If you look at the rest of this blog, I’d forgive you instantly for thinking the answer is ‘no’. I sporadically blogged from a trip to Asia in 2011, and then apparently had a burst of creativity again whilst in Jerusalem 3 years later, which is over 5 years ago now. I’d actually completely forgotten about that until I wiped the dust off my digital diary and a vague memory crept back of sitting in a hotel room and getting excited for my random thoughts to be flowing through my fingertips again. And then… nothing.

Actually that’s not true. I wrote a joint blog for a while when I moved to Los Angeles, and my friend moved to Sydney. We blogged about the things we were learning, the things we found hard and the things we were discovering. It was great. And then somewhere along the way, we both just lost momentum.

I’ve been thinking about starting to write again for a while. For a variety of reasons. Firstly: I really, really enjoy it. But I also spend all my work days glued to a computer, and a fair amount of my personal time glued to my phone. So the concept of firing up my computer at home for fun just stopped becoming a reality for me. But I’ve been feeling the need for a creative outlet recently, and this may be it.

Secondly: Over the last few years, meeting new people and swapping stories, I’ve slowly come to realise how many magical moments I’ve had. How many random things have happened to me, I’ve witnessed or I’ve even instigated. I don’t want to forget these moments. Our brains are being filled with more and more information every single day, and something has to be pushed out. I want to tell my grandkids one day about some of the mischief I’ve been up to, the scrapes I’ve been in and the baffling things I’ve seen, and frankly I’m scared of forgetting some pieces. So I’ve been toying with the idea of writing my travel stories down – not even necessarily for the purpose of others reading – but for myself. Hell, if too many people read my anecdotes then I’ll have nothing to bring up at happy hours, long plane journeys or first dates.

Thirdly: I have a lot of random thoughts. I think extensively about psychology. I read obsessively about history. I recently discovered a passion for cooking. I like to open dialogue about mental health. I write lengthy and often overly deep captions on Instagram. I love to learn. Daily I look for ways to be a strong leader to my teams at work, to improve efficiency and tweak processes to make lives easier. I just have a lot to say.

So I’m here to give this thing a go again. It’ll be a hodgepodge of subjects, of frequency and 100% of quality. I write fast, I write as I think and I’m terribly impatient so I just publish. In order to actually have time to write, I’ll likely be writing in bed (like I am right now), especially as I find it therapeutic and calming. So if you’re looking for perfection or even some vague structure and coherence – best to just say your goodbyes now. Otherwise, wish me luck and hope you enjoy the ride!

Catdog xx

Ps I also work with WordPress all day and every day, and wanted to play around with the new Gutenberg editor before I help roll it out to my company, so side benefit, I learn some stuff?!