First up, welcome to the new Cairnscommunications blog.

It’s got a new look, as you can tell – but it’s also got a new commitment from me.

When I gave up full-time work about six months ago, it was to give me time to write about the things I love, and to travel, and to hang my shingle out as a freelancer.

Well, I’ve done about 1 and 3/4 of those 3 things.

I’ve certainly travelled – since giving up work, I’ve gone on a cruise around the South Pacific, flown to Far North Queensland three times, have booked a two-week tour of Vietnam this month, and a 10-day South Pacific cruise the month after.

I’ve also done some freelance work filling in as a newsreader at River 949, teaching journalism at QUT, doing voiceovers on Fiverr.com etc

But mostly, I’ve found myself sitting on my derriere, fiddle-faddling about on Facebook, and not actually committing to this blog.

So as of today, that changes.

The plan for this new-look website is to have it feature all the things I’m passionate about.

So I will publish, on a daily basis, an image that Shirley and I have taken – plus a short article inspired by it.

There will also be daily features:

* Monday will be observations on the media.
* Tuesday is CruiseDay with news from the cruise industry.
* Wednesdays will see training tips – in public speaking, or publishing, or journalism etc.
* Thursdays are earmarked for comment – either something I want to vent about, or guest commentary.
* Friday I’ll talk about travel in general.
* Saturday sees my week-in-review podcast get published.
* Sunday is arts / book / movies / music.

For those of you who’ve been with me on this journey so far, I hope you aren’t unhappy with the new look and feel.

And if you are new? Welcome along! I’d genuinely like to hear from you – either here, or at our facebook page, facebook.com/cairnscommunications