How old are you, where are you from, where are you living now and what took you there?
I’m 28 years old and originally from Bournemouth, on the south coast of England. In early 2005 I quit my job as a project manager at a bank in the UK before I died of boredom, traveled around for a few months (Europe and South America), and ended up in Buenos Aires (Argentina), with the idea of staying for 3 months to learn Spanish and try out living in another part of the world. I’m still here, almost 5 years later. I guess learning Spanish took a little longer than expected!
How long have you lived there and how long will you stay? What keeps you there
It has almost been 5 years now, and to be honest, I’m getting the itch to move on. Like many expats in Buenos Aires, I have always had a love/hate relationship with the city, but these days the negatives seem to be slightly outweighing the positives, so I guess it will be time to move on soon (to where, and when, I’m not yet sure). Don’t get me wrong, I love Buenos Aires in many ways, and for the foreseeable future I’ll always come back here for extended periods of time (probably at least a few months every year). Though the main thing that will definitely keep me coming back is that my business operates here.
What do you do to make a living?
I run a tourism company that offers private guided walking tours of Buenos Aires - www.buenostours.com – originally it was just me writing a blog about the city and giving tours to visitors on a casual basis, but it grew over the years (largely thanks to good placings in relevant Google search results, and of course, offering a great service!) and now we are a few guides, and I am trying to step back from giving tours myself to concentrate more on marketing and growing the business. The fantastic thing is that, with laptops, the internet and VOIP phones, and great guides who I can trust, the business can be managed from basically anywhere in the world where I can get an internet connection. I only real need to be in Buenos Aires when I want to find and train new guides, and create new tours.
Describe your average weekday and weekend day.
Basically my life is emails 7 days a week, apart from when I am giving a tour myself. I spend far too much time on my computer, which is why I am trying to find time to make our tour booking process more automated (at the moment it is A LOT of emails back and forth between me and potential clients, who often ask a ton of questions about Buenos Aires). If I can find time to automate bookings (with a better website, a shopping cart with online tour booking, FAQ questions on the site about our tours and Buenos Aires in general, etc) then I should be able to start to work more on improving and growing the business.
What skills have you learned while living abroad?
Finding the motivation to work alone without someone else telling me what needs to be done. I had to learn this skill because I am naturally a little lazy, and if I didn’t get motivated to work hard on my own, then I wouldn’t have been able to continue living abroad and/or avoid returning to a boring 9 to 5 job.
Also, learning Spanish is a pretty cool skill. Now I’d love to learn some more languages.
What are you missing (professionally) by not being in your home country?
I’m not sure. Maybe if I was working in my home country, I would find more local people to collaborate with who are reliable and put the work in. Without wanting to stereotype, working with local businesses in Buenos Aires has been difficult and frustrating, as they usually have ended up letting me down one way or another. You know you are off to a bad start when someone sets up a meeting with you and then leaves you waiting 2 hours before they decide to grace you with their presence. And that was a good experience compared to some others that I don’t want to get into here.
If you could live anywhere, where would that be and why?
I’m not sure. I would like to travel a lot over the next few years, if time and money allow for that, and find a place that looks like it will suit me to settle down for a while. Actually, I really like the idea of being as mobile as possible, taking my business with me (laptop and VOIP phones), and living in more than one location throughout the year (avoiding the winter forever by traveling north/south is quite appealing).
What is your favorite gadget that makes your work life abroad better?
My new netbook (a Samsung Go). I can take it everywhere in a small shoulder bag (no one knows its inside there, so I feel safe carrying it around) as it weighs basically nothing. I also don’t even need to plug it in as the battery lasts forever (6 to 9 hours, depending on what I am using it for), and most cafes etc have free WiFi in Buenos Aires, so I can stop and work/check emails when I need to. Also I think it will come in very useful for when I start to travel more, as it is so small and light. After getting a netbook that does everything I need to do for work, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a clunky, heavy old laptop again.
The other great things about the Samsung Go netbook (and I know I sound like a salesman here, but I seriously LOVE IT) in addition to it being light and with great battery life, is that the keyboard is almost full size (I have no problem typing all day on it), the screen is a decent size, and it’s super stylish – I think the design is prettier than anything Mac make, personally 
Do you have a favorite book that inspired you to travel or consider a different way of living?
No non-fiction book directly inspired me to travel or work/live in a different fashion, however my favorite fiction authors were always Douglas Adams (The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series) and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., so I guess that might have instilled a sense of adventure and a thirst for the unorthodox in me. I haven’t quite been to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe yet, or even Titan, but I’m doing my best, and want to travel more, even if it is only within the bounds of our own atmosphere…
Other than yours, do you have a favorite expat blog?
I like The Argentine Post (http://www.argentinepost.com/) for everything Argentina related, and well, Expat Alley isn’t bad, is it?
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This guy didn’t mention Brazil not even once, not even as in a brazil-nut. What is this tag doing here????