Hi Tony here, a 34 year old Electronic Engineer hailing from Dublin, Ireland where I achieved my Bachelor of Engineering in Mechatronics over five years and then followed that up by working locally in the industry cutting my teeth for the next 6 years working on various embedded hardware/software product designs.

During my first year of college, eleven years ago now, I promised myself that upon completing my five year college degree and after gaining five years work experience in the field I would take some time out as a reward and travel a little more of the world, a hobby that has been all but on hold since starting my degree.

Well the time has come for me to fulfil that promise and for the previous 18 months I have been planning a big trip, Canada being the destination, partly because it is new to me and therefore it’s a blank canvas to explore, mostly though I choose it due to their relaxed visa policy where Irish Citizens up to the age of 35 can apply and be awarded a 2 year working visa without much difficulty.

Before applying for the visa I took 1 month off work to Visit Canada, a reconnaissance mission of sorts, spending a week each in Vancouver, Toronto & Montreal to find which one resonated the most with me, the clear winner here being Vancouver, it seems to have just the right amount of everything. Now that I had a destination in focus I set about making plans to translate my current situation to that of living it up in Vancouver for 2 years.

At this point in time I have my two year visa, stamped and activated, currently I sit in a cafe in San Diego, 45 days into a bicycle tour of the US Pacific Coast that started in Vancouver Canada and that tomorrow will finish in Tijuana, Mexico. Next stop is New Zealand to spend one month with my brother & his wife who I have not seen much of in many years, then on to Hawaii for 2 weeks before finally arriving back to Vancouver to soak up the end of the summer, make some new friends and get a feel for the city where I ultimately will end up working and living for the short term future.

I set up my blog to keep my favourite people in the world updated as I go, the name Flea The Race is a play on rats and fleas and rat-race, its a place where I write about my adventures while I’m temporarily free of the 9 to 5 rat-race.