Nomad With A Notebook
About Me
About me...
Does anyone really read these pages?
I don't suppose many of you lovely people who have stumbled across this site really care where I was born (Reading in the UK), what my favourite toy was as a child (a carebear called Grumpy) or what I had for lunch today (pizza)...
However, websites like to include an about me or about us or about someone page so here is mine....
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What can I tell you about me?
I am Helen....
As a woman, rapidly approaching ‘middle-age’ (gasp!!) - I have long-held dreams of what my life could look like, ‘if only…..’
In my twenties my life looked like it was going to take me in the conventional direction I had always envisioned and desired.
Fate it would seem had other plans.
As I hit 40, single and living a life in which I felt far from fulfilled and barely content, let alone happy, I knew I had to find a new direction.
A couple of years ago, a number of things made me appreciate how preciously short life really is. We cannot predict what is lurking for us around the corner.
Therefore, I realised that it is down to me today to make my life fulfilling and at least be able to say, ‘I tried’....
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In 2018/19 I gave up my nursing career for a time. Nursing was no longer driving me and I knew I needed something new.
A lifetime ambition had always been to travel and explore the world.
I wanted to experience new destinations, new cultures and to find adventures for myself.
And as a very wise person once said (and I have no idea who...),
"if you have an itch -scratch it!".
To scratch my itch, I decided to finally take my dream and make it real.
In 2018 I discovered international housesitting.
Housesitting was perfect for me. It is a great way to travel and see the world, while taking on responsibilities of caring for another person's home and pets.
A way to live like a local in new locations and have companionship from furry friends.
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Signing up to a housesitting website made it my main method of travel and accommodation... all while writing to share experiences, inspire and provide travel information and advice.
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For just under a year, I travelled to different destinations around the world and did it all through house-sitting and I loved every moment.
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Mid 2019, however, due to health and personal reasons, I returned to the UK... and just as my life was growing stronger again, the little pandemic that we call Covid-19 decided to strike and the world closed down to the kind of easy travelling I had enjoyed.
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Grounded in the UK and returning to some nursing work, I also took the time in lockdown to take a fully accredited life coaching course... something I knew I would enjoy doing and work I can do wherever I find myself in this great world we inhabit.
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In the latter part of 2021 I ventured into nomad life again but something had removed my ability to think as big as the world and I found myself very much staying around my old home town, still housesitting but not happy because (I realised with hindsight) I had lost sight of fulfilling my itch to travel further afield and experience more!​
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However, I am very happy to report that an A-HA moment hit me one evening and I realised that the world of international housesitting and being a full world nomad was back out there waiting for me. The pandemic was not holding us back any longer and I could reach out and grab any opportunity I liked, just as soon as I liked, if I made that choice to do so...​
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And so that is exactly what I am doing!
