Category: Lifestyle

Live in Someone Else’s Home – Book Airbnb
More people seem to book Airbnb accommodation more often. If you are travelling on a budget but enjoy staying in comfortable accommodation, or if you are a nomad enjoying living in other people’s houses, you have probably already heard of Airbnb.

Airbnb has been quickly taking over the old school way of staying in hotels or hostels. More and more travellers are now choosing to book Airbnb accommodation.

Dom and I have often opted for Airbnb accommodation while travelling because it is a way to really feel at home. You just need to rock up with your backpack, unpack, put your feet up and relax.

The difference with an Airbnb accommodation is that you are staying in real fully furnished houses with all the comforts you need for a fraction of a hotel price. Ok, some houses can be expensive but it all depends on what you are looking for.

Many people have decided to live in Airbnb accommodation as a lifestyle. You basically do not have to buy anything to make a house your home, because someone has already done that for you to enjoy.

If you are not signed up with Airbnb yet, click on the image below to register and get a GREAT DISCOUNT on your first booking! Book Airbnb now.

If you are a couple, a group of friends or even a family, your best bet is to rent an entire house or apartment. Usually, there is a good price reduction on longer stay such as a month and over.

If you are a solo traveller or you simply want to meet new exciting people, you can opt for renting a private or shared room in a house.

I did that when I travelled solo to Miami. I stayed in a very nice apartment where I met a bunch of other really cool traveller and the owner was just an incredible host with a super friendly dog.

Why You Should Choose to Book Airbnb

#1 As soon as you walk in you feel like at home

That’s it! Someone else has already made your bed and you have all the basic you need.

#2 You do not need to purchase any superfluous stuff

Normally if you want to stay in a place for a longer time (for examples several months), you are most likely to have to purchase items for the kitchen including cooking utensils, pots, and pans. Here you don’t need to because they are already there for you. Normally you also get bed linens and towels! So when you leave again you do not have to worry about selling stuff or moving it with you.

#3 No bills to pay

Forget about electricity and/or gas bills or internet. They are already taken care of and included in the rental fee. You only need the password for the wifi and you are all set.

#4 No need to clean up

If you like me do not like house chores, normally these Airbnb places have a cleaner included in the rental rate. They will come and clean the apartment/house for you and even change your bed sheets.

These are only a few of the benefits of staying at an Airbnb accommodation.

In conclusion, there is only one way to find out all the other benefits that an Airbnb stay will give you. Sign up to Airbnb now and discover the great benefits of living in someone else’s home.

Related articles across the web
- Renting Your Room to Travelers
- 8 Affordable Airbnbs To Stay In This Summer
13/04/2017
5 15 Minute or Less Healthy Dinners
Healthy eating doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

I love cooking. Now that we are in New Zealand I cook almost every night. I can make up a delicious healthy meal in almost no time.

Here are some of my ideas for 5 healthy dinners to put together in 15 minutes or less. All serve 2 people.

Stir Fry Chicken with Vegetables

Ingredients:

250 gr. skinless chicken breast – diced
1 clove of garlic – crushed
1 cm. piece of ginger – chopped
½ red onion – sliced
1 red bell pepper – sliced
1 yellow bell pepper – sliced
250 gr. fresh green beans
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
Juice of 1 lime or lemon
½ cup coriander – chopped
Salt & Pepper

Method:

Heath 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan or wok. When hot, add onion, ginger, and garlic. When they start to brown add the chicken breast and stir-fry till golden. Set aside.

Heath the rest of the oil. When hot add the bell pepper and broccoli and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes.

Add the precooked chicken then the soy sauce, lemon juice, salt, pepper and coriander and stir-fry for 1 minute. Serve immediately.

Pasta with Asparagus and Mushrooms

Ingredients:

250 gr. Penne pasta (or any shape of your choice)
1 tbsp olive oil
250 gr. fresh asparagus – chopped
250 gr. fresh mushrooms – chopped
1 clove of garlic – chopped
½ onion – chopped
½ cup vegetable stock
½ cup Parmesan cheese

Salt & Pepper to taste

Method:

Cook pasta in plenty salt water using a large pot.

Heath the oil in a frying pan. When hot add onion and garlic and sauté until golden. Add the asparagus, mushrooms, salt and pepper.

