Last week we stepped into the year of the Metal Rabbit. Apparently, this is a great year for creativity. So far I have not seen much of it...

I started a photography course at the Worcester Tech College last September. I always wanted to do something more creative than the daily number crunching at work. Drawing or painting is not my forte, neither is patience. I have, however, noticed that looking at old family photos brings back so many nice memories. I remember being about 11 years old when my grandparents moved from the house they had lived in for 42 years to a smaller apartment. Lots of old treasures came down from the loft, amongst them boxes and stacks of old photos. Weddings, summer holidays, new babies. I sat on the floor with my mum, her sister and my grandma looking through them. The paper photographs themselves were fascinating, old tiny pieces of black and white pictures of my family. Memories of past times, when taking a picture required more than just clicking away on a compact machine and saving images onto memory cards that will never be looked at again. I remember, we were always taught not to touch the surface, just the edge of the card, not to leave finger prints on the image. So I learned to respect the photos. Then the stories came. Of summers spent at great-grandparents, first school uniforms, how an old auntie was already pregnant when she got married, and hence her dress was so baggy. It was frowned upon in those days.

I wish people did this more often with their kids. Just sit down and tell stories of their families on old photographs. Sentimental, I know, but a big eye opener. We are who we are because of our heritage. So I made the decision to take pictures at every opportunity and share them.

Today, if you visited my house and used the downstairs loo, you'd find pictures of me with my friends and family on the wall. It is a growing, living photo album of memories that bring a smile to our faces.

As part of my course, I am supposed to keep a sketch book. Guess what, I haven't even started one. Well, the photos are there and the bits and pieces are there, but it's not been put together properly and this is bugging me now. So when my friend Sarah asked our tutor last week if we could have an electronic sketch book, and he said yes, I jumped on the idea. So here it goes, my electronic sketch book....