Heavenly Mimolette!

July 19, 2016

Amira made the mistake of bringing me with her to do food shopping. I dragged her into an awesome cheese shop and bought some more delicious cheese, including this incredible Mimolette.

This particular cheese was aged close to two years, and the aging process involves the cultivation of cheese mites, which nibble away at the rind, turning it grey and introducing incredible flavors and small holes that aerate the cheese. It's a cow-milk cheese colored and flavored with annatto. Mimolette is associated with Lille, France, which is pretty much as far away as you can go in France from where I am, which is Aix-en-Provence. Anyway, some FDA goobers in New Jersey tried to ban Mimolette in 2013 because of the cheese mites (which are present in smaller numbers on many aged cheeses), but American cheese enthusiasts publicly shamed them into surrendering and allowing its import.

This oven is also a dishwasher!

July 12, 2016

We're renting an apartment in Aix-en-Provence, France, and it has a small kitchen. The oven, made by Coup de Feu, is only half an oven. The bottom half is a dishwasher!

Fresh herbs

July 12, 2016

Amira bought some potted-plant herbs at a nearby farmer's market, and they'll live in our Aix-en-Provence window until we need them.

Breakfast!

July 12, 2016

We're in Aix-en-Provence (near Marseille) and Amira went to the market around the corner! She's really excited about that market because they have a lot of really great produce, including fantastic strawberries, cherries and raspberries. Plus, they had bread for tasting hummus and pesto and stuff like that. Amira asked the owner where she got the bread, and the woman took Amira to the other side of the market to the baker. Now we have an awesome produce person and bread person and we haven't even explored beyond our own tiny block!

My office today: a flight to New York

July 4, 2016

We're off to spend a week in New York with family and friends before moving (temporarily, natch) to France. So glad Al Gore invented in-flight WiFi!

Nomads Need Trackrs

July 4, 2016

Leo Laporte gave this to me yesterday while doing an ad for TWiT: Watch the show and ad here. It's called a Trackr. Each one is about the size of a quarter and costs about $30. (Pro tip: Buy it here and use the promo code TWiT for a better price.)

After downloading the free app, you press a small button on the Trackr to pair it with your phone, and it saves you from losing or forgetting whatever you attach it to (keys, wallet, spouse, etc.) -- and also from losing or forgetting your phone. If you leave without your phone, the Trackr alarm sounds.

If you leave with your phone but without whatever you attached it to, your phone alarm sounds. It gets better: You can map your house, and use a web browser to find your stuff in your house. And if you truly lose something, you'll be alerted and shown on a map where your stuff is each time another Trackr user gets near it.

I attached it to the underside of my backpack (which contains everything -- camera, laptop, etc.), so now if I leave it behind or leave my phone behind, I'll be alerted. Nice! Watch Leo's ad for more information.

Why living abroad as a digital nomad is cheaper than you think

June 19, 2016

The Larchmont Bungalow in L.A. is a great place to work

June 16, 2016

I'm always on the lookout for coffee joints that know what a coffee joint is supposed to be (a social space where people can work and linger for as long as they please).

The Larchmont Bungalow roasts and grinds their own all-organic coffee. It's super spacious, has outlets and fast WiFi and friendly staff.

There'a a big sign that asks people using laptops or studying to be considerate about hogging a table between the hours of 10 and 3. I asked the guy behind the counter about that, but he said I could linger for as long as I wanted and to just ignore the sign.

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We experienced magic at Tulum

June 6, 2016

Amira and I had an amazing time at the ancient Mayan ruin of Tulum.

We'd been there with our kids ten years ago, but on a dark, cloudy and rainy day. This time, we were greeted by blazing blue skies and puffy clouds.

We arrived at around 3:30 pm. That's late for Tulum, because the beach closes at 4:30 and the whole site at 5pm.

Amira noticed that by paying extra you could stay longer. So we paid. And because we had been hot and sweaty for hours, we decided to hit the beach first.

Tulum is on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean. The site allows one tiny beach for visitors, and it was crowded. I went swimming while Amira guarded our stuff.

A major structure at Tulum, as seen from the water.

After a while, the lifeguards closed the beach, shooed away all the visitors except us (flashing our ticket granted immunity from ejection). The lifeguard swept the wooden steps before vanishing over the cliff.

It's amazing to look up from the water and see the back of "El Castillo."

So there we were alone on the beach. The setting sun cast the shadows of the ruins over the beach and water, while Amira and I just swam and goofed around and took some pictures.

There were probably around 10 other people total who had paid extra to stay late, but they weren't on the beach at the time, so they never came down.

A security guard let us jump the rope and sit on the main pyramid for this photo.

Eventually, we climbed the stairs to see the site. And so for about an hour and a half, we checked out Tulum with the setting sun lighting up the ruins in a golden light. (On our first gloomy visit, everything was a shade of grey; this time, everything was on fire.)

The site is so large that we barely saw anyone else. It was totally quiet, and the only movement was the occasional scampering of an iguana or exotic bird.

The ruins at Tulum are crawling with iguanas. This was a big one.

At one point, Amira was invited by a guard to step over the rope and take some pictures up close of the Castillo, which is the most imposing pyramid at the site. He even took pictures of her and us.

The setting sun was lighting everything up.

Eventually, we wandered out of the site. When we got to the huge parking lot, our rental car was the only vehicle.

Everything about the ruins at Tulum is unique.

What an experience.

Why nomads need an Amazon Echo

June 5, 2016

We try to pack as light as possible. But there's no way we're leaving Alexa behind. So when we live abroad, we bring our Amazon Echo with us. But wait!, you say. The Echo is US-only. And besides, the Echo Dot is much better for travel because it's much smaller and lighter. So why on Earth would we bring our Amazon Echo while traveling the globe? The reasons are these. First, the US-only restriction is easily overcome by associating the Echo with a US city in the same time zone as your current location. While in Mexico, for example, we used the Alexa app to tell Amazon we were based in Houston, Texas. When you want local information, you need only specify: “Alexa: What's the weather today in Cancun, Mexico.” Second, while the Echo Dot is smaller, its built-in sound is inadequate (and really designed to be connected to other home speaker systems). By bringing a full Amazon Echo, we get really good sound, but in a small package. It's a great way to fill your home with music without carrying anything larger than a bottle of wine. Third, you may be surprised to learn that music works abroad. Even Pandora! In other words, both the Echo and Pandora are supposed to be US-only. But while abroad, you can use your Echo to listen to your Pandora stations. That's why I recommend that all nomads bring an Amazon Echo while living abroad.

My office today: I'm on a boat!

June 4, 2016

On a Cozumel shore.

Playa del Carmen has shockingly good food

June 2, 2016

You'd think a place like Playa del Carman would have lousy food, because bad food seems to accompany tourist towns. But it's trivially easy to find super great food there. This is from my favorite Playa restaurant, which is called La Perla. (Click on the pic for more photos.)

Crazy paint job, but this studio was great

June 2, 2016

We had a problem with an AirBnB, so Amira found another one on AirBnB in Playa del Carmen. As you can see, the place is small and the paint on the wall crazy. But this apartment was centrally located, had a comfortable bed, great shower and everything we needed for the night.