tons of dresses, and all the scarves. Well,...

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