Travel blogger problems

As someone paid to solve problems, I raised a wry smile writing this post – my blogger problems have been the same for the years I’ve had my little corner of the t’interweb and I just haven’t done a thing about them, and have no plans to either!  I guess that is the fun of having a pastime and a job – I can be my own worst nightmare away from the office? I need someone to problem-solve Penelope & Parker?!

Map reading creates enough of a challenge for me, the magical world wide web has many more!

‘It’s for the blog’ – of course one can never have too much content.  But having no new content is a real trauma.  I enjoy writing my little posts and so I am obviously sad when I’ve nothing to write about.  Writing a new post means we’ve been somewhere or done something nice, so lack of content I associate with lack of forward planning or free time or adventure.  Mr P loves nothing better than being dragged off around another National Trust garden or property or to some exhibition ‘for the blog’… He prefers getting on planes to hot countries and obviously enjoys traipsing all over the place once we are there.  Particular favourites were definitely Acadia National Park in a cloud and the (almost unsuccessful) search for a fossil forest in Greece!

At the top of Acadia National Park, gathering content with some ‘stunning’ views of clouds whilst getting drenched…

Blog envy – there’s always someone doing something that is just better or perfectly curated or there’s the trips here there and everywhere else that look blissful and relaxing that I really really need, or or or… It is fantastic to be part of something that is so creative and personal and I think that is what makes it so interesting seeing what can be done! It’s a bit like planning a wedding – paying attention to every other wedding to get ideas of how to do something your own way.

There are those gorgeous places that are begging to be instagrammed, if only the day to day was like this!

Time – where does it go?  Well I will tell you – in a week there are 168 hours, I spend 63 of these hours asleep, around 60 hours at work, 12 hours or more commuting, at least 10 hours over the weekend out and about doing ‘stuff’.  That doesn’t really leave a great many hours for seeing Mr P, eating, reading and doing the general stuff life needs to be done, so time is pretty short for my dear Penelope & Parker!  I do find though that spending an hour tapping away on my laptop about something that interests me is very relaxing.

Blogging is pretty relaxing and is a great way to de-stress and imagine oneself back somewhere lovely!

Social platforms – I was quite happy with Facebook when it came out 10 or so years ago, that kept me perfectly busy.  But now I have my Facebook account, my blogs Facebook account, twitter, instagram, the blog itself, triberr, bloglovin, tweet juke box, buffer, the other few blogs that I contribute to, pinterest…. There is far too much going on!  Thank goodness for scheduling! I stopped flipagram as it was one too many and at the same time I deleted the Daily Mail app too (as that really was wasting my time on stuff that was a waste of time).  I’m strict when we are away – I use Instagram in the evening for a few good photos, the rest of the time I relish avoiding social media.

On holiday we really don’t need social media, we just need the view and a sunset like this (and a sundowner clearly!)

Photos, photos, photos – one can never have too many but they have to be just so and everything need photographing!  I have a habit of taking pictures of everything anyway (I blame Project 365, which I will never do again) but most of them aren’t anything special.  This is where Mr P steps in – he has far more patience with a DSLR and his selection of lenses and filters so I just tend to leave him to it these days.  Thank goodness memory cards are now so large!

Let out from behind the lens for some cartwheeling!

Who cares – I’m pretty sure my parents read every word (and often spot my grammatical mistakes) and Mr P does when it’s put in front of him, but does anyone else?  I know from my statistics that plenty of people read and follow.  I often wonder whether to share with people at work, or indeed whether I should share work trips?  But I do – it is one of my hobbies and I am a big fan of people taking themselves to work and people love the travel tips too.

Take a deep breath, even with only 3 readers it is all about the journey and the memories!

So in conclusion there are only a few actions that can be taken to solve my #travelbloggerproblems, it’s very straight forward – to go away more often and to take more photos.  What I might do first is get a logo and a new layout – that seems more achievable in the short-term whilst the day job keeps me busy!

Solving one problem at a time, at a leisurely ‘I’m not at work’ pace!

This post was written as part of the monthly travel linkup – this month on Travel Blogger Problems!  Just pop your post up over the first week of the month (the 1st – 7th May 2016), add it to the link up widget found on Emma, Angie, Jessi or co-host Lauren blogs from the 1st May.  Then check out some of the other cool bloggers that are involved in that months travel link up, tweet a few of the posts out to your followers that you think they will love, make a few comments here and there and enjoy the travel blogging community!