take me back to the start

I first starting blogging in 2005. 

My friend Anna and I were about to travel through Europe so we set up a blog to document our trip, appropriately called - Misadventures.  It was hilarious, (at least to us) and I have fond memories of sitting in dingy Internet cafes, drafting posts and laughing until we cried. Reading it now I still find it funny - I mean how can you not laugh when reading a post you titled  'Last night we made love to Berlin...and she was wonderful' What?? Our parents must have thought we were crazy, and probably still do. It was laced with ridiculous sarcasm, inside jokes and the kind of memories you only remember when written down and for that I'm eternally grateful that I have such an amazing record of that time in my life, shared with such important people. 

Fast forward 7 years and I now find myself living in Australia with the very man I met on that trip. Love works in mysterious ways. I found myself living in an overwhelmingly beautiful country, with new friends and new experiences. I missed home but mostly I missed the connection, the everyday routine that I was no longer a part of. More often than not I would talk to my family during strange hours - rushing to or from work, in the car, on the bus - not the kind of places you can have a deep and meaningful catch up. So our conversations always felt rushed. Every time I was asked how I was or what we'd been up to I'd just mutter that easy response 'Oh, not much'. Conversations or emails with friends ended in the same way. Here I was, across the world, in this land with kangaroos,  clear blue water, shrimp on the barbie and I had nothing to say? There had to be a better way of sharing my experiences than trying to whisper them into the phone while standing on a bus in rush hour. So I starting blogging. Again.

Little Paper Trees began as a way to share my life, in all its glorious and mundane highs and lows, with my family and friends back home. It was an outlet for me, to write, to ramble, to remember. It was and is my journal. It has allowed me to meet so many new people and opened up new opportunities. It allows me to have an excuse to be creative and feel inspired but most importantly I allows me to feel closer to home. So that when I pick up the phone to call my family, they don't only know what I've been doing, they've seen the photos, read the stories and have experienced it for themselves. Suddenly, through blogging, home doesn't feel so far away.

*This photo has nothing to do with blogging but I thought I looked deep in thought, like a serious sea captain, navigating rough seas and pondering the next move.  Just go with it...