View from the 'office'...

View from the 'Office'...

London

The search for what makes a good photo continues...

Paradise Cove and Santa Monica...

Some more... Paris and Nice...

And again... Have a read of 'images' and give me your thoughts...

Same again...

And this one...

Also Paris...

Images...

A few friends of mine have spoken to me over the past few days about taking this photography thing a bit more seriously. SO I've decided to start putting a few of the shots from my trip up and I want you to be brutally honest in your feed back... tell me what you like, don't like, would change, etc... I want to hear it all! The location of this one is probably pretty self evindent...

The hope of promises fulfilled...

So yesterday was a pretty significant and historic day. Much off yesterday was spent listening to the inauguration speech of the new President of the United States, hoping this man proves to be all he could be, foreseeing a future full of promise.

By the magic of date lines and different time zones, yesterday also was my brother and sister in law's 14th wedding anniversary. Talk about promises beginning fulfilled! I'm not naive enough to think their marriage has been hassle free and idyllic all the way but one would almost be forgiven for thinking so. To see a couple still so in love, so devoted to each other and to their family and so fiercely protective of the partnership they have is such an inspiration to me. I've always consciously or unconsciously held any guy whose come my way up against my brother for comparison and I guess my singleness shows that no one yet has measured up.

And as for my sister in law- I tell my Matt he married up. Mel seems to be the Domestic Goddess personified. Add to that her generosity, intelligence, humour and one of the sweetest natures you are likely to come across and well she's pretty much the whole package.
So is it any wonder that I am the idealist that I am today with examples like that in my world?

What's next?

Well, I have to say the year got off to a pretty good start. The last leg of the world trip saw me in LA for the countdown... It was pretty cool to start the new year in a completely different location. Kind of a taste of what was possible for the new year.
So I arrived back to my beautiful welcoming family on the 5th and have been trying to figure out the next steps on the journey since! I applied for a job that I thought would have me moving to the city and starting a very new phase in life, but in the mean time got chatting to a friend who is living a life of adventure teaching English in China. During that conversation something inside of me was ignited and I haven't really stopped thinking about it since. I'm a little at a lost as to where to start in researching the whole thing. Quite a few nights so far have been spent searching the internet sights and trying to figure out where the best place is to go, how to go about getting a good job and not get ripped off, how long to go for, when to leave...
I know it might seem a little impulsive to be thinking about jetting off again to who knows where for who knows how long, but I have discovered a few things about myself over the past 4 months of travelling. One is that I have absolutely no innate sense of direction and will manage to get lost at any opportunity. But possibly something that is a little more relevant at this point in time is that I love to travel. I get excited by discovering new places and having new experiences. I love meeting new people and hearing there stories and getting inspired all over again...
And the time seems to be right. I have no responsiblities, no job, no mortgage, no one dependant on me... SO... It seems my bag won't stay unpacked for too long...