Hello family and friends,

“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I’ve lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.”

I can’t remember how I stumbled across these words by poet, Diane Ackerman. But I certainly remember how they made me feel. She has expressed exactly how we have been feeling lately. Looking back, every 5 of 6 years we have taken an extended break in one form or another. Each with a different trigger and purpose or aspiration, but each with the same overall effect: living a three dimensional life.

We both love our careers (me, Design Strategist: him, Composer) they are equally creative, challenging and rewarding. But as with all project based work, the effort of cramming an unruly creative process into the confines of a tight program can be exhausting. It’s a good job we love it- which perhaps explains the level of energy we’re prepared to invest!

But life is more than a fulfilling career, and the way we manage the elusive “work/life balance” is to take regular sabbaticals. We use this time to re-boot and rejuvenate, and travel is an important part of this process. Which brings me to the reason for this blog!

A record of our adventures

I’ve always enjoyed keeping a journal while travelling. My earliest memories of travelling are of the scrapbooks that mum helped us make, before I could even write. After pasting in colourful foil capsule tops, bits of maps and postcards, I remember tracing carefully over the large letters she had written for me. It’s a tradition that’s stuck.

Revisiting our travel journals years later brings to life memories we’ve lost over time: a funny conversation; the taste of a delicious meal; the weird smell of a cheap hotel room. And I enjoy writing a little each day, it’s therapeutic. But I’ve been in two minds about keeping a blog, while we take time out from our professional lives to travel and indulge in the arts. 

Between you and me, I’m a little nervous about having an audience. Will the thought of others reading my journal entries induce writer’s block or encourage me to cut back on some of the detail that we’ll enjoy remembering later? Perhaps a manifesto will help, and a healthy dose of denial. 

I shall think of this blog as a members lounge: I’ll write as I have in my travel journals; for Carol & David of the future, for our family and a few close friends. I’ll write of our plans and experiences as they unfold. I’ll write everyday, even if it’s a short post or a single image of two slugs on the footpath. 

There is so much to look forward to over the coming months! I hope you will join us.