Cook for 2-3 minutes till mushrooms have released all water and have shrunk. Add the vegetable stock and cook for 5 minutes.

Mix the sauce together with cooked pasta and sprinkle with plenty Parmesan cheese on top.

Broccoli & Chinese Mushrooms Stir Fry

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
5 cloves garlic – sliced
1 red chili – deseeded and chopped
1 head fresh broccoli – chopped
250 gr. Chinese Mushrooms – chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
Juice of 2 limes or lemons
Coriander – chopped
Salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Heath olive oil in a frying pan or wok. Add garlic and chili, cook until soft. Add broccoli and cook for 1 minute. Add Chinese mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes while stirring quickly.

Add lime juice, soy sauce, salt & pepper, and coriander. Toss well and serve.

Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients:

250 gr. skinless chicken breast – diced
1 clove of garlic – crushed
½ onion – sliced
1 red chili – deseeded and chopped
1 large red capsicum – sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
Lots of Coriander
Juice of 1 lime or lemon
Salt & pepper to taste
1 avocado
1 pack of flour tortillas

Method:

Mash the avocado with salt & pepper for guacamole and set aside.

Heath olive oil in a frying pan. Add garlic, onion, and chili. Cook until soft.

Add chicken breast and cook until slightly brown. Add the capsicum and cook for another 5 minutes. Add salt & pepper to taste, lemon juice and coriander.

Warm up the tortillas in a frying pan or in the oven. Serve fajitas with the mashed avocado.

Ginger & Honey Prawns

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
1 red chili – deseeded and chopped
1/2 onion – diced
1 clove garlic – diced
2 cm. piece of ginger – grated
2 tsp honey
250 gr. large prawns – unpeeled
Salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup coriander – chopped

Method:

Heat the olive oil and chili in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, ginger and honey. Cook until onions soften. Stir continuously.

Add the prawns and cook for 5 minutes. Stir as needed until prawns are pink. Add salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Enjoy your dinners in good company. Buon Appetito!

If you have any recipe suggestion feel free to comment or please get in touch

Related articles across the web
- What To Cook For Dinner
- Chef Wendell: Preventing heart attack
28/02/2017
5 Tips for an Easier Relocation to Civilization

As some of you already know, Dom and I have recently relocated to New Zealand for awhile. We are currently living in Auckland.

This is the first time I live in a first world country in almost 8 years! The change has been drastic.

We took the decision to move to New Zealand while we were still in Tulum. It was a very last minute choice, we did not have much time to plan ahead.

Dom was offered a business opportunity that he decided to take, so we packed our bags and within almost no time we arrived in Kiwi land.

We were welcomed by rain and cold which persisted for months! Not a great start. On the other hand, it was great to be reunited with Dom’s family. Being around them was like a spot of sunshine in a land of mist.

I did not have any winter clothes and I refused to buy some! I was dressing in layers, onion style, to try keeping warm and I would’t leave my spot on a chair attached to the heater.

To be honest, up to now I still haven’t bought any winter clothes. Soon I will have to accept the fact that I will have to get ready for winter. I thought I had erased that word from my vocabulary forever.

Relocating to a new place is never easy. It takes time to adjust and to get used to the new environment and customs. It is especially difficult if the relocation does not involve tropical beaches, warm ocean, hippie lifestyle,
scuba diving and minimal clothing.

And it is even more difficult if the relocation is to a big city like Auckland and you do not like living in a city.

Oh my goodness! For me it was a proper culture shock! I had gone from living in hippy Tulum to a civilized and expensive “normal” world. I literally felt like Tarzan when he got taken out of his jungle and put in the city.

All I could think was: “Put me back where I was!” I feel like a fish out of water.

We have been here almost five months and I am still not entirely settled. New Zealand is a beautiful country but far from my idea of living my kind of lifestyle.

It takes time to fit in and to find your way in a new place, especially if at first glance it does not offer what you are looking for.

Changes are good anyway. Sometimes it’s good to do things you would not normally do to improve your way of life, knowledge and skills.

I have started to concentrate on things I always wanted to do but always found excuses not to. For example, since being in New Zealand I have started to develop my idea of working freelance from home.

