Ok I’ve done it! I’ve successfully left London for a second time. After spending five years in this place I’ve managed to escape with my life intact. It was a bit touch and go there towards the end with a little flurry of boozy leaving parties but my liver has held strong and I’m happy to report that my escape is on the horizon!

I’m at the airport now and sad to have to say goodbye to friends once again but excited at what’s in store. It’s been two and a half years since my last proper backpacking type trip and I’m not sure if my old bones will be able to cope with the bumpy bus rides and dorm rooms but I’m more than willing to have a crack at it!

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I’m sitting here at Friendly’s Hostel in Manila on the roof and taking full advantage of their free wifi connection while I wait what feels like an eternity for my room to be ready. I’m stupidly tired so I’m not sure how productive I’m being but it’s still nice to be able to fill up waiting time with something semi-productive.

I tried to work on the long flight from London to Hong Kong but was sabotagued by the girl in front of me wanting to have her chair as far back as possible. It was all up in my face! I was able to keep it open but the keyboard was pushed into my stomach and the typing stance I had to adopt looked pretty ridiculous and was definitely not ergonomically correct! But what can ya do.

So I’m here, I’m stinky, I’m tired and I’m hoping sleep and a shower is on the horizon. So far so good on the work front though and if this free wifi in hostels thing is common then I should be laughing.

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Usually when I come back to Canada after a year or two of being away I feel like life in my hometown has stood still. Most people seem to be working at the same places, going to the same bars and living the same routine over and over year after year.

Well this time around something has changed. I’m getting older and people are having babies. Babies! So now I feel like the one who’s stuck in a routine while everyone’s lives at home are changing like crazy. Everywhere I look people are married, have houses, babies, plasma TVs and careers in the making while I’m homeless with only a backpack full of crap to my name.Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want babies or TVs or babies on TV or any of that stuff but it has got me thinking about the circle of friends I’ve made travelling. There’s something to be said for surrounding yourself with like minded individuals who never utter those words ‘so, when do you think you’ll settle down?’ I think I heard that question 74 times. Not that I’m counting.

So I’m off once again to avoid reality for a little longer! I could be gone another couple of years this time around (sorry mum!) and I’m sure when I get back I’ll be even more out of the loop in St. Catharines than I am already but that’s a price I’m willing to pay.

Bring it on!!

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I’ve been spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to create a Wordpress theme for Wanderstruck.com that I happy with and I’m about ready to throw my laptop into the streets. Well, not my laptop, my parents’. Not sure how well that would go down.

I know I could pay someone to whip me up something that suits in no time but this is something I really want to learn how to do and toying with the theme’s CSS is frustrating my to death but if I don’t keep hammering away at it, I’ll never learn.

So what are the results of my three weeks at home in Canada? Not much besides a lot of hair pulled out and late nights. I’ve done a few important things but as far as this new site goes, it’s like a black hole that sucks my time into it without showing much progress.

I thought it might be interesting to give the site’s link and let anyone who is really bored and wants to see how confused I am to have a look at my progress (or at this point, total lack of any progress). Nobody ever shows their sites as a work in progress. It always seems to be an all or nothing deal which makes sense but it might be interesting to some people to see how much I still rely on trial and error and to also see how many design changes I’ll make before this puppy goes live.

I’m doing my theme editing work at http://www.wanderstruck.com/blog but you’ll probably spot changes to the main page soonish as well. I was initially hoping to have this site alive and kicking by the time I leave Canada on Monday but if that happens then it will be some kind of act of god. I’ll be kicking back on the beach for my first week in the Philippines so if I can find some wifi and avoid temptation then you should start seeing some progress.

Hopefully.

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Happy Year everyone! I started the year off with a crippling hangover, as usual. As usual I swore off drinking ever again and, as usual, I don’t expect that to last long. December was another step backwards by a bit but I’m still pleased overall with there I am. I earned $1605.10 in December and am happy to be staying above that $1500 a month mark. I would have cleared $2000 easily for the first time had I kept my mouth shut about a link sale but I’m happy to have learned that touch lesson and I’m not going to dwell too much on it.

Earnings breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $268.24 - This seems to be stuck around this level and I’m not expecting it to jump up much until I build a few more sites which probably won’t happen until around April when I get to China.
• Affiliate Sales - $674.44 - I had a great month in November for affiliate sales and while I wasn’t expecting to keep that pace up, I wasn’t expecting it to drop off quite as much, either.
• Linkworth & Text Link Ads - $106.99 - This has been pretty steady lately with a link dropped or added here and there without much predictability. I know I said I’d be keeping this site ad free but now that it’s gotten a bit busier I might try for some Text Link Ads. I’m curious to see if a site like this, about making money online, will sel links more quickly than my travel sites.
• Private Link Sales - $355 - I had about $500 worth of links up for renewal and managed $185 worth of renewals plus another $50 that a guy has yet to pay so an almost 50% renewal rate isn’t too bad, I guess. I also sold a yearly link for $170 which was my only new one.

I’ve been home for a couple weeks now and haven’t managed to work on my sites as much as I’d like (story of my life!) but I have got a few little annoying jobs done so it hasn’t been a total waste. Things are going to get interesting from here on in as I see whether working on the road is something I’ll be able to pull off and if my earnings will increase as a result.

I’ve booked my flight from Manila to Bangladesh for February 11th so I’d better get my arse into gear before I ship off to the land that the internet forgot! I think my goal for January will be to not lose or break my laptop! I don’t see myself getting much done until I settle in Beijing in April so I’ll keep my expectations low and hope for the best!

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