Welcome to the fourth edition of The Journal Newsletter. This issue features the April updates, including the latest posts, writing courses & artwork along with Travel Hack #4. 

Paintings
Before my travels to Canada, I have been working through a backlog of trips. The first painting in April I worked on was a piece commissioned by my Dad. I had not specifically created a painting for my parents so this added new motivation to create something amazing and unique. First I had to decide what to paint and took inspiration from my next move. My Dad had visited Canada decades ago whilst I visited back in 2023 which was a nice common ground. In the end, I chose one of the most popular Canadian attractions: Moraine Lake. This was one of my main reasons to visit Canada and it was a thoroughly enjoyable artwork to create!


The 2nd Painting I worked on after Moraine Lake was from my most recent big adventure. Inspired by my trek in Patagonia in Chile, I started an oil painting on a larger canvas of Base Torres del Paine. The famous 3 stacks with the lake underneath is iconic and was an obvious choice. I had 2 stunning photos from my Fuji to work with. The first was the daytime trek on Day 7 and the 2nd was the sunrise hike so I could take inspiration from both for colours and composition. Check out The Gallery for more Art such as Paintings, Collages and Photography.


The Art of Story Craft
Every year my employer provides incentives to learn new skills and try new experiences. This year to help the blog, I chose to do a creative writing course. The course is with ScriptStuff and run by Mike, an award winning screen writer. The course in particular is about the art of story craft and how to structure stories. After 2 sessions, the lessons and tips have been very insightful and applicable to a travel blog. Over the next few months, the plan is to re-write the epic Annapurna journey with my new skills so stay tuned for a new style to enjoy!

Flying with a window seat is one of the small pleasures when travelling. Yes there might be less leg room and it's awkward to climb out but the views can be rewarding! But it feels like a lottery to be given the window seat for free. And is it worth paying the extra amount for one? There is a way to improve your odds of bagging a precious window seat. 

Some cheaper airlines such as EasyJet, Ryanair and Vueling will first try to fill the plane with middle seat or aisle seat tickets. So by Checking In at the earliest opportunity (usually 24hour before but it can be up to 1 month) will more likely give you these middle or aisle seats. It's worth waiting to Check In and get your boarding pass. This will mean there will likely be more window seats available even on popular flights.

It's worth noting the seats might be further back in the cabin when not paying to select your seat. To avoid long queues, I tend to wait near the gate until everyone else has boarded as the cheaper seats are usually later boarding groups. Be patient, enjoy a book or drink before the flight and don't stress about the queues. 

I recently found out that the cheap budget airlines have quotas for carry on luggage upgrades. One of the risks of carry-on luggage is meeting the right maximum dimensions. So if you're queuing early, an employee is more likely to ask you to check your bag fits inside the maximum dimension box. And if they're not convinced then they will try charge you extra to carry it on or to put it in the hold (up to £100!!). Once they have met their threshold, they won't bother people later on so another reason to wait to board the flight to avoid a heavy add-on cost. 

In April, 3 Book Reviews and 2 Kit reviews were published (see links above). The plan was for a travel guide and another backpack kit review to get posted but having to pack to move abroad took priority unfortunately. The back-end work of the blog with IT, speed optimisation has been maintained and kept things running smoothly.

To help navigation, the Kit Room Page has added 2 Sub-pages for Clothing Reviews and Equipment Reviews. As mentioned in March, the Book Reviews page within the Bookshelf has had 4 Book reviews posted. I have recently finished Ultimate High: My Everest Odyssey by Goran Kropp and I am currently reading Annapurna by Maurice Herzog which will have fascinating reviews soon enough!

As for Social Media, the following and engagement of TikTok and Insta have shifted the focus to these platforms to help grow the blog. Whilst continuing the Art Inspired Videos, I have begun filming Kit Reviews. This has taken some courage to get in front of the camera and narrate the pros/cons of outdoor equipment. I am hoping with practise, I will find my niche and style to record reviews. 

With less than 3 weeks until I fly to Vancouver, there is a lot happening outside of the blog with work and planning. Naturally there will be less posts as I will have less time free to write posts. I will aim to publish a new blog post every 2 weeks and will keep the social media posts going. Things will return to normal over the next few months with new outdoor adventures being shown as the blog pivots towards Canadian exploration content. 

Safe and fun travels,

James

Blog Posts planned next:

• Osprey Daylite 18L & 26L Backpack Review
• Vancouver Moving Abroad
• Stories from Annapurna
• Valencia and Barcelona Travel Guide
• Osprey Farpoint 40L Backpack Review