I moved into a tent out of necessity, not choice
There’s something very irritating about the term, nauseating even: Digital Nomad. The sheer smugness of it.
Look at you, stuck in your nine-to-five with a frozen screen; I’m jetting off to a tropical island with a 200 Gbps download speed!
We all know the reality is not always the same, but it’s almost tempting to wear the digital nomad label as a badge of honour. It’s certainly a term I’ve used to describe myself in the past. Why not? …
The timekeeping lessons I learned off-the-grid
When I first attempted to escape the rat race by moving off-the-grid in a remote corner of Portugal, the most important tool I took with me was a battery-charged alarm clock. My aim was to become more self-sufficient, but somehow I felt that a clock would be indispensable at the outset of my adventure. Eventually, I started living off the land in tune with the natural rhythms of life, totally free from the modern tyranny of time. …
How to integrate as a gardener abroad
Friend or foe? Pest or pollinator? Weed or wildflower? These were the ridiculous questions I asked myself as I pottered about on my small plot of land in the early stages of my horticultural adventures in Portugal. I referred back to the notes I’d taken in England while studying for my Royal Horticultural Society exams. A weed is something growing in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s the official definition, I believe.
I looked around in awe at the unfamiliar environment as I went about covering my strawberry patch with netting. The soft rolling hills of the cork…
How I grow my own food, off-grid and on the move
I’ve often been called an oxymoron (or abbreviations of the word), but that’s never bothered me. The contradictions in people are what makes them human and some conflicting interests, like gardening and travelling, are not as mutually exclusive as they may seem. Since I embarked on my off-grid adventures in Portugal 10 years ago, I’ve realised that growing your own food while staying on the move can in fact work out. What’s more, low-impact seasonal gardening combined with slow travel can actually make for an eco-friendly lifestyle design.
In Search of the Good Life in Pure Portugal
When I arrived in central Portugal with my laptop, solar-powered charger and…
Andrew Theophilou
I’m a writer with previous experience in education, NGOs and advertising. I have an active interest in permaculture and a passive interest in making money.