I joined a freelancers’ website and really committed to follow through with this project. Now I am getting regular clients asking me for articles and translations. I am also occasionally doing some Social Media Manager work and I am working on improving my website developer skills.

These are great ways to start a life as a digital nomad, which means next time I will be on the move I will be able to sustain my living by working from a computer. And more important I will be able to live anywhere without having to worry about finding a physical job.

Even a situation that might not seem ideal at the moment, will turn out to be a productive and positive one. Patience is needed. I have to admit that most of the times when it comes to reaching my goals, I do not have patience. I want it all and now!

Here are my 5 tips to help easing the difficulties when relocating to civilization.

1) Keep an open mind – Try not to have expectations. It is good to have an idea of what it will be like, but at the same time leave your mind open. Do not set high expectations because if things are different from what you thought you will end up disappointed.

My idea of New Zealand was the one I made up in my mind when I came visiting in 2013. Of course the situation was different; I was on holiday, exploring and I knew I was here only for few months.

This time I came here for living, well at least for a while. It is a totally different story.

2) Focus on positive things – Ok, there are many things you might not like in your new settings, but surely you will find many things you like as well. Think about the little things you were missing in the old place and that you can now find in your new “civilized” country.

It could be anything, from a bottle of your favourite wine to a moisturizing lotion made from only pure natural ingredients found in nature. I can’t get enough of Sauvignon Blanc. New Zealand has the best one.

I know it might sound silly but at the end of the day is the little things that count.

3) Take up a new hobby (or pick up an old one you left aside) and discover new passions – Yes, why not? Depending on what the environment offers, you can choose your new hobby. You might not even have to spend any money on it.

I took up running again and loving it! It is a great way to enjoy the outdoors and to keep fit at the same time. I used to run many years ago and then stopped. I tried to run a few times in Mexico but it was way too hot and not enjoyable at all.

New Zealand is perfect for it, bonus!

I have also ordered some canvas, oil colours and a set of paint brushes so I can start painting again. I used to do it often and I was getting good at it, then I stopped. Actually they just arrived today; I will soon put my Dali’ skills into action.

4) Be patient – It will take time to get settled and organize the basic of your new life. Give yourself time. There will be days when you just want to pack your bags and jet off to a tropical beach far away from everything. Hang in there.

Close your eyes, breath and remind yourself why you decided to make this move. If you made this choice, it must have been for a good cause.

5) Make the most of it – It is easier to say it rather than do it, but it is possible to make the most of a situation that does not seem ideal to start with.

Find your strength, look around with different eyes and most of all chill out and smile. It will come the time when you will proudly say: “I made it!”.

Whatever the reason and the length of your relocation will be, surely it will be a positive experience.

Patience is the virtue.

Having said that, I think I will always be a nomad. Some people are just born this way, it must be in the DNA.

Nowadays you can buy DIY home testing for many things. I should consider one for testing my DNA, maybe my ancestors were true wanderers from all corners of the Globe.

Do you have an experience to share? Drop me a line or post a comment below, I would love to hear about your experience.

26/01/2017
6 Tips for a Better Detox

The opinion, experience and advice expressed in this article are solely of my own.

Last week I did a 3 days detox for the first time in my life.

For the whole 3 days I was not allowed any food. I used a certified organic dietary supplement called FAST by Miessence.

A good friend of mine did it before me and recommended the product. She was incredibly satisfied with the result, so I thought: “Why not? I have nothing to loose!” Besides that, I had indulged myself excessively during the Christmas and New Years holiday so I thought I could definitely do with a detox.

The ingredients in FAST are all organic plant and herb extracts and are to be blended to make a shake 3 times a day. It is basically your substitute for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Don’t worry if you do not have a blender. I don’t have one myself so I put the powder in a small bottle with water and shake it.

The flavour is… let’s say interesting. Quite herby and minty. It is not totally bad but it is not great either. The first day I found it hard to drink. But I got used to it and the following drinks were not as hard as the first one.

During the course of the day, you are only allowed to drink water or herbal teas. My drinks of choice were homemade soda water with lemon, peppermint tea and lemon & ginger tea.

Day 1 was hard. Towards the end of the afternoon my head filled up with all sorts of thoughts and questions about life, past, present and future and my power of concentration dropped significantly.

