The first three weeks of August, I was on “real” vacation, meaning I actually left home for the sole purpose of relaxing and not working, for the first time in two years, and it was long overdue!

We went to Scotland with our motorcycles, and it was just amazing!

Yes, there was rain.

Yes, it was not that warm (but honestly, I was glad for the 20°C instead of the unbearable 30°C or more back home!).

Yes, it was an adventure in several regards, both positive and negative.

But that’s just it:

There was both rain AND sunshine (and actually more of the latter). The experiences we had were sometimes not so great (driving through almost horizontal rain and wind at 13°C, sheep popping literally out of nowhere onto the road, caravans taking the entire street careening around the corner, seemingly no affordable accommodation anywhere, to name just a few) BUT the large majority was awesome and amazing and the people we met wonderful and incredibly friendly and helpful.

The picture above (yes, that’s me on my faithful Molly) made me think of my professional life as a freelancer.

To be sure, there are hard times, when there is little or no work, when clients are difficult, when the outlook seems gloomy and difficulties seem to come from all sides. No fun operating in those conditions – like having to ride through rain on terrible roads with little visibility.

But then things change, as they always will, and suddenly you can see the horizon, the blue sky, the road ahead – and sometimes even a rainbow. And as everyone knows, rainbows only appear when there is both rain and sunshine!

By the way, in case you’re curious: The total mileage was 5530km. And it really was so, so great!