Life of a Travel Writer: when the travel writer needs to get 'away' from it all

My life as a travel writer is one I've come to treasure. So when people tell me I've got the ultimate dream job, I normally agree. However, it's been a tough few months, which explains the lack of blog posts. So tough there have been moments when my commitment to the writing career Terry and I have worked so hard to establish has well and truly wavered. So tough there have been times when I've questioned the very meaning of this travelling life. So tough that there have been more than a few periods when I've thought of abandoning everything and getting 'away' from it all. But when the world is our office, where do we get 'away' to? The fact that we didn't have much of a life at all for a few months was a major factor. Our time was spent chained to our desks writing from early morning to late at night seven days a week from August through October. We'd forgotten what it was like to do 'normal' things, to laze around and flick through a magazine, to watch a program on TV, to read a chapter of a book before bed, to go out for drinks with friends. I've been so busy I've missed birthdays; I worked until 2am on my own to meet deadlines. I've neglected family and friends whom I'm geographically close to for the first time in years (we're currently in Australia) and I'm consumed by guilt for not spending enough time with my mum who has gone through a couple of tough years herself following a road accident that left her without an eye and with an array of injuries. All this would be enough to make most people question the life they're leading. But add to that endless technological problems from excruciatingly slow and intermittent internet access and continuous inexplicable email problems (yes, I'm talking about you mac.com!) to couriers who deliver important documents to the wrong address and postal systems where send things astray. Trivial by comparison? Not when these communications systems are your main means of dealing with clients around the world. Add to that editors with their own communication and technology problems, editors with ongoing demands that far outweigh the fee they're paying, and editors who simply shouldn't be editors. But every job has its challenges, not all bosses are understanding, and nor are all colleagues easy to get along with. When the world's your office there's bound to be a glitch or two. Or three. And whose going to listen to a travel writer complain, right? Well, we're 'away' from it all now, so I hope to resume regular blogging soon and catch you up on the action-packed adventures we've been having.