March 2023: Planning a year of travel and moving out

Personal Updates

Moving out

Since becoming a freelancer and focusing on open-source, my days are mostly relaxed. I can choose what I want to work on and actively avoid any hard deadlines.

March was the complete opposite.

Deadlines on moving out, on planning and preparing for a year of travel, finishing off freelancing commitments and staying on top of my open-source work.

But it all got done.

As of the end of March, my girlfriend (Alina) and I handed over the keys to our leafy-green apartment in Canberra, Australia. With no where in particular to now call home.

Travel

We started our travel last week, landing in Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok is a hectic city, not recommended for relaxing. But I enjoyed the city, the food and the people.

It has been interesting trying to work on open-source while travelling. Any down-time I have I whip out the laptop.

Thailand's internet has been surprisingly good which as made that easier.

Fixing Nuxt Simple Sitemap bugs on a bus to Ko Chang

As of writing this we're in Ko Chang, Thailand. Ko Chang is a dense mountainous jungle island with deep-blue water paired with complex orange gradient sunsets.

We're staying in a bungalow near the beach for $30 AUD a night.

Work Updates / Financials

With the cost of living in Thailand much cheaper than Australia, I'm spending less money while travelling than I would be if I was still living in Canberra.

Open-Source

⌛ 88 hrs (-23 hrs)
💸 $787 AUD (+$168)
$8.94 AUD / hour (+$3.39 / hour)

Most of my open-source time last month went into Nuxt modules and Nuxt itself.

My current focus is trying to get all the Nuxt SEO Kit modules to a v2 and release v2 of Nuxt SEO Kit.

Main projects

24 hours Nuxt - working on better Unhead integration, a couple of minor bugs and triage
22 hours nuxt-simple-sitemap - v2 with many SSR improvements and bug fixes. Is now closer to being feature-complete.
14 hours Unhead - working towards a v2 which will significantly reduce the bundle size.
12 hours nuxt-og-image - v2 is out under a beta tag, with many bug fixes and improvements. Still want to add a couple of features for the v2 release.
3 hours nuxt-simple-robots - v2 is out and now feature-complete.

Freelancing

⌛ 6 hrs (-72.25 hrs)
💸 $645 AUD (-$2370)
$107 AUD / hour (+$68 / hour)

Didn't have too much freelancing to do. Finished off some important projects and now have a bit of a break.

April plans

Figuring out what I can actually finish while travelling is a challenge. I'm trying to keep my goals small and achievable.

I would like to get Nuxt SEO Kit v2 out by the end of April. This will be quite a bit of work as each dependent module needs to be updated to v2, which I have many plans for. It also includes a proper documentation site.

I would also like to get the Unhead v2 update out. The bundle size improvements will be a win for Nuxt and the Vue ecosystem.

Final thoughts

I'm really enjoying travelling and working while travelling. I hope to sustain it as long as I can and I can't thank you, the sponsors, enough for your support.

While the amount I can get done will take a hit, I'm still dedicated to providing as much value as I can for your contributions.

Please get in touch with my if you have any questions, feedback or suggestions. Would love to chat!