A month in a Spanish Air BnB. 🌞

oh, hello!

It’s been so long since I’ve written a blog that isn’t business related, that I’ve completely forgotten how you normally start these things.

Do I say hello? How do you do? I hope you’re well?

I suppose, if anything, I should actually begin with “Hola” as I’m writing this on the balcony of the most perfect Spanish apartment overlooking the sea with a glass of pineapple juice in my right hand.

I flew out here just over two weeks ago. The abysmal UK summer weather was really starting to take it’s toll on me mentally and I realised I needed to do something about it. I never thought I was someone who was affected by the weather, as I love Autumn and Winter and wouldn’t say I suffer with SAD, but my goodness, the constant rain, clouds, and overall grey-ness was making me pretty crappy to be around (there were a lot of tears).

I ummed and ahhed about this trip for a while as, you know, being relatively recently self-employed, I had finances on the brain. But then my boyfriend asked me this - “if you stay in the UK for the next four weeks, and it rains often, are you going to be sad?”. And the answer was absolutely, yes.

I realised that you can always make more money, but you never get your time back and mental health and general happiness is also, super important.

So, with just under a week to go, I booked my flights, found this Air BnB and then immediately started to feel stressed about just how much I had to do before I left for the airport.

However, this was 100% the best decision I’ve made all year.

The Air BnB cost me only slightly more than a week-long package holiday would’ve cost me, and instead, I get 4 weeks of sun, sea and ice cream whenever I want.

And work, of course.

The only reason I’ve been able to do this is because of the aforementioned self-employed status and the freedom it has brought me this year.

Being able to simply pack my laptop and not have to ask anyone’s permission for annual leave or to work from a different location is something I never thought would happen, but something that I couldn’t be more grateful for.

Last year, my days looked like long commutes to an office in the middle of a business park where I’d have to sit in long meetings, eat less-than ideal sandwiches and couldn’t walk anywhere or get much fresh air.

Now? I get to make myself an iced coffee in the morning, take it onto the table on the balcony and do work that fills me with joy. Then, I get to get changed, walk down to the private pool or the beach and spend my afternoon reading my book in the sunshine and treating myself to ice cream.

If you have a job or a business that allows you to work fully remotely, I couldn’t recommend a trip like this enough! It’s been just perfect, I feel so much better in myself and I never want to go home. 🫶