When I first set up this blog almost a year ago, I didn’t really know what I wanted it to achieve. I love travelling, writing, reading, good food, great bars, adventure, my gorgeous man Jon, my fabulously crazy family, and the cutest little dog called Charlie, but the challenges of living on the other side of the world from my family and friends (they mostly live in London, I live in Sydney) can sometimes make you forget the good stuff in life. Even after five years.

I guess setting up this blog was my way of reminding myself that life is an adventure. If you are lucky, it is full of love, it is full of laughs and it is full of happiness. It is what you make it. And on days like today, when I feel sad at being 10,500 miles away from my dearest Dad on his 60th birthday, I have to remember that while I would move heaven and earth to be there, the fact is I am blessed and extremely lucky to have a close knit, wonderful family and a kind and caring boyfriend who love me unconditionally. Sometimes I don’t deserve it.

So there. After months of having a blog sitting in cyber space, worrying about when and how I was going to create that ‘awesome first post’, it is the sense of loneliness and the feeling of missing out that has prompted me to put pen to paper, or whatever the blogging equivalent may be.

I know living on the other side of the world from all that is familiar isn’t easy, but I know I am lucky to have the opportunity to experience it. I have a good job, a great home and fantastic people in my life. I get to go to amazing places, do exciting things and live a truly happy existence. I want this blog to be a reminder of that.