Two Whole Years

Has my journal really been going for seven hundred and thirty consecutive days?

Apparently it has. How about that? And to think, the story really started five years ago, with the purchase of this little camera.

See, I was off on holiday to Amsterdam - yes, that would be the same holiday where I saw the infamous flying horse - and decided that it would be nice to invest in a digital camera with which to document the trip, in case of severe memory loss. (Again, I can't stress this enough - it was Amsterdam).

And so this little thing came into my life. And for a couple of years I annoyed my mates with it sporadically during various drunken evenings; but occasionally, I felt the urge to do a bit more with it. To get out and photograph the world around me. I knew nothing about photography - in all honesty, it took me a while to work out which way round to point the camera - but I somehow managed to grab some images I was pleased with.

Fast forward to July 2010 - a rainy summer (they happen so often, and yet for some reason, people still act surprised). I stumbled across Blipfoto one evening after having captured a sunset that I was oddly proud of. And with time on my hands the next day, I blipped again. And again. And again. And for the twenty months that followed, this little camera was my constant companion, documenting the beautiful and inane world around me.

It nearly broke my heart to replace it back in March, but its day was done. The lens and sensor were both shot, the power button was dodgy, and besides, I felt the time was right to move onto something a bit more complex. But this camera stays on my shelf anyway, enjoying its retirement, because without it, my journal would never have begun.

And without my journal, I wouldn't have been able to document my life these last two years - a turbulent time that has seen me gaining some extra letters after my name, go from having two jobs to having none, nearly getting blown up on a minefield, and perhaps most significantly, becoming a published author. Even if some days have been so dull and dreary that I've resorted to taking photographs of tin foil - which, for the record, I've done twice this year - they keep a sense of continuity to the journal that makes it so much more special on days when I scurry home with my new camera, confident that I have a capture on there worth sharing with the world, and eager to add it to the ever-growing collection.

For that wonderful two year experience, I thank Blipfoto. I thank this first camera of mine, useless though it is now. And most importantly, I thank all of you.

Cheers, and I'll see you tomorrow.