Transglobe Blog The World in a Blog

Mike CJ is a full time blogger living on the idyllic Canary Island of Lanzarote, just off the coast of Africa, but it’s actually a part of Europe. You can read his blog at www.mikeslife.org

I’ve chosen to use a normal working day as my example. I get up at 0730 every morning and head straight to my home office to check see what has been happening overnight on Twitter, Email and my blogs. Satisfied that nothing dramatic has occurred, I have breakfast which usually consists of a bowl of Bran Flakes.

I’ll then spend some time showering and getting ready for work, and will always stream BBC Radio Four in the bedroom while I’m doing that. I’m lucky in that I don’t have to wear business clothes any more, and my everyday wear is shorts, T shirt and flip flops. After 20 years of wearing suits, I’m proud of the fact that the only one I now own is a Tuxedo.

I head back into the office, which I share with my wife Julie, who is also a blogger, and we get our heads down writing posts, dealing with emails and working on our to do lists, whilst checking various social media sites from time to time. We generally stop for a tea or coffee mid morning, and a catch up on the other things we need to do for the rest of the day.

After another work session, we usually break for one of our “Blogger’s picnics”. We invented these when we started working online, as a way to make sure that we take breaks in the fresh air. We’ll make up some sandwiches, then head out to the beach or into the hills around our valley. The food we make reflects the area we live in and will consist of hunks of bread, goat’s cheese, olives and figs as an example. If we’re going for the hills, we’ll take the quad which is great across country. We’ll park somewhere quiet and eat and read. We’re both avid readers and get through 2 to 3 books a week each.

After lunch it’s normally visiting time, and we’ll have planned meetings with advertising clients and any other errands we need to run around the island. Sometimes we’ll be interviewing people for the blogs, or taking photos, or just visiting an area to update our own knowledge.

By the time we get home our daughter will be back from school (she’s sixteen) and we’ll decide which one of us is going to walk our two dogs. After doing that, there’s normally another spell at the computer, and then it’s time to prepare the evening meal.

I tend to cook most nights, and I always use fresh food, often with herbs and fruit or vegetables from our garden. I love cooking and really enjoy this part of the day. I confess to having at least a couple of glasses of wine or a couple of beers every night while I work in the kitchen. Typical evening meals for us will be Paella, some kind of curry, Fajitas or stewed meat with couscous.

We always eat together as a family at around 8 O’Clock, and it’s a time when we can all catch up with our lives. Things happen much later here in Spain, and after eating our daughter will usually go out to meet friends and we’ll do the same, either having people over for a drink, or meeting them in the Plaza in our village. Our friends are a real mixture of nationalities, with Spanish, Brits and  Germans being the most common.

During the week, we avoid going to bed too late, and are usually tucked up by around 11 O’Clock. We use the BBC iPlayer to download UK television to our bedroom PC and enjoy a single program most nights. We love food programs, Top Gear and Dragon’s Den, and intersperse those with drama series like Casualty 1907.

We tend to drift off around midnight and that’s a day in my life! I’m looking forward to reading yours.