planning and scheming..

Images by Chris Barber

These past few days have been rather odd for me.. for the past few years Christmas in our house has become less and less important.. something which actually tends to surprise people that know me and Pete.. but a combination of Parents not being together anymore, a Sister who doesn't celebrate it, no kids in the family, no tv and the fact that for a good number of years we didn't have the money so it seemed silly to buy each other gifts.. it often felt like a forced thing.. you must eat vast amounts of food.. you must buy each other stuff.. you must watch tv and sit on your sofa.. but what if we don't want to?  I also think the pressure might have felt a little stronger this year as we are now living every occasion, every holiday through Twitter and Facebook so at times it felt like I was waiting for everyone to finish Christmas and to just get back to normal.. But I don't want this to sound like a negative post... far from it really as what these past few days have given me is the chance to think about stuff.. lots of stuff and I suppose it's pretty natural at this time of year when all the 'fresh starts' and 'goals' start to be made to start making some decisions.Me and Pete have now had this business for 3 years.. three years that have flown. 'Blink and you miss it' flown.  We've been incredibly lucky and have worked incredibly hard to build the business to where it is now but we've had our heads down whilst we've done it.. we had to.. just like climbing a mountain.. heads down.. march upwards, no distractions.   But when you have your head down.. you can't always see where you're going and that's what I've been thinking about a lot. I've been thinking about what I want... what we want and I realise that we're gonna have to start lifting our heads to make things happen.  We want to travel... desperately.  Neither of us have travelled and with each new couple we meet and photograph comes great stories of adventures and experiences that I used to think weren't meant for us.. it was what others did.. I don't know why I felt that way.. it actually took me a while to not think like that about our own wedding.. but these experiences can be ours.. we don't have to watch from the sidelines.So we're going to do it.  No more excuses.. no more waiting.  We have a list of places that we'd like to visit and we're looking at Dec/Jan next year.. on the list includes India, Thailand, Tokyo, Australia, New Zealand and America.. (a small list then)..But it's not just about seeing places.. it's also about seeing people.  With this crazy job you often form strong friendships, you click with people without even meeting them.. and wherever they are in the world, you care about them and look forward to the day when you get to hug them like crazy.. and we have these kind of peeps and you know who you are... so we're coming for ya.. with arms wide open.. and maybe a camera in hand too... but more about that later... :)