A desk in the sun

This is the second of my Ibiza columns for The Guardian newspaper. Its title has changed from the misleading 'Homeworker' to 'A Desk in the Sun' which sums up the column much better. Unlike the first column which was cut from 700 words to 500 words, this one appears pretty much untouched.

You can read it on the Guardian website by clicking here.


How to be in two places at the same time

Last year I had a cunning communications plan which I hoped would make it look as if I was in Britain while I was really in Ibiza. It was simple. I'd leave a phone line in Edinburgh on permanent divert to my home in the sun. After all, few people actually saw me in the course of work. I was just a disembodied voice on the phone, or words in an email.

Despite my already virtual work existence I was concerned that moving a few thousand miles away would be a psychological barrier for the people who pay for my services. Setting up a diversion wouldn't be expensive, just line rental and, at most, 4p a minute for calls transferred to Spain. Using a cheap "carrier pre select" (CPS) service meant I wouldn't even have to pay BT's international rates.

Of course, nothing's simple. For a start, BT's diversions have to be set up from the home phone, but I didn't know what my Spanish number was going to be. And, by the time I had a line set up, my Edinburgh flat was being let out in order to pay the rent in Ibiza.

Then, once the diversion was apparently working properly, I couldn't understand why the phone would ring once and stop. It turned out business contacts were fooled by the Spanish ring tone's similarity to the British engaged tone. When I did manage to grab the phone before the caller hung up, there would be complaints about a disconcerting echo on the line. I quickly gave up pretending to be in the UK, but, much to my surprise, being by the Mediterranean often worked in my favour. I was living the dream of many of my business contacts and they seemed to enjoy having somebody to moan to about the weather. Suddenly I also went from being a techie hack to being somebody vaguely exotic.

My new location was even partly responsible for getting me one job, as web editor for the August Club, an online organisation for retired and soon-to-retire professionals. There I was, a practical demonstration of how you can earn a living in the sun as a consultant, without even the cushion of the pension enjoyed by most of the club's members.

But actually, even within the space of a few months, technology has advanced to the point where nobody needs to know where in the world I am when they phone me. That's the wonder of internet telephony.

I've been a Skype enthusiast almost since it launched, a whole two years ago. Computer to computer calls over broadband are generally of a much higher quality than ordinary phone calls. They're also free. That makes Skype great for keeping in touch and the August Club runs on its conference-call facility. But, even though you can now make and receive Skype calls to or from a landline, you still have to keep a computer switched on. And a headset remains the best way to use Skype.

Now, I don't mind that call centre look. But really what I want is a substitute phone service and Vonage is the best I've found so far. It comes with a box which hooks up to your broadband router, then you plug in an ordinary phone. That's it. Because I bought it in Britain it behaves as if that's where I am. I have an Edinburgh number and a subscription which allows me to make unlimited calls to UK landlines for less than £10 a month.

To all intents and purposes I have now created a situation where I live in Ibiza and work in Scotland. Yesterday I interviewed two venture capitalists, one apparently in Edinburgh, the other in Aberdeen. In fact they were both in London. It was only after the inevitable ice-breaking conversation about the weather that we all admitted that phone diversions meant we weren't where we seemed to be. The difference was they were in city offices with the prospect of either an impersonal hotel room or hours of trains, planes and automobiles. I was already where I wanted to be.