Back on track

It has been some time since I have updated this blog,  I have started writing many times only to stop before I had really finished, it then sits there for a few weeks and then its out of date of course.

Hopefully this is the first of getting back on track with weekly updates, I have continued with my daily photo journal which you can see here.

http://www.blipfoto.com/Bizonderimage or just click here

It has taken me some time to get my motivation back in order after the sudden death of my young colleague in April. 

In the meantime one other of my team members  has also become seriously ill,  

I realize more and more how lucky I am every time I write this blog, or take and upload a photo, or go for a walk or out on my bike, that I have made it this far with no really serious medical issues for myself or my wife or children.

Work has been crazily busy in the last months with a lot of traveling, and does not look to slow down any time soon .

This heavy work schedule left me feeling very tired, but I did not think too much about this, just thought it was part of getting old.

Then in a recent medical at work I found out that sometime during the last year my thyroid has stopped working properly.  This gives similar symptoms to being very tired, and also explains to some extent my low motivation of recent months.   I am now started on hormone replacement drugs which hopefully will get me back to my old self, or even better, in the next few weeks or months.

It also impacts your attention span and short term memory so now I have the perfect explanation for all those things I forget to do. (including keeping this up to date)

The specialist endocrinologist who is working with me through a series of blood test and drug dose adjustments really summed the whole thing up very nicely when she said - " I am sorry that you are ill, but this is not the worst thing to have ! "

All this has made me more thoughtful and conscious of how fragile we all really are, and how much we should make the best of our time.

Sorry if this is a rather downbeat start to the update but I read an article recently on CNN ( credit to Phil Hansen ) which made the point that " within this wired culture, we risk becoming edited versions of ourselves, we may tweet messages like " just got a Pepsi, new bottle design. Sweet ! " but we don't say " I am sad and alone. I had no one to talk to so I went to the store to chat with the clerk while buying a Pepsi" 

You can certainly see this on Facebook, where you see more photos of pets or what people are having for dinner, than any real information about whats going on in their lives. 

In the last months I spent a few days in Northern Ireland, photographing as we walked part of the Causeway Coastal Path including the Giant's Causeway, actually is was more trudging along than walking as my new drugs started their work, the weather was really wet on one of our days, testing our waterproof clothes to the limit ( and beyond in some cases). I was a bit worried when I had to pour the water OUT of my waterproof camera bag, but it seems to have survived OK.

We also visited the Dark Hedges near Ballymoney, this is claimed to be the most photographed natural spot in Northern Ireland.

Now back at work with the memory of our holiday already fading away, although the Netherlands has enjoyed the same heatwave as the UK, so nice to sit outside, and we have put the Barbecue to good use.

I have spent the last day updating my photo website so rather than adding photos in the blog this time, can I invite you to take a look at the website.  You can find it at  www.bizonderimage.com or just click here