Networking

To be honest, the term networking fills me with dread, always has.  The whole concept of walking into a room full of people and doing the 'hi I'm Anna' spiel is something that has never sat easily with me, whether at university, mother and baby groups or industry events.

However, when you're working from home, you can feel quite isolated from the 'real' world, so we both acknowleged that meeting other people from the industry would be beneficial for both of us personally and professionally.

So it was with some trepidation that I attended the 'silicon stilettos' meet in London on Wednesday night. As you can probably tell by the name of the event, it was aimed at professional women in the tech industry, as these do's are ususally dominated by men. (Although as an interesting aside, why the tech industry is perceived as 'male' I don't know, surely there is no reason for this gender bias?)

Anyway, the event itself was a good introduction for me into the industry. I met some very interesting people and had quite a laugh. I think the main lesson for me was not to go along to these events on a cynical business card-collecting mission, but to attend with an open mind and enjoy the company of others.  

flickr travelling

I’m currently knee deep testing bugs on our new website (we're up to bug #202!), and I've been busy pulling in test photos from flickr.  Some of the travel photos are stunning, and it got me thinking.  What with the impending financial apocalypse, and nobody having any money to get away, will we be living out the cold winter surfing gorgeous travel web-sites.  Kind of like a car-geek poring over pictures of Ferraris and Lamborghinis they will never be able to afford?

Try it for yourself, how about a bit of Hunter Valley Australian goodness:  http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=hunter%20valley&w=all

(Flickr user: Krossbow)

Starting Out

Hello

it's a bit daunting starting off a blog. Reminds me a bit of when I was a teenager and trying to keep a diary. I started off with the usual rants of a 14 year old girl, 'why are my parents so unreasonable' and 'why doesn't gorgeous eyebrow man fancy me' and within a couple of weeks I was bored with moaning and ended up writing riveting entries such as 'had 2 pieces of toast for breakfast and a glass of orange juice.' – hmm, fascinating.

Then, as a traveller, I watched so many cool looking types scrawling into their journals (Diaries, it turns out are so 1980's!).   As they inhaled on their 7th cigarette, they would occasionally look up, smirk and then return to their great thoughts. I can do that, I thought. And I did try. Initially my journal was meant to be the inspired musings of my physical and spiritual journey around the world. But alas, it too descended into long lists of food that I had eaten and money I had spent.  I pretended at the time that this was because I was too busy taking in the world and experiencing it man! But actually I was just lazy (and probably a little obsessed by food and drink)

When it came to having children, some of my friends started keeping journals of their development so that in later years they would be able to look back and reminisce about their child's milestones. I didn't even try. I figured even if I managed it for my first, I would have seriously burnt out by the time my second or third came along.

So here I am, starting my first ever blog post with the typical zest of a virgin blogger, but also fully expecting my posts to get shorter and shorter. So why are you doing this I hear you cry? (or whisper, as presently my readership is not vast let's me honest.)

For several reasons I guess. Firstly, we are in the middle of a huge change in our lives. Having been corporate monkeys for quite some time now (and in the process having dabbled with being a 'full time mum', 'part time mum' and 'am I really a fulfilled mum' - you get the picture), we have both thrown our hats into the ring and have started up a business together. But not just the business, we are also going to be sharing the childcare of our 2 (soon to be 3) children and all of the many other day to day house tasks that go with a young family. This is such a huge step for me (and us) that I feel like I want to document it in some way.

Secondly, I have been working until recently for a social media consultancy and have spent many hours reading blogs, yet have never even attempted the art. So I feel like the time has come.  

Thirdly, being as we are, a cash strapped and young family, we don't presently have much of an opportunity to travel. So instead, I intend to use this blog to exercise my interest in the world of independent travel and to explore in more detail the world of on-line travel.

Finally, we hope to use this as an outlet for our heartfelt passion for traveling authentically.  Avoiding mass tourism and the well trodden route.  Going on tours with (or staying with) genuine local people who are passionate and interesting - the driving passion behind the business we are starting up.

So, please do join me on this journey and feel free to comment along the way. Be patient with me while I try to find my inner blogging self and warn me if I ever start off a blog by telling you what I had for breakfast!!
Anna