It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas?

Everywhere you go . . . .

Well that is the end of my six month Blipfoto sabatical. I didn't intend such a long break but once I had stopped the daily routine, it became very difficult to get going again. With the six month mark having arrived, I decided to kick-start my journal and get back in the groove.

Why did I stop? Well it just became too difficult to balance things in life and I realised that there were some things I could change and many others that I couldn't. Blipping was one of the things that I could change but realistically, the only thing I could change about it was to stop and that is exactly what I did as I tried in vain to take a pathetic pre-midnight unimaginative shot one time too many.

Why was life too difficult to blip? Well my dad remained in hospital, and did so until the middle of October, by which time he had had his left leg amputated. So I was regularly taking the train north at weekends to visit him, leaving Mrs W and the little Ws at home.

But the real pressure was work. You see I am a police officer and was working as part of our Olympic Planning Team and by June, things were getting a little bit stressful to say the least. That is one thing I had no control over whatsoever and wasn't going to let up until 9th September when the Paralympic Closing Ceremony took place.

I realise that that was three months ago but anyone who has worked in that sort of pressure will realise that you can't just stop and things return to normal: I am still adjusting to life at a sensible pace and just about enjoying work again.

So I'm back with a blip that does not exactly fill me with pride but was taken today and will be recognised across the country as I think we all had a bit of rain today. I'll get back into visiting journals and commenting in the next few days as there is another little event getting in the way of total relaxation at the moment. 5 days to go.