Still going strong

I thought long and hard about how to celebrate my 1000th blip, and eventually decided to go a bit nostalgic and return to my Blip roots. This is a repeat of my very first blip, way back in the dim distant past of May 2007. Despite the dramatic economic downturn and the resulting return of most of our East European workers to their home countries, still there seems to be a thriving Polish community in Dublin. This shop's window display remains reassuringly unchanged (though some of the shelves are now even more distorted by the weight of the produce).

Where would I be without Blip? There's no way when I set out on this journey that I foresaw sticking to it as I have done, for a thousand days without interruption. The force of the blipping habit demonstrated itself most significantly in June last year, when I kept on blipping during my hospitalization for heart surgery. That speaks a multitude for the importance of Blipfoto in the scheme of things, and is as good a testament as could be wished for what an utterly wonderful thing Blipfoto is. We all sing the praises of Joe and the entire team at Blipcentral whenever we celebrate a Big Blip Day, and that is only right and proper. It's impossible to heap sufficient praise and thanks in that direction. Thanks to everyone responsible for this remarkable endeavour. Gaining formal recognition by way of a Scottish BAFTA was richly deserved. Thanks also to my subscribers, to everyone who drops in here, and to everyone who goes to the trouble of commenting. My own commenting has fallen off lamentably over recent months, and I'm really sorry about that. I will try my best to improve on that in the time ahead -- and let there be no doubt about it: Blipfoto is now so much a part of my daily life that I cannot imagine being without it. Turning millennial is exciting, and I'm really looking forward to showing off my new camera. I fully intend to continue blipping. Clocking up another 500 and graduating to that sparkling red camera is a real incentive. I calculate I'll get to that on 29th June 2011.

These are a few personal favourites which stand out from the past five hundred blips. Some I quite like photographically; others are special as actual journal entries, especially those which relate to my time in hospital, which was such a big part of my recent life journey.

Changing times
A great result!
Ready to launch
Charity swim, Bray
Brazen customer
Mild angina (The start of the health problems)
Monument of the Discoveries, Lisbon
Sun, Shapes & Shadows 4
Dumped
More of the same
Sad seller
Day clinic and admission (Angiogram day)
Out there
Reincarcerated
New lease of life
In memoriam
Connolly Station
Clean bill of health
Stationary stroller
Passing glimpse
The Ha'penny Bridge
GI Joey
Water's edge
Antibes Day 2. Old Town
BikeCon
First snow
Liffey View
Icy footsteps
Irish Rail's gritting machine
Who left the light on?
The jeweller's

Note to the Blip moderators: All parts of the blip are photographic, with the "DS 1000" element overlaid from portions of separate images.