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Having been practically chained to my computer for the past week, I’d been looking forward to getting outside to soak up some of that glorious Florida sunshine this morning. Doubly so, because I’d booked the first of my private training sessions in Pekiti Tirsia of the year with my buddy Dino Martinez for first thing. I’ll save a proper write-up of my training with Dino for a future post.

Suffice it to say that the weather was fabulous, no — perfect! I took the pictures below from the volleyball beach as we took a stroll along the shore after Octavia had been for a swim, and I had spent a couple of hours whirling sticks around my head… finally pausing for lunch and a pint of Guinness at the nearest Irish pub on the way home.

Glamorous though it sounds, being an internationalist can be just as ordinary as working 9-5! I’ve spent the entire week trying to make some headway against the backlog of work I didn’t get done while we were preparing to relocate to Florida, and while we were chasing back and forth between Orando and Saint Pete’s to get our Harley’s back on the road.

Nevertheless, anything different is refreshing. I’d started to get used to the thousands of tiny lizards that scurried across my path in Orlando whenever I went anywhere on foot… but this afternoon I had a real treat when I spotted this little guy in our back yard after parking my bike. Any idea what he is?

Update from @dssstrkl on Twitter:

@gvvaughan Its an anole. A male anole displaying his dewlap. I guess your camera is sexy. :)

With our Harley’s back from being serviced in Orlando, and the gorgeous Mustang reluctantly returned to the airport, we spent yesterday settling into our new little home set just back from the beach in Saint Petersburg.

This morning, I managed to stay in bed until 8am, so I think I’ve finally shaken the jetlag. After breakfast, Tave and I went for a short walk along the beach, and I took some pictures so that you can see what life as an Internationalist is like.

What’s an Internationalist, you say? Essentially the same thing that other people refer to as being Location Independent, or a Permanent Tourist/Perpetual Traveler. We have portable occupations that allow us to earn a living independently of our physical location, so we live wherever in the world we please, and own few enough possessions that we can pack them all into a suitcase and move to a new country whenever our tourist visas are about to expire…

Our plane touched down in Orlando on Thursday night, almost 20 hours after we originally departed from the train station in Worcester, England. Unfortunately, the car hire company at the airport were out of compact cars and had to upgrade us to a swanky red 2010 Mustang at no extra charge!

We spent the last couple of days reluctantly driving it between Orlando Harley-Davidson, our nearby self-storage unit and our home for the next few months in Saint Petersburg. You can clearly see how disappointed Tave and I were at having the car in the pictures below.

To offset your jealousy a little, you’ll note that it sometimes rains even in Florida. Especially in the hurricane season :-)

I’ve been back in England for almost 3 months now, and with only 2 sleeps left until we jet off again I’m going to take up my virtual pen (and actual camera) and document the next few years of our travels.

This is a just a test post to see how well I can post from my phone, in preparation for the good stuff to follow. And a couple of blurry pictures to remind me of the gorgeous Summer days and beautiful country roads of our green and pleasant land, for when I tire of drinking margharitas on the beach under the shade of a palm tree…