Travelling is such a hard job. During the last couple of years I’ve been making more journeys and been away from home and family and although I’m excited about the things I’m involved in and the places I go to, I am starting to feel how it eats up my energy – especially as I haven’t had a chance to take enough time off and recharge. The only really nice memories are about flights in Costa Rica. I guess, you can can imagine the beauty of this destination. Yesterday I woke up at 4.27am, an airport taxi picked me up at 5am, my first flight was at 6.15am and another at 8.20am. It was a great ride, I talked to the taxi man for awhile and told him how I was also a taxi driver and recently just had to compare cheap taxi insurance quotes at utilitysavingexpert.com. I hang out at Manchester International airport, tried to stay awake and spend the eight hours I had to wait until my last flight to Glasgow. Because of all the despair of not having slept enough, waking up so early and waiting around for so long, I decided to treat myself with a large cappuccino (not big like I tried to explain) and a blueberry muffin. That’s another thing about travelling; it’s so easy to end up eating really unhealthy stuff because I might not have the time to go to good restaurants to eat proper food, I cannot cook, I usually don’t have the money to go to best restaurants and if I’m not really careful, I end up eating too much salty and fatty snacks like crisps, creamy pastas, heavy sandwiches and drinking too much coffee. And then feeling tired and overwhelmed by the travelling, I reward myself with wine. I’m such a heroine.
Well, this time I’m trying to be optimistic and I took my gym gears and Polar F6 with me. I went to the hotel gym in the morning as I know it makes me feel better. I’m hesitating to say that as I have taken my yoga mat along on some trips where I haven’t really done much of it. Anyway, maybe it’s more of an emotional support, trying to stay healthy and happy although not at home.
And of course the crew at home just think I’m having the time of my life, you know, not being at home, not needing to worry about dirty dishes, cooking, children – just watching art, having meetings with artists, curators, programmers and colleges. And when I get back home they want to punish me for the time off from home, or ‘holiday’ as they see it. What as vicious circle!
Anyhow, I’m just trying to say that I admire people who travel a lot in their jobs. It’s not easy. Maybe it’s the age, my workload or the family situation, but I’m sure it’s never simple.

Well, over the next five days I’m at the National Review of Live Art, doing my job.

Johanna