I had a very bad night sleep, in fact I was awake for most of it.

Day 2 was not too bad at all. I got used to the drink, I felt positive and I was looking forward to the next day. That evening I even made dinner for Dom. I made him a cottage pie and I watched him eating it. He said he tasted delicious (and I believed him cause he had 3 portions!). That made me quite proud of myself because I was able to cook a tasty meal without even tasting it!

Day 3 was the hardest. We had a family gathering in the evening with lots of delicious food and I could not eat it. I could have broken the fast but my will power won over my love for food and I made it. Needless to say that I was very much looking forward to breakfast the next day.

In summary, the 3 days detox has been a success. I did not loose any weight (I do not need to as I am already quite fit) but I lost lots of water retention, my skin looks and feels better, my mind has been much clearer, I feel more relaxed and positive and finally my chronic cough has also improved (I do not cough much anymore).

All in all, it was a very positive experience. It was hard, I do not deny it but I am very glad I did it.

Following my experience, I came up with 6 tips to help you get through the fast:

1) Stay hydrated – drink lots of liquids as in water or herbal teas. It is very important to keep yourself hydrated at all times, plus drinking could ease your feeling of hunger.

2) Stay positive – it can be easy to feel down if you feel hungry. Keep your mind focused on the end result. You might suffer a bit but it will be worth it. Try to think about things you like.

3) Do not leave your last drink too late in the evening – FAST has some herbs that give you energy, if you drink it too late during the day you might have troubles sleeping. This happened to me on day 1 so I made sure to have the last drink no later than 7pm on day 2 and day 3.

4) Think about the delicious food you will have at the end of your FAST – it worked for me, whenever I felt a bit hungry I would think about something I would have liked to eat when the detox was over.

5) Keep your mind occupied – work, read a book, practice your hobbies or have a nap. You might feel a bit low on energy which is perfectly normal, so you can indulge yourself on an afternoon nap.

6) Keep an open mind – do not have expectations about the end result and embrace the detox. Each person is different and the detox has different effects on each one of us. Allow it to work on your mind and body.

Please leave a comment or drop me a line if you have any questions or if you want to share your detox experience.

19/01/2017
To All Strong Women

Today, a friend of mine shared the article linked below.

Le donne forti camminano dritte, lungo l’asfalto della vita (Strong Women Walk Straight, Along the Tarmac of Life)

I read it, and then read it again. And again.

It made my eyes teary, cause I recognized myself. And other women very dear and close to me. This is to Us and to all strong women out there.

The article is in Italian, so I translated it below.

Strong Women Walk Straight, Along Life’s Road

They are tough women.

Women that no longer wish to settle for contentment. They have the sun in their eyes, and one too many wrecks in their heart.

And yet, they are never tired of challenging the uncertainties of the sea. They live off dreams mixed up with cement. And it happens sometimes they cannot tell apart the ones from the other. They dance barefoot. A little gipsy, a little wild. Under their Rimmel dressed eyelashes and their ruby red lips, they are forever little girls.

Their mind gives birth to their slow, heart nested eroticism. That then, it winds translating to their body. Their lovemaking is complex.

So, when you take a woman you do not take only one piece. You get married to her absolute and harmonious wholeness. Strong women strip of the soul, they dress it with magnificent nothing, they divide it into parts, very small parts and they put each one in everything they do.

Everything they touch becomes magic. Their life is a steeplechase, without a podium and without medals. They carry failures and defeats with an innate elegance and suffered dignity. Like a dowel of life, that besides the pain, they would never trade. Because they are who they are.
And they do not deny it.

Strong women never stop looking for someone worthy of loving again. Because strong women go back to love once more, one more time, one too many times. Even after swearing to themselves they would never love again. Strong women have no fear. But they are the ones that make it worth it.

06/07/2016
The Biiter Pill

https://youtu.be/SkfSwhRZq5s

Our flatmate Karl and his band, THE BIITER PILL, performed at the Big House Burlesque Party. This is a short video of their performance.
Chris Heazlewood – Guitar/Singer, Sean O Reilly – Guitar, Jeremy Drapper – Drums, Karl Harris – Bass

Well done guys, YOU ROCKED!!!

20/03/2013