Lisbon New Year

Happy New Year!

Taken just after midnight near Praca do Comercio. At midnight we were heading for the main square along with hundreds of other people, some running to get there in time. We watched the fireworks from where we were. Not a perfect view, but I'm not great with huge crowds of people so I was happy to stay out of the most crowded area.

The extras (assuming they upload ok - I'm having problems with disappearing extras) are of a couple of tourist viewpoints in the city, taken much later in the day. 

This time last year I decided I'd try to blip every day in January. It seemed too daunting to aim for a whole year. But now I've completed a calendar year of consecutive blips. I'm astonished that I kept it up! I'll definitely keep blipping but perhaps not worry about a few gaps. Am I addicted? I guess if one day next week I'm looking round my flat at 11pm to find something to blip, I'll know that I am!

I was introduced to Blip by my lovely friend M, whose blip name is Diero, just after I got my DSLR and was starting to learn how to use the manual settings. At that time I wanted something that would encourage me to use my camera between holidays so that I didn't forget how to use it. And I hoped it would help me improve my photographs.

Everyone talks about how fantastic the Blip community is and I do also think that it is a unique part of the internet. I feel that I'm just on the edge of that community, looking in. I think that's largely because I don't have much time for commenting on other people's journals. There are a small number of blippers who regularly comment on my posts - thank you very much and sorry I don't always reply or leave comments on all your posts.

It would definitely be sad if the site closes. I hope that Blipfuture succeeds. The pledges have nearly reached £80,000. It's creeping up but there's a long way to go. I've pledged and I hope every one who can, also puts something in the pot. Here's hoping Blip will still be here on 1 January 2017.