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Attending a LOSC Champions League match in Lille
As much as I’ve attended football matches on three different continents, I had never yet had the opportunity to attend a Champions League match. Our arrival in Lille is going to be the occasion, because LOSC has qualified for the round of 16 of the competition and I can get tickets through my works council. There are advantages to becoming an employee again! I even managed to get two tickets, which allows me to offer our Lille friend A. to come along. Although Lille is not the favorite against the German club Borussia Dortmund, they got an excellent draw (1-1) in the first leg in Germany. So the suspense is…
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Paris [February 2025]: Lafayette Saltiel Drapiers & Restaurant Pavyllon by Yannick Alléno
A month and a half after settling in Lille, I think it’s time for a quick round trip to Paris. I’m sore all over and my favorite masseuse is in Paris (I call her “healer” because she has magic hands). Plus, I need to buy interfacing for my sewing projects, but the selection in Lille isn’t exhaustive. JB tells me he still has the Fine Dining offer with American Express (€100 credit at a selection of restaurants) that I can use in Paris. Appointments booked, I leave fairly early in the morning and take the TGV. A little over an hour later, I arrive at Gare du Nord. Lafayette Saltiel…
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[Back from World Tour] Our Move to Lille (2025)
We leave Jordan and the sun on a Thursday, only to find ourselves crammed into a Ryanair flight to Beauvais (it’s the cheapest direct flight we found to France from Amman). It’s with a hint of bitterness that we remember we started our world tour on a two-story Airbus A380 with Air France to Johannesburg. And we’re ending it on a Ryanair. It really feels like the end. We stay a night in Beauvais because after 6 hours on Ryanair, we don’t feel like doing the Beauvais – Paris – Lille train all in one go. Small consolation: before taking the train to Lille the next day, we visit the…
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[story time] How I Successfully Made a Career Change into Cybersecurity
In January 2025, I changed careers, and my lifestyle along with it. Let me tell you about it. A quick recap of the major steps in my career, to set the stage: On paper, I have what many would consider “a dream life”: I have a job I’m passionate about, that pays well, and that lets me travel anywhere, anytime. But gradually, my passion for this work began to fade. From around 2020, I was on autopilot, bored, and started questioning my professional future. There was no urgency, but I’d been doing SEO for 15 years—10 of them professionally—and I couldn’t see myself doing it for another 15. Besides, I…
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My Current Favorites – [February 2025]: Japanese Knife, Lenovo Yoga Book 9i & ClubTidy, Ring Twice
This month’s favorites are all about shopping again. Yes, since we settled in Lille (we finally found an apartment!), I’ve been able to treat myself to things nomads couldn’t afford. Heads up: there are some affiliate and referral links below, but this isn’t sponsored, I bought everything with my own money before recommending them. Whether you use my links or not doesn’t matter at all. Japanese Knife Let’s start with a Japanese knife. Why? Because we’ve been to Japan twice and were dying to bring one back. But we were nomads, didn’t have a home, and didn’t even cook. But now, the need is urgent because I love saucisson and…
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2024 Review: final year of world tour
2023 was very cool, 2024 was oneof the best years of our life. Last year, if you could read between the lines, you understood that traveling non-stop has become very tiring for us. Maybe it’s age, or burnout, or both. After 8 and a half years of traveling, we’ve visited our favorite places, sometimes several times, achieved our wildest dreams. For a while now, we’ve felt the need to settle down a bit. Also, after fifteen years doing the same job, JB and I feel the urge for change and to explore other fields. If for me it’s a blur, for JB it’s crystal clear: he wants to retrain in…
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My Current Favorites – [January 2025]: Dressing in the World’s Best Natural Fibers
After 8 and a half years of traveling the world at a frantic pace, here we are, settled in Lille. It’s very cold, and I need to dress us from head to toe. We used to dress like onions with layers, but now that we’re settled, we’re trying for a more urban look, especially for JB who has to go to the office every day. To do this, I read the excellent book Fabric for Fashion: The Complete Guide Second Edition (English Edition) (p. 179). Quercus. Kindle Edition by Hallett, Clive; Johnston, Amanda. I still want to stay minimalist and buy things of excellent quality, first because I love quality…
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10 Things to Know Before Buying a Kindle on Amazon
I’ve been asked some questions about Kindle following my other article and I realized that I knew a lot about Kindle. It’s been almost 5 years since I’ve been reading exclusively ebooks. I’ve bought 3-4 paper books just for the pleasure of flipping through them, but having to part with them even though I bought them pushes me more to buy ebooks, so I can keep them and reread them as many times as I want, wherever I am. This article is about the Kindle e-reader (Amazon link) but also Amazon’s Kindle service in general. 1. You can use Kindle without buying the Kindle e-reader There’s Kindle and Kindle. For…
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Egypt – Saudi Arabia – Jordan Itinerary
Here’s the itinerary for our air-trip at the end of the year. Our schedule is a bit light for Egypt because we’ve already visited the country. The stop in Cairo is a surprise because we have a layover to go to Saudi Arabia anyway, so we might as well take advantage of it and stay a few days in Cairo. Egypt Day 1 Day 2 Check out the corresponding travel diary here Day 3 Check out the corresponding travel diary here , and and there Day 4 Check out the corresponding travel diary here Day 5 Check out the corresponding travel diary here Saudi Arabia Day 6 Day 7 Check…
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Swimming in the Dead Sea in Jordan
The desert tires us out so much that we always quickly escape to the edge of a nearby sea. We’re spoiled for choice: the Red Sea or the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea has always been a dream for me—there aren’t many countries with access to it (Israel, the West Bank, Jordan)—so this is our very first time discovering it. JB uses our miles to treat us to 6 nights at the Marriott Dead Sea Resort & Spa. We even took advantage of a deal: 3 nights booked, 1 free, with buffet breakfast + spa access (sauna, hammam, pools) thanks to JB’s Gold status at Marriott. In Spain, I had…
