Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Kids Welcome web directory live!

Today’s the day I have been waiting for… 
The Kids Welcome web directory is now live!

Five years of travelling around this beautiful country and writing reviews (someone has to do it) has finally resulted in a parental resource of which I am very proud.

Why did it take so long? Because I had big ideas, and the bigger the dream, the longer it takes for it to reach fruition! The result is a site with over 2000 reviews (for starters) a unique traffic light rating system, the ability for you to share your own holiday images and videos, and even become a Kids Welcome reviewer yourself! I invite you to become part of the Kids Welcome community.

Today I wanted to share some of the journey with you… starting with a night in 2006. It was a night I couldn’t sleep (which is pretty unusual for me). Ideas were flooding through my consciousness and I couldn’t resist so I sat by my keyboard and tapped ideas. By morning I had a blueprint for my next few years:

I wanted to write guidebooks to make it easier for parents and children to explore the world around them. This desire was born from a childhood of travel and a belief that kids learn just as much outside a classroom as within.

The problem was, I didn’t really know how to write. So I called my local university and discovered they had a Master’s degree program in journalism starting in a few weeks. Impetuously, I signed up and spent the next three years learning and cutting my teeth at the local paper. Eventually I graduated in 2009 with a Master’s degree and a job as a local magazine editor. Later that year I published my first guidebook, Kids Welcome to Queensland.

Environmental disasters in Queensland this year, and the demise of my biggest retailers caused a rethink of the business. I am glad it did because the Kids Welcome web directory is the result. Now I can reach more families than ever before.

Not only that, but the range of ways to use Kids Welcome reviews has expanded from print only to print, pdf and soon even to a phone app.

A few years ago now, a young couple printed a small book called “Across Asia on the cheap” in their Melbourne garage. Fast forward and the fledgling company they created is still called Lonely Planet. They are my inspiration…the sky’s the limit!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Chock-late!

My world flashed before my eyes… or more exactly, the nearby camp site (looming larger by the second) flashed before my eyes. A glint of a high chair, flash of campfire and three four-wheel drives standing like gate posts between me and them.

I was careening down a slope, dragged behind me runaway trailer and trying desperately to act as the brake and avoid disaster. Moments before, the world had been serene as I chose what appeared to be a flat clearing and unhooked from the car.  Needless to say, it wasn’t as flat as I had thought and lifting the trailer arms had caused enough momentum to start a roll which didn’t stop.

“HELP!” I screeched at the top of my lungs to my fellow campers. They rushed forward in slow motion as I continued down the hill: a drogue in a sea of gravel.

Doesn't look like a slope!
It ended as quickly as it started with a grinding thud as the trailer met one of the cars: denting both. All I could think of at that moment was “Thank you”. I had missed the baby, missed the happy campers, and only wiped out one of the three cars.

Yes, I had left a fair chunk of my leg in the gravel, and yes, I had made a very silly mistake by not chocking my tyres, yet everything that mattered was still in one piece.  The lesson was learnt without trauma and I am now the owner of a brand new set of bright yellow chocks… soon to be mounted on the outside of the trailer like warning beacons!