It’s important to take a fun break from a busy life.
Hi everyone. I love being a freelance photographer, but even when you do what you love, if you don’t have other activities it can start to feel a lot like a job. We’d been working pretty hard without a proper day off for some time.
I was taking a tea break, with my wife, who runs Salted Mint, we were talking about just this thing, so we decided to take a small break, a day off if you like. Scheduling some down time for both of us was had become a must, it’s like treating yourself for accomplishments made.
We find if we don’t set a date for fun time, we pass it by and it almost never happens. Writing a date in the diary actually made us work harder to get things finished, so our break was as work free as possible.
Where’d you go?
Our beautiful Pyrenees Mountain Dog, Tundra, loves to go to the beach so that seemed a great reason to head to the beaches in Formby. We’re National Trust members and hadn’t been to the area before so we headed for the NT beach which is also home to the rare red squirrel.
We all had a great time, Tundra especially, her two favourite things, squirrels and the beach. It was overcast but nice and warm, a couple of miles of beach walking, Tundra chasing and general beach shinannigins, gave us quite the appetite.
Luckily I’m married to an amazing chef, our picnic was nothing like I used to have as a kid. Not a sandwich or bag of crisps in sight. Roasted vegetable wraps, couscous and spinach salad, fruit and a wee bit of chocolate.. 🙂
I’m ashamed to say, as a photographer of food, by the time I’d thought about taking a photo, it was mostly demolished. This seems like a perfect opportunity to repeat the event sooner rather than later. We did, however, manage a self timer selfie with my camera balanced on the camera bag leaning on a tree.
On our way home
Our return trip brought us through Liverpool, I like to meander by the Albert Dock area when I’m passing through and boy, was I glad I did this time. As a bonus to our day, a massive cruise ship, the Ruby Princess was docked in Liverpool. What an awesome sight, looking like a majestic, floating city, although Tundra didn’t seem overly impressed.
Tundra taking a break and rests her head not seeming very impressed by the ocean liner.
We stopped on the road for a long as we could before being moved on. Long enough for me to grab a couple of quick snaps with my iPhone. I’ll certainly be back in Liverpool to get some better shots, especially with Cunard scheduled to be visiting.
Liverpool waterfront with a visiting Princess cruise ship, panorama taken with iPhone whilst on a break.
In Parkgate on the Wirral, they make the most delicious ice-cream at The Parkgate Homemade Ice Cream Shop, this was our next stop. We sat on the front at Parkgate, thoroughly enjoying the indulgence of such a day and thinking how wonderful it had been. Tundra practiced her new mooching expression. May I introduce, ice-cream face 🙂 It had a modest amount of success so I’m sure she’ll develop it for next time.
Tundra tries out her new ice cream face when we took a break at Parkgate.
Going forward
After this day we have promised to make time for fun days, they don’t have to be extravagant or expensive but they do have to be fun. It’s a way to clear your head and spend quality time with those you love. Something we didn’t expect is, we have very quickly scheduled several treat days, of which we must accomplish enough to make us feel we deserve it, a reason to push ourselves you might say, how can that be bad.
It’s all too easy to get caught up in a busy business but remember to take a little time out for you, it’ll do you the world of good.
Until next time, thanks for stopping by, take care.
