Questions that I’m often asked when I’m networking, or when I meet people is “How often do you do Tours?”, “What type of tours do you do”? “What’s your favourite tour?” “Who comes on your tours?” and various similar questions.
My year is often in 2 parts. There’s the busy summer tourist season, generally from Easter, through to October. Basically when we’re on British Summer Time. During those months I’m often away, and as I work as a tourist or tour guide I need to be available when people are visiting somewhere – not necessarily when it would be most convenient for me. That sometimes makes it quite difficult to commit to regular activities and hobbies. I can also get pretty behind with my general admin and working ‘on my business’. Thank goodness for modern technology which does make it a bit easier to do these things away from my desk.
The other half of the year, which includes Christmas and New Year, is when I can catch up on all those things. Well that’s the idea. In practice I never get as much done as I hope.
February this year, I’d just come back from tour managing in Switzerland (I do get some guiding work even during the winter months), so there was admin to do there.
Business and personal development has been working with Gus Bhandal, Genevieve and Bob Hanson to improve my writing skills and to get things like a newsletter off the ground.
On a personal note I’ve been able to get back into the gym, doing Biocircuits at our local leisure centre and being a bit more consistent with stretching.
We’ve also been walking sections of the Coventry Way (when floodwater allows).
I’ve also made sure that we’ve been eating a bit healthier, something which is sometimes difficult to do when you spend so much time away from home. Even just being away during the day for a short walking tour means that I often get lunch on the fly so to speak in the summer months.
Nigel and I also went up to London for the day to see Abba Voyage. Great show, but in some ways quite disturbing as their presence seemed SOOOO real. We both had to keep reminding ourselves “They’re not really there!”
There’s also planning and preparation for the summer season. This year I’ve got quite a lot of longer tours. Some I’ve done before and others are new, so there are pre-visits to plan into my diary; places and people to research.
Apart from using the internet for my research I like to read books and this February I’ve been reading a book about the development of the English Garden as I have a couple of Garden Tours. I’ve also been reading a semi-fictionalised biography of Katherine of Aragon. For pleasure I’ve been reading a series of Murders set in Norfolk on my Kindle.
Then at the end of the month we had a great holiday in Finland and saw the northern lights. A great way to finish (see what I’ve done there) the winter as we came back home on 1st March.
The picture is from our first and best sighting of the Northern Lights. Nothing to do with my tours, although we do sometimes get a good sunset.