I wish… I still printed my photos and put them in albums.

Once upon a time, before there were slim digital cameras and smartphones with screens to playback your selfies, there were big bulky plastic cameras into which you loaded a roll of light-sensitive photographic film. 

You squinted through a small viewfinder, took a photo, wound on the film using a small crank, and then took another photo. 

But not just any photo. Oh no. You would choose your subject carefully and frame it just so, because you would only get 24 or 36 photos on each roll.

Am I sounding old and nostalgic? Excellent, I'll continue...

When you got back from your trip, you would take your rolls of film to a photo-developing shop where the staff would develop the negatives and print your photos onto paper (usually glossy) over 24 hours whilst having a good chuckle at your rubbish photography skills and a good perv at your beach snaps.

The wait to collect your photos was excruciating and delicious. Would they be as amazing as you expected them to be? Or would they be a murky mess because somebody opened the back of the camera too soon? Or the flash didn't go off? Or you were standing at the far side of a rock concert and the only thing you illuminated was the left ear of the tall git in front of you.

Whatever the result, it would be a surprise. It was exciting.

The next delight was choosing which photos to put in a photo album. And in which order. A few hours later your photos would be lovingly sealed beneath a clingy film or carefully wedged into slits inside a large hardback album.

Et voila! A book of happy memories.

Fast forward to today and my photos, which number in their thousands without the limitations of film, are mere digital files scattered across SD memory cards, my laptop, an external hard drive, my mobile phone and numerous social media websites.

Frankly, it's a mess.

I can never recapture the suspense of waiting for my photos to be developed; I have seen all of my digital photos a mere moment after taking them.

But I can still experience the pleasure of choosing which photos to put in an album, and in which order.

I know that many people these days upload their digital photos onto websites that print them directly into books. 

I haven't done that. Not yet.

So this month I will organise my digital photos, print some, and put them in an album. Whatever format that may be.

What is your wish of the month? What do you wish you could do by the end of January?